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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe

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Title: The Night-Side of Nature
Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Author: Catherine Crowe
Release Date: April 10, 2017 [eBook #54532]
Language: English
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N I G H T - S I D E O F N AT U R E
OR,GHOSTS AND GHOST-SEERS.
BY

C AT H E R I N E C R O W E
AUTHORESS OF “SUSAN HOPLEY,” “LILLY DAWSON,” “ARISTODEMUS,” ETC.
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NEW YORK:
J. S. REDFIELD, CLINTON HALL.
BOSTON:—B. B. MUSSEY & CO.

1850.

P R E FA C E .

In my late novel of “Lilly Dawson,” I announced my intention of publishing a work to
be called “The Night-Side of Nature;" this is it.
The term “Night-Side of Nature” I borrow from the Germans, who derive it from theastronomers, the latter denominating that side of a planet which is turned from the sun, its
night-side. We are in this condition for a certain number of hours out of every twenty-four;and as, during this interval, external objects loom upon us but strangely and imperfectly,
the Germans draw a parallel between these vague and misty perceptions, and the similar
obscure and uncertain glimpses we get of that veiled department of nature, of which, while
comprising as it does, the solution of questions concerning us more nearly than any other,
we are yet in a state of entire and wilful ignorance. For science, at least science in thiscountry, has put it aside as beneath her notice, because new facts that do not fit into oldtheories are troublesome, and not to be countenanced.
We are encompassed on all sides by wonders, and we can scarcely set our foot upon the
ground, without trampling upon some marvellous production that our whole life and all ourfaculties would not suffice to comprehend. Familiarity, however, renders us insensible tothe ordinary works of nature; we are apt to forget the miracles they comprise, and even,sometimes, mistaking words for conceptions, commit the error of thinking we understandtheir mystery. But there is one class of these wonders with which, from their comparatively
rare occurrence, we do not become familiar; and these, according to the character of themind to which they are presented, are frequently either denied as ridiculous and impossible,
or received as evidences of supernatural interference—interruptions of those general lawsby which God governs the universe; which latter mistake arises from our only seeing thesefacts without the links that connect them with the rest of nature, just as in the faint light of astarlit night we might distinguish the tall mountains that lift their crests high into the sky,though we could not discern the low chain of hills that united them with each other.
There are two or three books by German authors, entitled “The Night-Side,” or “TheNight-Dominion of Nature,” which are on subjects, more or less analogous to mine.
Heinrick Schubert’s is the most celebrated among them; it is a sort of cosmogony of theworld, written in a spirit of philosophical mysticism—too much so for English readers ingeneral.
In undertaking to write a book on these subjects myself, I wholly disclaim thepretension of teaching or of enforcing opinions. My object is to suggest inquiry andstimulate observation, in order that we may endeavor, if possible, to discover something
regarding our psychical nature, as it exists here in the flesh; and as it is to exist hereafter,out of it.
If I could only induce a few capable persons, instead of laughing at these things, to lookat them, my object would be attained, and I should consider my time well spent.

CONTENTS.
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CHAPTER

PAGE

I. — Introduction
II. — The Dwellers in the Temple
III. — Waking and Sleeping, and how the Dweller in the Temple
sometimes looks abroad
IV. — Allegorical Dreams, Presentiments, &c.
V. — Warnings
VI. — Double Dreaming and Trance, Wraiths, &c.
VII. — Wraiths
VIII. — Doppelgängers, or Doubles
IX. — Apparitions
X. — The Future that awaits us
XI. — The Power of Will
XII. — Troubled Spirits
XIII. — Haunted Houses
XIV. — Spectral Lights, and Apparitions attached to Certain Families
XV. — Apparitions seeking the Prayers of the Living
XVI. — The Poltergeist of the Germans, and Possession
XVII. — Miscellaneous Phenomena
XVIII. — Conclusion

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29
48
66
98
130
149
171
204
238
252
273
319
345
376
411
434

THE

N I G H T - S I D E O F N AT U R E .
CHAPTER I.

7

INTRODUCTION.

“Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”—1 Corinthians, iii. 16.

Most persons are aware that the Greeks and Romans entertained certain notions
regarding the state of the soul, or the immortal part of man, after the death of the body,which have been generally held to be purely mythological. Many of them doubtless are so,and of these I am not about to treat; but among their conceptions, there are some which, as
they coincide with the opinions of many of the most enlightened persons of the present age,
it may be desirable to consider more closely. I allude here particularly to their belief in thetripartite kingdom of the dead. According to this system, there were the Elysian fields, aregion in which a certain sort of happiness was enjoyed; and Tartarus, the place ofhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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punishment for the wicked; each of which was, comparatively, but thinly inhabited. But
there was also a mid-region, peopled with innumerable hosts of wandering and mournful
spirits, who, although undergoing no torments, are represented as incessantly bewailingtheir condition, pining for the life they once enjoyed in the body, longing after the things ofthe earth, and occupying themselves with the same pursuits and objects as had formerly
constituted their business or their pleasure. Old habits are still dear to them, and they can
not snap the link that binds them to the earth.
Now, although we can not believe in the existence of Charon, the three-headed dog, orAlecto, the serpent-haired fury, it may be worth while to consider whether the persuasion of
the ancients with regard to that which concerns us all so nearly—namely, the destiny thatawaits us when we have shaken off this mortal coil—may not have some foundation intruth: whether it might not be a remnant of a tradition transmitted from the earliest
inhabitants of the earth, wrested by observation from nature, if not communicated from ahigher source: and also whether circumstances of constant recurrence in all ages and in all
nations, frequently observed and recorded by persons utterly ignorant of classical lore, andunacquainted, indeed, with the dogmas of any creed but their own, do not, as well as
various passages in the Scriptures, afford a striking confirmation of this theory of a future
life; while it, on the other hand, offers a natural and convenient explanation of theirmystery.
To minds which can admit nothing but what can be explained and demonstrated, an
investigation of this sort must appear perfectly idle: for while, on the one hand, the mostacute intellect or the most powerful logic can throw little light on the subject, it is, at thesame time—though I have a confident hope that this will not always be the case—equally
irreducible within the present bounds of science; meanwhile, experience, observation, andintuition, must be our principal if not our only guides. Because, in the seventeenth century,
credulity outran reason and discretion; the eighteenth century, by a natural reaction, threw
itself into an opposite extreme. Whoever closely observes the signs of the times, will beaware that another change is approaching. The contemptuous skepticism of the last age isyielding to a more humble spirit of inquiry; and there is a large class of persons among themost enlightened of the present, who are beginning to believe that much which they had
been taught to reject as fable, has been, in reality, ill-understood truth. Somewhat of themystery of our own being, and of the mysteries that compass us about, are beginning toloom upon us—as yet, it is true, but obscurely; and, in the endeavor to follow out the clew
they offer, we have but a feeble light to guide us. We must grope our way through the dim
path before us, ever in danger of being led into error, while we may confidently reckon on
being pursued by the shafts of ridicule—that weapon so easy to wield, so potent to theweak, so weak to the wise—which has delayed the births of so many truths, but neverstifled one. The pharisaical skepticism which denies without investigation, is quite asperilous, and much more contemptible, than the blind credulity which accepts all that it istaught without inquiry; it is, indeed, but another form of ignorance assuming to beknowledge. And by investigation, I do not mean the hasty, captious, angry notice of anunwelcome fact, that too frequently claims the right of pronouncing on a question; but theslow, modest, pains-taking examination, that is content to wait upon Nature, and humbly
follow out her disclosures, however opposed to preconceived theories or mortifying tohuman pride. If scientific men could but comprehend how they discredit the science they
really profess, by their despotic arrogance and exclusive skepticism, they would surely, forthe sake of that very science they love, affect more liberality and candor. This reflection,
however, naturally suggests another, namely, do they really love science, or is it not too
frequently with them but the means to an end? Were the love of science genuine, I suspect
it would produce very different fruits to that which we see borne by the tree of knowledge,
as it flourishes at present; and this suspicion is exceedingly strengthened by the recollection
that, among the numerous students and professors of science I have at different times
encountered, the real worshippers and genuine lovers of it, for its own sake, have all been
men of the most single, candid, unprejudiced, and inquiring minds, willing to listen to all
new suggestions, and investigate all new facts; not bold and self-sufficient, but humble andreverent suitors, aware of their own ignorance and unworthiness, and that they are yet but
in the primer of Nature’s works, they do not permit themselves to pronounce upon her
disclosures, or set limits to her decrees. They are content to admit that things new andhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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unsuspected may yet be true; that their own knowledge of facts being extremely
circumscribed, the systems attempted to be established on such uncertain data, must needs
be very imperfect, and frequently altogether erroneous; and that it is therefore their duty, as
it ought to be their pleasure, to welcome as a stranger every gleam of light that appears in
the horizon, let it loom from whatever quarter it may.
But, alas! poor Science has few such lovers! Les beaux yeux de sa cassette, I fear, aremuch more frequently the objects of attraction than her own fair face.
The belief in a God, and in the immortality of what we call the soul, is common to all
nations; but our own intellect does not enable us to form any conception of either one or theother. All the information we have on these subjects is comprised in such hints as the
Scripture here and there give us: whatever other conclusions we draw, must be the result ofobservation and experience. Unless founded upon these, the opinion of the most learned
theologian or the most profound student of science that ever lived, is worth no more thanthat of any other person. They know nothing whatever about these mysteries; and all apriori reasoning on them is utterly valueless. The only way, therefore, of attaining any
glimpses of the truth in an inquiry of this nature, where our intellect can serve us so little, isto enter on it with the conviction that, knowing nothing, we are not entitled to reject any
evidence that may be offered to us, till it has been thoroughly sifted, and proved to befallacious. That the facts presented to our notice appear to us absurd, and altogether
inconsistent with the notions our intellects would have enabled us to form, should have noweight whatever in the investigation. Our intellects are no measure of God Almighty’s
designs; and, I must say, that I do think one of the most irreverent, dangerous, and sinful
things man or woman can be guilty of, is to reject with scorn and laughter any intimation
which, however strangely it may strike upon our minds, and however adverse it may be to
our opinions, may possibly be showing us the way to one of God’s truths. Not knowing all
the conditions, and wanting so many links of the chain, it is impossible for us to pronounce
on what is probable and consistent, and what is not; and, this being the case, I think thetime is ripe for drawing attention to certain phenomena, which, under whatever aspect wemay consider them, are, beyond doubt, exceedingly interesting and curious; while, if theview many persons are disposed to take of them be the correct one, they are much morethan this. I wish, also, to make the English public acquainted with the ideas entertained onthese subjects by a large proportion of German minds of the highest order. It is a distinctive
characteristic of the thinkers of that country, that, in the first place, they do think
independently and courageously; and, in the second, that they never shrink frompromulgating the opinions they have been led to form, however new, strange, heterodox, oreven absurd, they may appear to others. They do not succumb, as people do in this country,
to the fear of ridicule; nor are they in danger of the odium that here pursues those who
deviate from established notions; and the consequence is, that, though many fallacious
theories and untenable propositions may be advanced, a great deal of new truth is struckout from the collision; and in the result, as must always be the case, what is true lives and isestablished, and what is false dies and is forgotten. But here, in Britain, our critics andcolleges are in such haste to strangle and put down every new discovery that does notemanate from themselves, or which is not a fulfilling of the ideas of the day, but which,being somewhat opposed to them, promises to be troublesome from requiring new thought
to render it intelligible, that one might be induced to suppose them divested of all
confidence in this inviolable law; while the more important and the higher the results
involved may be, the more angry they are with those who advocate them. They do not
quarrel with a new metal or a new plant, and even a new comet or a new island stands a fairchance of being well received; the introduction of a planet appears, from late events, to be
more difficult; while phrenology and mesmerism testify that any discovery tending tothrow light on what most deeply concerns us, namely, our own being, must be prepared toencounter a storm of angry persecution. And one of the evils of this hasty and precipitate
opposition is, that the passions and interests of the opposers become involved in thedispute: instead of investigators, they become partisans; having declared against it in theoutset, it is important to their petty interests that the thing shall not be true; and they
determine that it shall not, if they can help it. Hence, these hasty, angry investigations of
new facts, and the triumph with which failures are recorded; and hence the wilful
overlooking of the axiom that a thousand negatives can not overthrow the evidence of one
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affirmative experiment. I always distrust those who have declared themselves strongly inthe beginning of a controversy. Opinions which, however rashly avowed, may have beenhonest at first, may have been changed for many a long day before they are retracted. In themeantime, the march of truth is obstructed, and its triumph is delayed; timid minds arealarmed; those who dare not or can not think for themselves, are subdued; there is muchneedless suffering incurred, and much good lost; but the truth goes quietly on its way, andreaches the goal at last.
With respect to the subjects I am here going to treat of, it is not simply the result of myown reflections and convictions that I am about to offer. On the contrary, I intend to fortify
my position by the opinions of many other writers; the chief of whom will, for the reasons
above given, namely, that it is they who have principally attended to the question, beGermans. I am fully aware that in this country a very considerable number of persons lean
to some of these opinions, and I think I might venture to assert that I have the majority on
my side, as far as regards ghosts—for it is beyond a doubt that many more are disposed tobelieve than to confess—and those who do confess, are not few. The deep interest withwhich any narration of spiritual appearances bearing the stamp, or apparent stamp, ofauthenticity is listened to in every society, is one proof that, though the fear of ridicule may
suppress, it can not extinguish that intuitive persuasion, of which almost every one is moreor less conscious.
I avow, that in writing this book, I have a higher aim than merely to afford amusement.
I wish to engage the earnest attention of my readers; because I am satisfied that theopinions I am about to advocate, seriously entertained, would produce very beneficial
results. We are all educated in the belief of a future state, but how vague and ineffective thisbelief is with the majority of persons, we too well know; for although, as I have said above,
the number of those who are what is called believers in ghosts and similar phenomena isvery large, it is a belief that they allow to sit extremely lightly on their minds. Although
they feel that the evidence from within and from without is too strong to be altogether set
aside, they have never permitted themselves to weigh the significance of the facts. They areafraid of that bugbear, Superstition—a title of opprobrium which it is very convenient to
attach to whatever we do not believe ourselves. They forget that nobody has a right to callany belief superstitious, till he can prove that it is unfounded. Now, no one that lives canassert that the reappearance of the dead is impossible; all he has a right to say is, that hedoes not believe it; and the interrogation that should immediately follow this declaration is,“Have you devoted your life to sifting all the evidence that has been adduced on the otherside, from the earliest periods of history and tradition?” and even though the answer werein the affirmative, and that the investigation had been conscientiously pursued, it would be
still a bold inquirer that would think himself entitled to say, the question was no longer
open. But the rashness and levity with which mankind make professions of believing anddisbelieving, are, all things considered, phenomena much more extraordinary than the most
extraordinary ghost-story that ever was related. The truth is, that not one person in a
thousand, in the proper sense of the word, believes anything; they only fancy they believe,
because they have never seriously considered the meaning of the word and all that it
involves. That which the human mind can not conceive of, is apt to slip from its grasp likewater from the hand; and life out of the flesh falls under this category. The observation of
any phenomena, therefore, which enabled us to master the idea, must necessarily be
extremely beneficial; and it must be remembered, that one single thoroughly wellestablished instance of the reappearance of a deceased person, would not only have thiseffect, but that it would afford a demonstrative proof of the deepest of all our intuitions,
namely, that a future life awaits us.
Not to mention the modern Germans of eminence, who have devoted themselves to thisinvestigation, there have been men remarkable for intellect in all countries, who haveconsidered the subject worthy of inquiry. Among the rest, Plato, Pliny, and Lucien; and in
our own country, that good old divine, Dr. Henry Moore, Dr. Johnson, Addison, Isaac
Taylor, and many others. It may be objected that the eternally-quoted case of Nicolai, thebookseller at Berlin, and Dr. Ferriar’s “Theory of Apparitions,” had not then settled thequestion; but nobody doubts that Nicolai’s was a case of disease; and he was well aware ofit himself, as it appears to me, everybody so afflicted, is. I was acquainted with a poor
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but she was perfectly conscious of the nature of the illusions; and that temperance and adoctor were the proper exorcists to lay the spirits. With respect to Dr. Ferriar’s book, amore shallow one was assuredly never allowed to settle any question; and his own theory
can not, without the most violent straining, and the assistance of what he calls
coincidences, meet even half the cases he himself adduces. That such a disease, as hedescribes, exists, nobody doubts; but I maintain that there are hundreds of cases on record,
for which the explanation does not suffice; and if they have been instances of spectral
illusion, all that remains to be said, is, that a fundamental reconstruction of the theory onthat subject is demanded.
La Place says, in his “Essay on Probabilities,” that “any case, however apparently
incredible, if it be a recurrent case, is as much entitled, under the laws of induction, to a fairvaluation, as if it had been more probable beforehand.” Now, no one will deny that the casein question possesses this claim to investigation. Determined skeptics may, indeed, denythat there exists any well-authenticated instance of an apparition; but that, at present, canonly be a mere matter of opinion; since many persons, as competent to judge as themselves,maintain the contrary; and in the meantime, I arraign their right to make this objection tillthey have qualified themselves to do so, by a long course of patient and honest inquiry;
always remembering that every instance of error or imposition discovered and adduced, has
no positive value whatever in the argument, but as regards that single instance; though it
may enforce upon us the necessity of strong evidence and careful investigation. With
respect to the evidence, past and present, I must be allowed here to remark on the extreme
difficulty of producing it. Not to mention the acknowledged carelessness of observers andthe alleged incapacity of persons to distinguish between reality and illusion, there is anexceeding shyness in most people, who, either have seen, or fancied they have seen, an
apparition, to speak of it at all, except to some intimate friend; so that one gets most of thestories second-hand; while even those who are less chary of their communications, areimperative against their name and authority being given to the public. Besides this, there isa great tendency in most people, after the impression is over, to think they may have been
deceived; and where there is no communication or other circumstance rendering thisconviction impossible, it is not difficult to acquire it, or at least so much of it as leaves thecase valueless. The seer is glad to find this refuge from the unpleasant feelings engendered;
while surrounding friends, sometimes from genuine skepticism, and sometimes from goodnature, almost invariably lean to this explanation of the mystery. In consequence of these
difficulties and those attending the very nature of the phenomena, I freely admit that thefacts I shall adduce, as they now stand, can have no scientific value; they can not in short,enter into the region of science at all, still less into that of philosophy. Whateverconclusions we may be led to form, can not be founded on pure induction. We must confine
ourselves wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond which, we shallassuredly founder. In the beginning, all sciences have been but a collection of facts,
afterward to be examined, compared, and weighed, by intelligent minds. To the vulgar, who
do not see the universal law which governs the universe, everything out of the ordinary
course of events, is a prodigy; but to the enlightened mind there are no prodigies; for it
perceives that in both the moral and the physical world, there is a chain of uninterrupted
connection; and that the most strange and even apparently contradictory or supernatural
fact or event will be found, on due investigation, to be strictly dependent on its antecedents.
It is possible, that there may be a link wanting, and that our investigations may,consequently, be fruitless; but the link is assuredly there, although our imperfect knowledge
and limited vision can not find it.
And it is here the proper place to observe, that, in undertaking to treat of thephenomena in question, I do not propose to consider them as supernatural; on the contrary,
I am persuaded that the time will come, when they will be reduced strictly within thebounds of science. It was the tendency of the last age to reject and deny everything they did
not understand; I hope it is the growing tendency of the present one to examine what we do
not understand. Equally disposed with our predecessors of the eighteenth century to reject
the supernatural, and to believe the order of nature inviolable, we are disposed to extend thebounds of nature and science, till they comprise within their limits all the phenomena,
ordinary and extraordinary, by which we are surrounded. Scarcely a month passes that we
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nothing is stable, and every year overthrows some of the hasty and premature theories ofthe preceding ones; and this will continue to be the case as long as scientific men occupy
themselves each with his own subject, without studying the great and primal truths—what
the French call les vérités mères—which link the whole together. Meantime, there is acontinual unsettling. Truth, if it do not emanate from an acknowledged authority, isgenerally rejected; and error, if it do, is as often accepted; while, whoever disputes thereceived theory, whatever it be—we mean especially that adopted by the professors ofcolleges—does it at his peril. But there is a day yet brooding in the bosom of time, when
the sciences will be no longer isolated; when we shall no longer deny, but be able toaccount for, phenomena apparently prodigious, or have the modesty, if we can not explainthem, to admit that the difficulty arises solely from our own incapacity. The system ofcentralization in statistics seems to be of doubtful advantage; but a greater degree ofcentralization appears to be very much needed in the domain of science. Some
improvement in this respect might do wonders, particularly if reinforced with a slight
infusion of patience and humility into the minds of scientific men; together with therecollection that facts and phenomena, which do not depend on our will, must be waited for—that we must be at their command, for they will not be at ours.
But to return once more to our own subject. If we do believe that a future life awaits us,
there can be nothing more natural than the desire to obtain some information as to whatmanner of life that is to be for which any one of us may, before this time to-morrow, haveexchanged his present mode of being. That there does not exist a greater interest withregard to this question in the mind of man, arises partly from the vague, intangible kind ofbelief he entertains of the fact; partly from his absorption in worldly affairs, and the hardand indigestible food upon which his clerical shepherds pasture him—for, under dogmatictheology, religion seems to have withered away to the mere husk of spiritualism; and partly,
also, from the apparent impossibility of pursuing the inquiry to any purpose. As I said
before, observation and experience can alone guide us in such an inquiry; for, though mostpeople have a more or less intuitive sense of their own immortality, intuition is silent as tothe mode of it; and the question I am anxious here to discuss with my readers is, whether
we have any facts to observe, or any experience from which, on this most interesting of all
subjects, a conclusion may be drawn. Great as the difficulty is of producing evidence, it
will, I think, be pretty generally admitted that, although each individual case, as it stands
alone, may be comparatively valueless, the amount of recurrent cases forms a body ofevidence that, on any other subject, would scarcely be rejected; and since, if the facts are
accepted, they imperatively demand an explanation—for, assuredly, the present theory ofspectral illusions can not comprise them—our inquiry, let it terminate in whateverconclusion it may, can not be useless or uninteresting. Various views of the phenomena inquestion may be taken; and although I shall offer my own opinions and the theories andopinions of others, I insist upon none. I do not write to dogmatise, but to suggest reflection
and inquiry. The books of Dr. Ferriar, Dr. Hibbert, and Dr. Thatcher, the American, are all
written to support one exclusive theory; and they only give such cases as serve to sustain it.
They maintain that the whole phenomena are referrible to nervous or sanguineous
derangement, and are mere subjective illusions; and whatever instance can not be coveredby this theory, they reject as false, or treat as a case of extraordinary coincidence. In short,they arrange the facts to their theory, not their theory to the facts. Their books can not,therefore, claim to be considered as anything more than essays on a special disease; they
have no pretence whatever to the character of investigations. The question, consequently,
remains as much an open one as before they treated it; while we have the advantage of theirexperience and information, with regard to the peculiar malady that forms the subject of
their works. On that subject it is not my intention to enter; it is a strictly medical one, andevery information may be obtained respecting it in the above-named treatises, and others
emanating from the faculty.
The subjects I do intend to treat of are the various kinds of prophetic dreams,
presentiments, second-sight, and apparitions; and, in short, all that class of phenomena
which appears to throw some light on our physical nature, and on the probable state of thesoul after death. In this discussion, I shall make free use of my German authorities, Doctors
Kerner, Stilling, Werner, Eschenmayer, Ennemoser, Passavent, Schubert, Von Meyer, &c.,&c.; and I here make a general acknowledgment to that effect, because it would embarrass
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my book too much to be constantly giving names and references, although, when I quote
their words literally, I shall make a point of doing so; and because, also, that, as I have beenboth thinking and reading much on these subjects for a considerable time past, I am, in fact,
no longer in a condition to appropriate, either to them or to myself, each his own. This,
however, is a matter of very little consequence, as I am not desirous of claiming any idea as
mine that can be found elsewhere. It is enough for me, if I succeed in making a tolerably
clear exposition of the subject, and can induce other people to reflect upon it.

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CHAPTER II.

19

THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE.

It is almost needless to observe, that the Scriptures repeatedly speak of man as a
tripartite being, consisting of spirit, soul, and body: and that, according to St. Paul, we have
two bodies—a natural body and a spiritual body; the former being designed as our meansof communication with the external world—an instrument to be used and controlled by ournobler parts. It is this view of it, carried to a fanaticism, which has led to the various andextraordinary mortifications recorded of ascetics. As is remarked by the Rev. Hare
Townshend, in a late edition of his book on mesmerism, in this fleshly body consists ourorganic life; in the body which we are to retain through eternity, consists our fundamental
life. May not the first, he says, “be a temporary development of the last, just as leaves,
flowers, and fruits, are the temporary developments of a tree? And in the same manner thatthese pass and drop away, yet leave the principle of reproduction behind, so may ourpresent organs be detached from us by death, and yet the ground of our existence be spared
to us continuously.”
Without entering into the subtle disputes of philosophers, with regard to the spirit, asubject on which there is a standing controversy between the disciples of Hegel and thoseof other teachers, I need only observe that the Scriptures seem to indicate what some of theheathen sages taught, that the spirit that dwells within us is the spirit of God, incorporated
in us for a period, for certain ends of his own, to be thereby wrought out. What those ends
are, it does not belong to my present subject to consider. In this spirit so imparted to us,dwells, says Eschenmayer, the conscience, which keeps watch over the body and the soul,saying, “Thus shalt thou do!” And it is to this Christ addresses himself when he bids his
disciples become perfect, like their Father in heaven. The soul is subject to the spirit; andits functions are, to will, or choose, to think, and to feel, and to become thereby cognizantof the true, the beautiful, and the good; comprehending the highest principle, the highest
ideal, and the most perfect happiness. The Ego, or I, is the resultant of the three forces,
Pneuma, Psyche, Soma—spirit, soul, and body.
In the spirit or soul, or rather in both conjoined, dwells, also, the power of spiritual
seeing, or intuitive knowing; for, as there is a spiritual body, there is a spiritual eye, and aspiritual ear, and so forth; or, to speak more correctly, all these sensuous functions arecomprised in one universal sense, which does not need the aid of the bodily organs; but, on
the contrary, is most efficient when most freed from them. It remains to be seen whether, orin what degree, such separation can take place during life; complete it can not be till death;but whoever believes sincerely that the divine spirit dwells within him, can, I should think,find no difficulty in conceiving that, although from the temporary conditions to which thatspirit is subjected, this universal faculty is limited and obscured, it must still retain its
indefeasible attribute.
We may naturally conclude that the most perfect state of man on earth consists in themost perfect unity of the spirit and the soul; and to those who in this life have attained thenearest to that unity will the entire assimilation of the two, after they are separated from thebody, be the easiest; while to those who have lived only their intellectual and external life,
this union must be extremely difficult, the soul having chosen its part with the body, anddivorced itself, as much as in it lay, from the spirit. The voice of conscience is then scarcely
heard; and the soul, degraded and debased, can no longer perform its functions ofdiscerning the true, the beautiful, and the good.
On these distinct functions of the soul and spirit, however, it is not my intention toinsist, since it appears to me a subject on which we are not yet in a condition to dogmatize.
We know rather more about our bodies, by means of which the soul and spirit are united
and brought into contact with the material world, and which are constructed wholly with aview to the conditions of that world; such as time, space, solidity, extension, &c., &c. But
we must conceive of God as necessarily independent of these conditions. To Him, all times
and all places must be for ever present; and it is thus that he is omniscient and omnipresent;
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Croweand since we are placed by the spirit in immediate relation with God and the spiritual
world, just as we are placed by the body in immediate relation with the material world, wemay, in the first place, form a notion of the possibility that some faint gleams of these
inherent attributes may, at times, shoot up through the clay in which the spirit has taken up
its temporary abode; and we may also admit, that through the connection which exists
between us and the spiritual world, it is not impossible but that we may, at times, and undercertain conditions, become cognizant of, and enter into more immediate relation with it.
This is the only postulate I ask; for, as I said before, I do not wish to enforce opinions, but
to suggest probabilities, or at least possibilities, and thus arouse reflection and inquiry.
With respect to the term invisible world, I beg to remind my readers, that what we callseeing is merely the function of an organ constructed for that purpose in relation to theexternal world; and so limited are its powers, that we are surrounded by many things in thatworld which we can not see without the aid of artificial appliances and many other things
which we can not see even with them; the atmosphere in which we live, for example,
although its weight and mechanical forces are the subjects of accurate calculation, isentirely imperceptible to our visual organs. Thus, the fact that we do not commonly see
them, forms no legitimate objection to the hypothesis of our being surrounded by a worldof spirits, or of that world being inter-diffused among us. Supposing the question to be
decided that we do sometimes become cognizant of them, which, however, I admit it is not,since, whether the apparitions are subjective, or objective, that is, whether they are themere phenomena of disease, or real out-standing appearances, is the inquiry I desire topromote—but, I say, supposing that question were decided in the affirmative, the next thatarises is, how, or by what means do we see them; or, if they address us, hear them? If that
universal sense which appears to me to be inseparable from the idea of spirit, be once
admitted, I think there can be no difficulty in answering this question; and if it be objectedthat we are conscious of no such sense, I answer, that both in dreams and in certain
abnormal states of the body, it is frequently manifested. In order to render this more clear,and, at the same time, to give an interesting instance of this sort of phenomenon, I willtranscribe a passage from a letter of St. Augustine to his friend Evadius (Epistola 159.
Antwerp edition).
“I will relate to you a circumstance,” he writes, “which will furnish you matter forreflection. Our brother Sennadius, well known to us all as an eminent physician, and whom
we especially love, who is now at Carthage, after having distinguished himself at Rome,and with whose piety and active benevolence you are well acquainted, could yet,nevertheless, as he has lately narrated to us, by no means bring himself to believe in a life
after death. Now, God, doubtless, not willing that his soul should perish, there appeared tohim one night, in a dream, a radiant youth of noble aspect, who bade him follow him; andas Sennadius obeyed, they came to a city where, on the right side, he heard a chorus of themost heavenly voices. As he desired to know whence this divine harmony proceeded, theyouth told him that what he heard were the songs of the blessed; whereupon he awoke, andthought no more of his dream than people usually do. On another night, however, behold!
the youth appears to him again, and asks him if he knows him; and Sennadius related tohim all the particulars of his former dream, which he well remembered. ‘Then,’ said theyouth, ‘was it while sleeping or waking that you saw these things?’—‘I was sleeping,’
answered Sennadius. ‘You are right,’ returned the youth, ‘it was in your sleep that you saw
these things; and know, O Sennadius, that what you see now is also in your sleep. But if
this be so, tell me where then is your body?’—‘In my bed-chamber,’ answered Sennadius.
‘But know you not,’ continued the stranger, ‘that your eyes, which form a part of yourbody, are closed and inactive?’—‘I know it,’ answered he. ‘Then,’ said the youth, ‘withwhat eyes see you these things?’ And Sennadius could not answer him; and as he hesitated,
the youth spoke again, and explained to him the motive of his questions. ‘As the eyes ofyour body,’ said he, ‘which lies now on your bed and sleeps, are inactive and useless, andyet you have eyes wherewith you see me and these things I have shown unto you; so after
death, when these bodily organs fail you, you will have a vital power, whereby you will
live, and a sensitive faculty, whereby you will perceive. Doubt, therefore, no longer that
there is a life after death.’ And thus,” said this excellent man, “was I convinced, and all
doubts removed.”
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I confess there appears to me a beauty and a logical truth in this dream that I thinkmight convince more than the dreamer.
It is by the hypothesis of this universal sense, latent within us—an hypothesis which,whoever believes that we are immortal spirits, incorporated for a season in a material body,can scarcely reject—that I seek to explain those perceptions which are not comprised
within the functions of our bodily organs. It seems to me to be the key to all or nearly all ofthem, as far as our own part in the phenomena extends. But, supposing this admitted, there
would then remain the difficulty of accounting for the partial and capricious glimpses we
get of it; while in that department of the mystery which regards apparitions, except such as
are the pure result of disease, we must grope our way, with very little light to guide us, as tothe conditions and motives which might possibly bring them into any immediate relation
with us.
To any one who has been fortunate enough to witness one genuine case of clairvoyance,
I think the conception of this universal sense will not be difficult, however the mode of its
exercise may remain utterly incomprehensible. As I have said above—to the great Spirit
and Fountain of life, all things, in both space and time, must be present. However
impossible it is to our finite minds to conceive this, we must believe it. It may, in someslight degree, facilitate the conception to remember that action, once begun, never ceases—
an impulse given is transmitted on for ever; a sound breathed reverberates in eternity; andthus the past is always present, although, for the purpose of fitting us for this mortal life,
our ordinary senses are so constituted as to be unperceptive of these phenomena. With
respect to what we call the future, it is more difficult still for us to conceive it as present;
nor, as far as I know, can we borrow from the sciences the same assistance as mechanicaldiscoveries have just furnished me with in regard to the past. How a spirit sees that which
has not yet, to our senses, taken place, seems certainly inexplicable. Foreseeing it is notinexplicable: we foresee many things by arguing on given premises, although, from ourown finite views, we are always liable to be mistaken. Louis Lambert says: “Such events as
are the product of humanity, and the result of its intelligence, have their own causes, inwhich they lie latent, just as our actions are accomplished in our thoughts previous to any
outward demonstration of them; presentiments and prophecies consist in the intuitive
perception of these causes.” This explanation, which is quite conformable with that of
Cicero, may aid us in some degree as regards a certain small class of phenomena; but there
is something involved in the question much more subtle than this. Our dreams can give us
the only idea of it; for there we do actually see and hear, not only that which never was, butthat which never will be. Actions and events, words and sounds, persons and places, are asclearly and vividly present to us as if they were actually what they seem; and I should thinkthat most people must be somewhat puzzled to decide in regard to certain scenes andcircumstances that live in their memory, whether the images are the result of their waking
or sleeping experience. Although by no means a dreamer, and without the most remoteapproximation to any faculty of presentiment, I know this is the case with myself. I
remember also a very curious effect being produced upon me, when I was abroad, someyears ago, from eating the unwholesome bread to which we were reduced, in consequenceof a scarcity. Some five or six times a day I was seized with a sort of vertigo, during which
I seemed to pass through certain scenes, and was conscious of certain words, whichappeared to me to have a strange connection, with either some former period of my life, or
else some previous state of existence. The words and the scenes were on each occasion
precisely the same: I was always aware of that, and I always made the strongest efforts tograsp and retain them in my memory, but I could not. I only knew that the thing had been;
the words and the scenes were gone. I seemed to pass momentarily into another sphere andback again. This was purely the result of disorder; but, like a dream, it shows how we may
be perceptive of that which is not, and which never may be; rendering it, therefore, possible
to conceive that a spirit may be equally perceptive of that which shall be. I am very far
from meaning to imply that these examples remove the difficulty: they do not explain thething; they only show somewhat the mode of it. But it must be remembered that when
physiologists pretend to settle the whole question of apparitions by the theory of spectral
illusions, they are exactly in the same predicament. They can supply examples of similar
phenomena; but how a person, perfectly in his senses, should receive the spectral visits of,
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mental or optical, the figures are conjured up—remains as much a mystery as before a line
was written on the subject.
All people and all ages have believed, more or less, in prophetic dreams, presentiments,
and apparitions; and all historians have furnished examples of them. That the truths may befrequently distorted and mingled with fable, is no argument against those traditions; if itwere, all history must be rejected on the same plea. Both the Old and New Testaments
furnish numerous examples of these phenomena; and although Christ and the apostles
reproved all the superstitions of the age, these persuasions are not included in theirreprehensions.
Neither is the comparative rarity of these phenomena any argument against their
possibility. There are many strange things which occur still more rarely, but which we do
not look upon as supernatural or miraculous. Of nature’s ordinary laws, we yet know but
little; of their aberrations and perturbations, still less. How should we, when the world is amiracle and life a dream, of which we know neither the beginning nor the end! We do noteven know that we see anything as it is, or rather, we know that we do not. We see things
but as our visual organs represent them to us; and were those organs differently
constructed, the aspect of the world would to us be changed. How, then, can we pretend to
decide upon what is and what is not?
Nothing could be more perplexing to any one who read them with attention, than thetrials for witchcraft of the seventeenth century. Many of the feats of the ancientthaumaturgists and wonder-workers of the temples might have been nearly as much so, butthese were got rid of by the easy expedient of pronouncing them fables and impostures;but, during the witch-mania, so many persons proved their faith in their own miraculous
powers by the sacrifice of their lives, that it was scarcely possible to doubt their havingsome foundation for their own persuasion, though what that foundation could be, till thelate discoveries in animal magnetism, it was difficult to conceive; but here we have a newpage opened to us which concerns both the history of the world and the history of man, as
an individual; and we begin to see that that which the ignorant thought supernatural, andthe wise impossible, has been both natural and true. While the scientific men of GreatBritain, and several of our journalists, have been denying and ridiculing the reports of these
phenomena, the most eminent physicians of Germany have been quietly studying andinvestigating them, and giving to the world, in their works, the results of their experience.
Among the rest, Dr. Joseph Ennemoser, of Berlin, has presented to us in his two books on“Magic,” and on “The Connection of Magnetism with Nature and Religion,” the fruits of
his thirty years’ study of this subject—during the course of which he has had repeated
opportunities of investigating all the phenomena, and of making himself perfectly familiar
with even the most rare and perplexing. To any one who has studied these works, themysteries of the temples and of the witch-trials are mysteries no longer; and he writes withthe professed design, not to make science mystical, but to bring the mysterious within thebounds of science. The phenomena, as he justly says, are as old as the human race. Animalmagnetism is no new development, no new discovery. Inseparable from life, although, likemany other vital phenomena, so subtle in its influences, that only in abnormal cases it
attracts attention, it has exhibited itself more or less in all ages and in all countries. But its
value as a medical agent is only now beginning to dawn on the civilized world, while its
importance in a higher point of view is yet perceived by but few. Every human being who
has ever withdrawn himself from the strife, and the turmoil, and the distraction, of theworld without, in order to look within, must have found himself perplexed by a thousand
questions with regard to his own being, which he would find no one able to solve. In the
study of animal magnetism, he will first obtain some gleams of a light which will show him
that he is indeed the child of God! and that, though a dweller on the earth, and fallen, sometraces of his divine descent, and of his unbroken connection with a higher order of being,
still remain to comfort and encourage him. He will find that there exists in his species thegerms of faculties that are never fully unfolded here on earth, and which have no reference
to this state of being. They exist in all men, but in most cases are so faintly elicited as not tobe observable; and when they do shoot up here and there, they are denied, disowned,
misinterpreted, and maligned. It is true that their development is often the symptom andeffect of disease, which seems to change the relations of our material and immaterial parts;
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disease, as in the case of spectral illusions; and it is true that imposture and folly intrude
their unhallowed footsteps into this domain of science, as into that of all others; but there isa deep and holy well of truth to be discovered in this neglected by-path of nature, by those
who seek it, from which they may draw the purest consolations for the present, the mostennobling hopes for the future, and the most valuable aid in penetrating through the letter
into the spirit of the Scriptures.
I confess it makes me sorrowful when I hear men laughing, scorning, and denying thistheir birthright; and I can not but grieve to think how closely and heavily their clay must be
wrapped about them, and how the external and sensuous life must have prevailed over theinternal, when no gleam from within breaks through to show them that these things aretrue.

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CHAPTER III.

29

WAKING AND SLEEPING; AND HOW THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLESOMETIMES LOOKS ABROAD.

To begin with the most simple—or rather, I should say, the most ordinary—class ofphenomena, for we can scarcely call that simple, the mystery of which we have never beenable to penetrate—I mean dreaming—everybody’s experience will suffice to satisfy themthat their ordinary dreams take place in a state of imperfect sleep, and that this imperfect
sleep may be caused by any bodily or mental derangement whatever, or even from an illmade bed, or too much or too little covering; and it is not difficult to conceive that thestrange, confused, and disjointed visions we are subject to on these occasions, may proceedfrom some parts of the brain being less at rest than the others; so that, assuming phrenology
to be fact, one organ is not in a state to correct the impressions of another. Of such vain andinsignificant visions, I need scarcely say it is not my intention to treat; but, at the sametime, I must observe, that when we have admitted the above explanation, as far as it goes,
we have not, even in regard to them, made much progress toward removing the difficulty. If
dreaming resembled thinking, the explanations might be quite satisfactory; but the truth is,that dreaming is not thinking, as we think in our waking state, but is more analogous tothinking in delirium or acute mania, or in that chronic condition which gives rise to
sensuous illusions. In our ordinary normal state, conceiving of places or persons does notenable us to see them or hold communion with them, nor do we fancy that we do either. It
is true, that I have heard some painters say that, by closing their eyes and concentrating
their thoughts on an object, they can bring it more or less vividly before them, and Blake
professed actually to see his sitters when they were not present; but whateverinterpretations we may put upon this curious faculty, his case was clearly abnormal, andconnected with some personal peculiarity, either physical or psychical; and, after making
the most of it, it must be admitted that it can enter into no sort of comparison with that we
possess in sleep, when, in our most ordinary dreams, untrammelled by time or space, we
visit the uttermost ends of the earth, fly in the air, swim in the sea, listen to beautiful musicand eloquent orations, behold the most charming as well as the most loathsome objects; andnot only see, but converse with our friends, absent or present, dead or alive. Every one, I
think, will grant that there is the widest possible difference between conceiving of thesethings when awake, and dreaming them. When we dream, we do, we see, we say, we hear,&c., &c., that is, we believe at the time we do so; and what more can be said of us when weare awake, than that we believe we are doing, seeing, saying, hearing, &c. It is by external
circumstances, and the results of our actions, that we are able to decide whether we haveactually done a thing or seen a place, or only dreamt that we have done so; and as I havesaid above, after some lapse of time we are not always able to distinguish between the two.
While dreaming, we frequently ask ourselves whether we are awake or asleep; and nothingis more common than to hear people say, “Well, I think I did, or heard, so and so; but I am
not sure whether it was so, or whether I dreamt it.” Thus, therefore, the very lowest order ofdreaming, the most disjointed and perplexed, is far removed from the most vivid
presentations of our waking thoughts; and it is in this respect, I think, that the explanationsof the phenomena hitherto offered by phrenologists, and the metaphysicians of this country,
are inadequate and unsatisfactory; while, as regards the analogy between the visions of
sleep and delirium, whatever similarity there may be in the effects, we can not suppose thecause to be identical: since, in delirium the images and delusions are the result of excessive
action of the brain, which we must conclude to be the very reverse of its condition in sleep.
Pinel certainly has hazarded an opinion that sleep is occasioned by an efflux of blood to thehead, and consequent compression of the brain—a theory which would have greater weight
were sleep more strictly periodical than it is; but which, at present, it seems impossible toreconcile with many established facts.
Some of the German physiologists and psychologists have taken a deeper view of thisquestion of dreaming, from considering it in connection with the phenomena of animal
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magnetism; and although their theories differ in some respects, they all unite in looking
toward that department of nature for instruction. While one section of these inquirers, theExegetical Society of Stockholm included, calls in the aid of supernatural agency, another,among whom Dr. Joseph Ennemoser, of Berlin, appears to be one of the most eminent,
maintains that the explanation of the mystery is to be chiefly sought in the great anduniversal law of polarity, which extends not only beyond the limits of this earth, but beyond
the limits of this system, which must necessarily be in connection with all others; so that
there is thus an eternal and never-ceasing inter-action, of which, from the multiplicity andcontrariety of the influences, we are insensible, just as we are insensible to the pressure of
the atmosphere, from its impinging on us equally on all sides.
Waking and sleeping are the day and night sides of organic life, during whichalternations an animal is placed in different relations to the external world, and to thesealternations all organisms are subject. The completeness and independence of eachindividual organism, are in exact ratio to the number and completeness of the organs it
develops; and thus the locomotive animal has the advantage of the plant or the zoophyte,
while, of the animal kingdom, man is the most complete and independent; and, althoughstill a member of the universal whole, and therefore incapable of isolating himself, yetbetter able than any other organism to ward off external influences, and comprise his world
within himself. But, according to Dr. Ennemoser, one of the consequences of this very
completeness is a weak and insignificant development of instinct; and thus the healthy,
waking, conscious man, is, of all organisms, the least sensible to the impressions of thisuniversal inter-communication and polarity; although, at the same time, partaking of thenature of the plant and the animal, he is subject, like the first, to all manner of atmospheric,telluric, and periodic influences; and frequently exhibits, like the second, peculiar
instinctive appetites and desires, and, in some individual organizations, very marked
antipathies and susceptibilities with regard to certain objects and influences, even when notplaced in any evident relation with them.
According to this theory, sleep is a retrograde step—a retreating into a lower sphere; inwhich condition, the sensuous functions being in abeyance, the instincts somewhat resume
their sway. “In sleep and in sickness,” he says, “the higher animals and man fall in aphysico-organical point of view, from their individual independence, or power of selfsustainment; and their polar relation, that is, their relation to the healthy and waking man,becomes changed from a positive to a negative one; all men, in regard to each other, as well
as all nature, being the subjects of this polarity.” It is to be remembered, that this theory of
Dr. Ennemoser’s was promulgated before the discoveries of Baron von Reichenback inmagnetism were made public, and the susceptibility to magnetic influences in the animalorganism, which the experiments of the latter go to establish, is certainly in its favor; butwhile it pretends to explain the condition of the sleepers, and may possibly be of some
service in our investigations into the mystery of dreaming, it leaves us as much in the dark
as ever, with respect to the cause of our falling into this negative state; an inquiry in whichlittle progress seems to have been hitherto made.
With respect to dreaming, Dr. Ennemoser rejects the physiological theory, which
maintains, that in sleep, magnetic or otherwise, the activity of the brain is transferred to theganglionic system, and that the former falls into a subordinate relation. “Dreaming,” hesays, “is the gradual awakening of activity in the organs of imagination, whereby thepresentation of sensuous objects to the spirit, which had been discontinued in profoundsleep, is resumed. Dreaming,” he adds, “also arises from the secret activity of the spirit in
the innermost sensuous organs of the brain, busying the fancy with subjective sensuous
images, the objective conscious day-life giving place to the creative dominion of the
poetical genius, to which night becomes day, and universal nature its theatre of action; andthus the super-sensuous or transcendent nature of the spirit becomes more manifest in
dreaming than in the waking state. But, in considering these phenomena, man must be
viewed in both his psychical and physical relations, and as equally subject to spiritual as tonatural operations and influences; since, during the continuance of life, neither soul nor
body can act quite independently of the other; for, although it be the immortal spirit whichperceives, it is through the instrumentality of the sensuous organs that it does so; for of
absolute spirit without body, we can form no conception.”
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What is here meant seems to be, that the brain becomes the world to the spirit, before
the impressions from the external world do actually come streaming through by means of
the external sensuous organs. The inner spiritual light illumines, till the outward physicallight overpowers and extinguishes it. But in this state the brain, which is the storehouse of
acquired knowledge, is not in a condition to apply its acquisitions effectively; while theintuitive knowledge of the spirit, if the sleep be imperfect, is clouded by its interference.
Other physiologists, however, believe, from the numerous and well-attested cases of thetransference of the senses, in disease, to the pit of the stomach, that the activity of the brain
in sleep is transferred to the epigastric region. The instances of this phenomenon, as related
by Dr. Petetin and others, having been frequently published, I need not here quote. But, as
Dr. Passavant observes, it is well known that the functions of the nerves differ in someanimals; and that one set can supply the place of another; as in those cases where there is agreat susceptibility to light, though no eyes can be discovered.
These physiologists believe, that, even during the most profound sleep, the spirit retains
its activity, a proposition which, indeed, we can not doubt; “it wakes, though the senses
sleep, retreating into its infinite depths, like the sun at night; living on its spiritual life
undisturbed, while the body sinks into a state of vegetative tranquillity. Nor does it followthat the soul is unconscious in sleep because in waking we have frequently lost all memoryof its consciousness; since, by the repose of the sensuous organs, the bridge between
waking and sleeping is removed, and the recollections of one state are not carried into theother.”
It will occur here to every one, how often in the instant of waking we are not only
conscious that we have been dreaming, but are also conscious of the subject of the dream,
which we try in vain to grasp, but which eludes us, and is gone for ever the moment wehave passed into a state of complete wakefulness.
Now, with respect to this so-called dreaming in profound sleep, it is a thing no one canwell doubt who thoroughly believes that his body is a temple built for the dwelling of animmortal spirit; for we can not conceive of spirit sleeping, or needing that restoration which
we know to be the condition of earthly organisms. If, therefore, the spirit wakes, may wenot suppose that the more it is disentangled from the obstructions of the body the moreclear will be its perceptions; and that, therefore, in the profound natural sleep of thesensuous organs we may be in a state of clear-seeing. All who have attended to the subject
are aware that the clear seeing of magnetic patients depends on the depth of their sleep;
whatever circumstance, internal or external, tends to interrupt this profound repose of thesensuous organs, inevitably obscures their perceptions.
Again, with respect to the not carrying with us the recollections of one state into theother, should not this lead us to suspect that sleeping and waking are two different spheresof existence; partaking of the nature of that double life, of which the records of humanphysiology have presented us with various instances wherein a patient finds himself utterly
divested of all recollection of past events and acquired knowledge, and has to begin life andeducation anew, till another transition takes place, wherein he recovers what he had lost,while he at the same time loses all he had lately gained, which he only recovers, once more,by another transition, restoring to him his lately-acquired knowledge, but again obliterating
his original stock, thus alternately passing from one state to the other, and disclosing adouble life—an educated man in one condition, a child learning his alphabet in the next!
Where the transition from one state to another is complete, memory is entirely lost; but
there are cases in which the change, being either gradual or modified, the recollections of
one life are carried more or less into the other. We know this to be the case with magnetic
sleepers, as it is with ordinary dreamers; and most persons have met with instances of the
dream of one night being continued in the next. Treviranus mentions the case of a student
who regularly began to talk the moment he fell asleep, the subject of his discourse being a
dream, which he always took up at the exact point at which he had left it the previous
morning. Of this dream he had never the slightest recollection in his waking state. A
daughter of Sir George Mackenzie, who died at an early age, was endowed with aremarkable genius for music, and was an accomplished organist. This young lady dreamed,
during an illness, that she was at a party, where she had heard a new piece of music, which
made so great an impression on her by its novelty and beauty, that, on awaking, shebesought her attendants to bring her some paper, that she might write it down before she
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had forgotten it—an indulgence which, apprehensive of excitement, her medical attendant
unfortunately forbade; for, apart from the additional psychological interest that would havebeen attached to the fact, the effects of compliance, judging from what ensued, would
probably have been soothing rather than otherwise. About ten days afterward, she had asecond dream, wherein she again found herself at a party, where she descried on the desk ofa pianoforte, in a corner of the room, an open book, in which, with astonished delight, sherecognised the same piece of music, which she immediately proceeded to play, and thenawoke. The piece was not of a short or fugitive character, but in the style of an overture.
The question, of course, remains, as to whether she was composing the music in her sleep,or, by an act of clairvoyance, was perceiving some that actually existed. Either is possible,
for, although she might have been incapable of composing so elaborate a piece in her
waking state, there are many instances on record of persons performing intellectual feats indreams, to which they were unequal when awake. A very eminent person assured me that
he had once composed some lines in his sleep (I think it was a sonnet) which far exceeded
any of his waking performances of that description.
Somewhat analogous to this sort of double life is the case of the young girl mentioned
by Dr. Abercrombie and others, whose employment was keeping cattle, and who slept forsome time, much to her own annoyance, in the room adjoining one occupied by an itinerant
musician. The man, who played exceedingly well, being an enthusiast in his art, frequently
practised the greater part of the night, performing on his violin very complicated anddifficult compositions; while the girl, so far from discovering any pleasure in his
performances, complained bitterly of being kept awake by the noise. Some time after this,she fell ill, and was removed to the house of a charitable lady, who undertook the charge ofher; and here, by-and-by, the family were amazed by frequently hearing the most exquisite
music in the night, which they at length discovered to proceed from the girl. The sounds
were those of a violin, and the tuning and other preliminary processes were accurately
imitated. She went through long and elaborate pieces, and afterward was heard imitating, inthe same way, the sounds of a pianoforte that was in the house. She also talked very
cleverly on the subjects of religion and politics, and discussed with great judgment thecharacters and conduct of persons, public and private. Awake, she knew nothing of thesethings; but was, on the contrary, stupid, heavy, and had no taste whatever for music.
Phrenology would probably interpret this phenomenon by saying that the lower elements ofthe cerebral spinal axis, as organs of sensation, &c., &c., being asleep, the cluster of thehigher organs requisite for the above combinations were not only awake, but rendered more
active from the repose of the others: but to me it appears that we here see the inherent
faculties of the spirit manifesting themselves, while the body slept. The same faculties musthave existed when it was in a waking state, but the impressions and manifestations werethen dependent on the activity and perfection of the sensuous organs, which seem to havebeen of an inferior order; and consequently, no rays of this in-dwelling genius could pierce
the coarse integument in which it was lodged.
Similar unexpected faculties have been not unfrequently manifested by the dying, andwe may conclude to a certain degree from the same cause, namely, that the incipient deathof the body is leaving the spirit more unobstructed. Dr. Steinbech mentions the case of aclergyman, who, being summoned to administer the last sacraments to a dying peasant,found him, to his surprise, praying aloud in Greek and Hebrew, a mystery which could be
no otherwise explained than by the circumstance of his having, when a child, frequently
heard the then minister of the parish praying in those languages. He had, however, neverunderstood the prayers, nor indeed paid any attention to them; still less had he been awarethat they lived in his memory. It would give much additional interest to this story had Dr.
Steinbech mentioned how far the man now, while uttering the words, understood their
meaning; whether he was aware of what he was saying, or was only repeating the words byrote.
With regard to the extraordinary faculty of memory manifested in these and similarcases, I shall have some observations to make in a subsequent part of this book.
Parallel instances are those of idiots, who, either in a somnambulic state, orimmediately previous to death, have spoken as if inspired. At St. Jean de Maurinne, in
Savoy, there was a dumb cretin, who, having fallen into a natural state of somnambulism,
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disappeared, however, whenever he awoke. Dumb persons have likewise been known to
speak when at the point of death.
The possibility of suggesting dreams to some sleepers by whispering in the ear, is awell-known fact; but this can doubtless only be practicable where the sensuous organs are
partly awake. Then, as with magnetic patients in a state of incomplete sleep, we have only
revery and imagination in place of clear-seeing.
The next class of dreams are those which partake of the nature of second sight, or
prophecy, and of these there are various kinds; some being plain and literal in theirpremonitions, others allegorical and obscure; while some also regard the most unimportant,and others the most grave events of our lives. A gentleman engaged in business in the southof Scotland, for example, dreams that on entering his office in the morning, he sees seatedon a certain stool a person formerly in his service as clerk, of whom he had neither heard
nor thought for some time. He inquires the motive of the visit, and is told that such andsuch circumstances having brought the stranger to that part of the country, he could notforbear visiting his old quarters, expressing at the same time a wish to spend a few days in
his former occupation, &c., &c. The gentleman, being struck with the vividness of theillusion, relates his dream at breakfast, and, to his surprise, on going to his office, there sits
the man, and the dialogue that ensues is precisely that of the dream! I have heard ofnumerous instances of this kind of dream, where no previous expectation nor excitement ofmind could be found to account for them, and where the fulfilment was too exact andliteral, in all particulars, to admit of their being explained away by the ready resource of“an extraordinary coincidence.” There are also on record, in both this country and others,
many perfectly well-authenticated cases of people obtaining prizes in the lottery, throughhaving dreamed of the fortunate numbers. As many numbers, however, may have been
dreamed of that were not drawn prizes, we can derive no conclusion from thiscircumstance.
A very remarkable instance of this kind of dreaming occurred a few years since to Mr.
A⁠—— F⁠——, an eminent Scotch advocate, while staying in the neighborhood of LochFyne, who dreamed one night that he saw a number of people in the street following a manto the scaffold. He discovered the features of the criminal in the cart distinctly; and, forsome reason or other, which he could not account for, felt an extraordinary interest in his
fate—insomuch that he joined the throng, and accompanied him to the place that was toterminate his earthly career. This interest was the more unaccountable, that the man had an
exceedingly unprepossessing countenance, but it was nevertheless so vivid as to induce the
dreamer to ascend the scaffold, and address him, with a view to enable him to escape theimpending catastrophe. Suddenly, however, while he was talking to him, the whole scene
dissolved away, and the sleeper awoke. Being a good deal struck with the lifelike reality ofthe vision, and the impression made on his mind by the features of this man, he related thecircumstance to his friends at breakfast, adding that he should know him anywhere, if he
saw him. A few jests being made on the subject, the thing was forgotten.
On the afternoon of the same day, the advocate was informed that two men wanted to
speak to him, and, on going into the hall, he was struck with amazement at perceiving that
one of them was the hero of his dream!
“We are accused of a murder,” said they, “and we wish to consult you. Three of us wentout, last night, in a boat; an accident has happened; our comrade is drowned, and they wantto make us accountable for him.” The advocate then put some interrogations to them, andthe result produced in his mind by their answers was a conviction of their guilt. Probably
the recollection of his dream rendered the effects of this conviction more palpable; for one
addressing the other, said in Gaelic, “We have come to the wrong man; he is against us.”
“There is a higher power than I against you,” returned the gentleman; “and the only
advice I can give you is, if you are guilty, fly immediately.” Upon this, they went away; andthe next thing he heard was, that they were taken into custody on suspicion of the murder.
The account of the affair was, that, as they said, the three had gone out together on thepreceding evening, and that in the morning the body of one of them had been found on the
shore, with a cut across his forehead. The father and friend of the victim had waited on thebanks of the lake till the boat came in, and then demanded their companion; of whom,
however, they professed themselves unable to give any account. Upon this, the old man ledthem to his cottage for the purpose of showing them the body of his son. One entered, and,https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Croweat the sight of it, burst into a passion of tears; the other refused to do so, saying his businesscalled him immediately home, and went sulkily away. This last was the man seen in the
dream.
After a fortnight’s incarceration, the former of these was liberated; and he then declared
to the advocate his intention of bringing an action of damages for false imprisonment. He
was advised not to do it. “Leave well alone,” said the lawyer; “and if you’ll take my advice,
make off while you can.” The man, however, refused to fly: he declared that he really did
not know what had occasioned the death of his comrade. The latter had been at one end of
the boat, and he at the other; when he looked round, he was gone; but whether he had fallen
overboard, and cut his head as he fell, or whether he had been struck and pushed into thewater, he did not know. The advocate became finally satisfied of this man’s innocence; but
the authorities, thinking it absurd to try one and not the other, again laid hands on him: andit fell to Mr. A⁠—— F⁠—— to be the defender of both. The difficulty was, not to separate
their cases in his pleading; for, however morally convinced of the different ground on
which they stood, his duty, professionally, was to obtain the acquittal of both, in which hefinally succeeded, as regarded the charge of murder. They were, therefore, sentenced to two
years’ imprisonment; and, so far as the dream is concerned, here ends the story. Thereremains, however, a curious sequel to it.
A few years afterward, the same gentleman being in a boat on Loch Fyne, in company
with Sir T⁠—— D⁠—— L⁠——, happened to be mentioning these curious circumstances,when one of the boatmen said that he “knew well about those two men; and that a very
strange thing had occurred in regard to one of them.” This one, on inquiry, proved to be thesubject of the dream; and the strange thing was this: On being liberated, he had quitted thatpart of the country, and in process of time had gone to Greenock, and thence embarked in a
vessel for Cork. But the vessel seemed fated never to reach its destination; one misfortune
happened after another, till at length the sailors said: “This won’t do; there must be amurderer on board with us!” As is usual, when such a persuasion exists, they drew lots
three times, and each time it fell on that man! He was consequently put on shore, and thevessel went on its way without him. What had become of him afterward was not known.
A friend of mine, being in London, dreamed that she saw her little boy playing on theterrace of her house in Northumberland; that he fell and hurt his arm, and she saw him
lying apparently dead. The dream recurred two or three times on the same night, and she
awoke her husband, saying she “feared something must have happened to Henry.” In due
course of post, a letter arrived from the governess, saying that she was sorry to have tocommunicate that, while playing on the terrace that morning, Master Henry had fallen overa heap of stones, and broken his arm; adding that he had fainted after the accident, and hadlain for some time insensible. The lady to whom this dream occurred is not aware having
ever manifested this faculty before or since.
Mrs. W⁠—— dreamed that she saw people ascending by a ladder to the chamber of her
step-son John; wakes, and says she is afraid he is dead, and that there was something odd inher dream about a watch and a candle. In the morning a messenger is sent to inquire for the
gentleman, and they find people ascending to his chamber-window by a ladder, the door of
the room being locked. They discover him dead on the floor, with his watch in his hand,
and the candle between his feet. The same lady dreamed that she saw a friend in great
agony, and that she heard him say they were tearing his flesh from his bones. He was sometime afterward seized with inflammation, lay as she had seen him, and made use of thoseexact words.
A friend of mine dreamed lately that somebody said her nephew must not be bled, as it
would be dangerous. The young man was quite well, and there had been no design of
bleeding him; but on the following morning he had a tooth drawn, and an effusion of bloodensued, which lasted some days, and caused a good deal of uneasiness.
A farmer, in Worcestershire, dreamed that his little boy, of twelve years old, had fallenfrom the wagon and was killed. The dream recurred three times in one night; but, unwillingto yield to superstitious fears, he allowed the child to accompany the wagoner to
Kidderminster fair. The driver was very fond of the boy, and he felt assured would takecare of him; but, having occasion to go a little out of the road to leave a parcel, the manbade the child walk on with the wagon, and he would meet him at a certain spot. On
arriving there, the horses were coming quietly forward, but the boy was not with them; andhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Croweon retracing the road, he was found dead, having apparently fallen from the shafts, andbeen crushed by the wheels.
A gentleman, who resided near one of the Scottish lakes, dreamed that he saw a numberof persons surrounding a body, which had just been drawn out of the water. On approaching
the spot, he perceives that it is himself, and the assistants are his own friends and retainers.
Alarmed at the lifelike reality of the vision, he resolved to elude the threatened destiny bynever venturing on the lake again. On one occasion, however, it became quite indispensablethat he should do so; and, as the day was quite calm, he yielded to the necessity, on
condition that he should be put ashore at once on the opposite side, while the rest of theparty proceeded to their destinations, where he would meet them. This was accordingly
done: the boat skimmed gayly over the smooth waters, and arrived safely at therendezvous, the gentlemen laughing at the superstition of their companion, while he stoodsmiling on the bank to receive them. But, alas! the fates were inexorable: the little
promontory that supported him had been undermined by the water; it gave way beneath his
feet, and life was extinct before he could be rescued. This circumstance was related to me
by a friend of the family.
Mr. S⁠—— was the son of an Irish bishop, who set somewhat more value on the thingsof this world than became his function. He had always told his son that there was but one
thing he could not forgive, and that was, a bad marriage—meaning, by a bad marriage, apoor one. As cautions of this sort do not, by any means, prevent young people falling inlove, Mr. S⁠—— fixed his affections on Lady O⁠——, a fair young widow, without any
fortune; and, aware that it would be useless to apply for his father’s consent, he married her
without asking it. They were consequently exceedingly poor; and, indeed, nearly all they
had to live on was a small sinecure of forty pounds per annum, which Dean Swift procured
for him. While in this situation, Mr. S⁠—— dreamed one night that he was in the cathedral
in which he had formerly been accustomed to attend service; that he saw a stranger, habited
as a bishop, occupying his father’s throne; and that, on applying to the verger for an
explanation, the man said that the bishop was dead, and that he had expired just as he wasadding a codicil to his will in his son’s favor. The impression made by the dream was sostrong, that Mr. S⁠—— felt that he should have no repose till he had obtained news from
home; and as the most speedy way of doing so was to go there himself, he started onhorseback, much against the advice of his wife, who attached no importance whatever tothe circumstance. He had scarcely accomplished half his journey, when he met a courier,bearing the intelligence of his father’s death; and when he reached home, he found that
there was a codicil attached to the will, of the greatest importance to his own future
prospects; but the old gentleman had expired, with the pen in his hand, just as he was about
to sign it!
In this unhappy position, reduced to hopeless indigence, the friends of the young man
proposed that he should present himself at the vice-regal palace, on the next levee day, inhopes that some interest might be excited in his favor; to which, with reluctance, he
consented. As he was ascending the stairs, he was met by a gentleman whose dress
indicated that he belonged to the church.
“Good Heavens!” said he, to the friend who accompanied him, “who is that?”“That is Mr. ——, of so and so.”“Then he will be bishop of L⁠——!” returned Mr. S⁠——; “for that is the man I saw
occupying my father’s throne.”“Impossible!” replied the other; “he has no interest whatever, and has no more chanceof being a bishop than I have.”“You will see,” replied Mr. S⁠——; “I am certain he will.”
They had made their obeisance above, and were returning, when there was a great cry
without, and everybody rushed to the doors and windows to inquire what had happened.
The horses attached to the carriage of a young nobleman had become restiff, and wereendangering the life of their master, when Mr. —— rushed forward, and, at the peril of hisown, seized their heads, and afforded Lord C⁠—— time to descend, before they brokethrough all restraint, and dashed away. Through the interest of this nobleman and his
friends, to whom Mr. —— had been previously quite unknown, he obtained the see ofL⁠——. These circumstances were related to me by a member of the family.
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It would be tedious to relate all the instances of this sort of dreaming which have cometo my knowledge, but were they even much more rare than they are, and were there none ofa graver and more mysterious kind, it might certainly occasion some surprise that theyshould have excited so little attention. When stories of this sort are narrated, they arelistened to with wonder for the moment, and then forgotten, and few people reflect on the
deep significance of the facts, or the important consequences to us involved in the question,of how, with our limited faculties, which can not foretell the events of the next moment, weshould suddenly become prophets and seers.
The following dream, as it regards the fate of a very interesting person, and is, I
believe, very little known, I will relate, though the story is of somewhat an old date:—
Major André, the circumstances of whose lamented death are too well known to make itnecessary for me to detail them here, was a friend of Miss Seward’s, and, previously to hisembarkation for America, he made a journey into Derbyshire, to pay her a visit, and it wasarranged that they should ride over to see the wonders of the Peak, and introduce André to
Newton, her minstrel, as she called him, and to Mr. Cunningham, the curate, who was alsoa poet.
While these two gentlemen were awaiting the arrival of their guests, of whose
intentions they had been apprised, Mr. Cunningham mentioned to Newton, that on thepreceding night, he had had a very extraordinary dream, which he could not get out of hishead. He had fancied himself in a forest; the place was strange to him; and, while looking
about, he perceived a horseman approaching at great speed, who had scarcely reached thespot where the dreamer stood, when three men rushed out of the thicket, and, seizing his
bridle, hurried him away, after closely searching his person. The countenance of thestranger being very interesting, the sympathy felt by the sleeper for his apparent misfortune
awoke him; but he presently fell asleep again, and dreamed that he was standing near agreat city, among thousands of people, and that he saw the same person he had seen seizedin the wood brought out and suspended to a gallows. When André and Miss Seward
arrived, he was horror-struck to perceive that his new acquaintance was the antitype of theman in the dream.
Mr. C⁠——, a friend of mine, told me the other day, that he had dreamed he had gone tosee a lady of his acquaintance, and that she had presented him with a purse. In the morning
he mentioned the circumstance to his wife, adding that he wondered what should havemade him dream of a person he had not been in any way led to think of; and, above all, thatshe should give him a purse. On that same day, a letter arrived from that lady to Mrs.
C⁠——, containing a purse, of which she begged her acceptance. Here was the imperfectforeshadowing of the fact, probably from unsound sleep.
Another friend lately dreamed, one Thursday night, that he saw an acquaintance of histhrown from his horse; and that he was lying on the ground with the blood streaming fromhis face, which was much cut. He mentioned his dream in the morning, and being an entire
disbeliever in such phenomena, he could not account for the impression made on his mind.
This was so strong, that on Saturday, he could not forbear calling at his friend’s house;
who, he was told, was in bed, having been thrown from his horse on the previous day, andmuch injured about the face.
Relations of this description having been more or less familiar to the world in all times
and places, and the recurrence of the phenomena too frequent to admit of their reality being
disputed, various theories were promulgated to account for them; and indeed, there scarcely
seems to be a philosopher or historian among the Greeks and Romans who does not makesome allusion to this ill-understood department of nature; while, among the eastern nations,the faith in such mysterious revelations remains even yet undiminished. Spirits, good andevil, or the divinities of the heathen mythology, were generally called in to remove thedifficulty; though some philosophers, rejecting this supernatural interference, sought the
explanation in merely physical causes.
In the druidical rites of the northern nations, women bore a considerable part: there
were priestesses, who gave forth oracles and prophecies, much after the manner of the
Pythonesses of the Grecian temples, and no doubt drawing their inspiration from the same
sources; namely, from the influences of magnetism, and from narcotics. When the purerites of Christianity seperseded the heathen forms of worship, tradition kept alive thememory of these vaticinations, together with some of the arcana of the druidical groves;
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and hence, in the middle ages, arose the race of so-called witches and sorcerers, who werepartly impostors, and partly self-deluded. Nobody thought of seeking the explanation of thefacts they witnessed in natural causes; what had formerly been attributed to the influence ofthe gods, was now attributed to the influence of the devil; and a league with Satan was theuniversal solvent of all difficulties.
Persecution followed, of course; and men, women, and children, were offered up to thedemon of superstition, till the candid and rational part of mankind, taking fright at theholocaust, began to put in their protest, and lead out a reaction, which, like all reactions, ran
right into the opposite extreme. From believing everything, they ceased to believe
anything; and, after swallowing unhesitatingly the most monstrous absurdities, theyrelieved themselves of the whole difficulty, by denying the plainest facts; while what it was
found impossible to deny, was referred to imagination—that most abused word, which
explained nothing, but left the matter as obscure as it was before. Man’s spiritual nature
was forgotten; and what the senses could not apprehend, nor the understanding account for,was pronounced to be impossible. Thank God! we have lived through that age, and in spiteof the struggles of the materialistic school, we are fast advancing to a better. The traditionsof the saints who suffered the most appalling tortures, and slept or smiled the while, canscarcely be rejected now, when we are daily hearing of people undergoing frightful
operations, either in a state of insensibility, or while they believe themselves revelling indelight; nor can the psychological intimations which these facts offer, be much longer
overlooked. One revelation must lead to another; and the wise men of the world will, erelong, be obliged to give in their adherence to Shakspere’s much quoted axiom, and confessthat “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy.”https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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C H A P T E R I V.

48

ALLEGORICAL DREAMS, PRESENTIMENT, ETC.

It has been the opinion of many philosophers, both ancient and modern, that in theoriginal state of man, as he came forth from the hands of his Creator, that knowledge which
is now acquired by pains and labor was intuitive. His material body was given him for the
purpose of placing him in relation with the material world, and his sensuous organs for theperception of material objects, but his soul was a mirror of the universe, in which
everything was reflected, and, probably, is so still, but that the spirit is no longer in acondition to perceive it. Degraded in his nature, and distracted by the multiplicity of theobjects and interests that surround him, man has lost his faculty of spiritual seeing; but insleep, when the body is in a state of passivity, and external objects are excluded from us by
the shutting up of the senses through which we perceive them, the spirit, to a certain degree
freed from its impediments, may enjoy somewhat of its original privilege. “The soul, which
is designed as the mirror of a superior spiritual order” (to which it belongs), still receives indreams, some rays from above, and enjoys a foretaste of its future condition; and, whateverinterpretation may be put upon the history of the Fall, few will doubt that, before it, manmust have stood in a much more intimate relation to his Creator than he has done since. If
we admit this, and that, for the above-hinted reasons, the soul in sleep may be able toexercise somewhat of its original endowment, the possibility of what is called prophetic
dreaming may be better understood.
“Seeing in dreams,” says Ennemoser, “is a self-illumining of things, places, and times;”for relations of time and space form no obstruction to the dreamer: things, near and far, arealike seen in the mirror of the soul, according to the connection in which they stand to eachother; and, as the future is but an unfolding of the present, as the present is of the past, one
being necessarily involved in the other, it is not more difficult to the untrammelled spirit to
see what is to happen, than what has already happened. Under what peculiar circumstances
it is that the body and soul fall into this particular relative condition, we do not know, butthat certain families and constitutions are more prone to these conditions than others, allexperience goes to establish. According to the theory of Dr. Ennemoser, we should
conclude that they are more susceptible to magnetic influences, and that the body falls intoa more complete state of negative polarity.
In the histories of the Old Testament we constantly find instances of prophetic
dreaming, and the voice of God was chiefly heard by the prophets in sleep; seeming toestablish that man is in that state more susceptible of spiritual communion, although thebeing thus made the special organ of the Divine will, is altogether a different thing from themere disfranchisement of the embodied spirit in ordinary cases of clear seeing in sleep.
Profane history, also, furnishes us with various instances of prophetic dreaming, which it isunnecessary for me to refer to here. But there is one thing very worthy of remark, namely,that the allegorical character of many of the dreams recorded in the Old Testament,
occasionally pervades those of the present day. I have heard of several of this nature, andOberlin, the good pastor of Ban de la Roche, was so subject to them, that he fancied he had
acquired the art of interpreting the symbols. This characteristic of dreaming is in strict
conformity with the language of the Old Testament, and of the most ancient nations. Poets
and prophets, heathen and Christian, alike express themselves symbolically, and, if we
believe that this language prevailed in the early ages of the world, before the external andintellectual life had predominated over the instinctive and emotional, we must conclude it
to be the natural language of man, who must, therefore, have been gifted with aconformable faculty of comprehending these hieroglyphics; and hence it arose that theinterpreting of dreams became a legitimate art. Long after these instinctive faculties werelost, or rather obscured, by the turmoil and distractions of sensuous life, the memories andtraditions of them remained, and hence the superstructure of jugglery and imposture thatensued, of which the gipsies form a signal example, in whom, however, there can be no
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case, though more rarely, in individuals of all races and conditions. The whole of nature is
one large book of symbols, which, because we have lost the key to it, we can not decipher.
“To the first man,” says Hamann, “whatever his ear heard, his eye saw, or his hand touched,
was a living word; with this word in his heart and in his mouth, the formation of language
was easy. Man saw things in their essence and properties, and named them accordingly.”
There can be no doubt that the heathen forms of worship and systems of religion were
but the external symbols of some deep meanings, and not the idle fables that they havebeen too frequently considered; and it is absurd to suppose that the theology which satisfied
so many great minds had no better foundation than a child’s fairy tale.
A maid-servant, who resided many years in a distinguished family in Edinburgh, wasrepeatedly warned of the approaching death of certain members of that family, by dreamingthat one of the walls of the house had fallen. Shortly before the head of the family sickened
and died, she said she had dreamed that the main wall had fallen.
A singular circumstance which occurred in this same family, from a member of which I
heard it, is mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie. On this occasion the dream was not only
prophetic, but the symbol was actually translated into fact.
One of the sons being indisposed with a sore throat, a sister dreamed that a watch, of
considerable value, which she had borrowed from a friend, had stopped; that she hadawakened another sister and mentioned the circumstance, who answered that “somethingmuch worse had happened, for Charles’s breath had stopped.” She then awoke, in extreme
alarm, and mentioned the dream to her sister, who, to tranquillize her mind, arose and went
to the brother’s room, where she found him asleep and the watch going. The next night thesame dream recurred, and the brother was again found asleep and the watch going. On thefollowing morning, however, this lady was writing a note in the drawing-room, with thewatch beside her, when, on taking it up, she perceived it had stopped; and she was just on
the point of calling her sister to mention the circumstance, when she heard a scream fromher brother’s room, and the sister rushed in with the tidings that he had just expired. The
malady had not been thought serious; but a sudden fit of suffocation had unexpectedly
proved fatal.
This case, which is established beyond all controversy, is extremely curious in many
points of view; the acting out of the symbol, especially. Symbolical events of thisdescription have been often related, and as often laughed at. It is easy to laugh at what we
do not understand; and it gives us the advantage of making the timid narrator ashamed of
his fact, so that if he do not wholly suppress it, he at least insures himself by laughing, too,
the next time he relates it. It is said that Goethe’s clock stopped the moment he died; and I
have heard repeated instances of this strange kind of synchronism, or magnetism, if it be bymagnetism that we are to account for the mystery. One was told me very lately by agentleman to whom the circumstances occurred.
On the 16th of August, 1769, Frederick II., of Prussia, is said to have dreamed that astar fell from heaven and occasioned such an extraordinary glare that he could with great
difficulty find his way through it. He mentioned the dream to his attendants, and it wasafterward observed that it was on that day Napoleon was born.
A lady, not long since, related to me the following circumstance: Her mother, who wasat the time residing in Edinburgh, in a house one side of which looked into a wynd, while
the door was in the High street, dreamed that, it being Sunday morning, she had heard asound which attracted her to the window; and, while looking out, had dropped a ring fromher finger into the wynd below; that she had, thereupon, gone down in her night-clothes toseek it, but when she reached the spot it was not to be found. Returning, extremely vexed ather loss, as she re-entered her own door she met a respectable looking young man, carrying
some loaves of bread. On expressing her astonishment at finding a stranger there at so
unseasonable an hour, he answered by expressing his at seeing her in such a situation. She
said she had dropped her ring, and had been round the corner to seek it; whereupon, to herdelighted surprise, he presented her with her lost treasure. Some months afterward, being at
a party, she recognized the young man seen in her dream, and learned that he was a baker.
He took no particular notice of her on that occasion; and, I think, two years elapsed before
she met him again. This second meeting, however, led to an acquaintance, which
terminated in marriage.
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Here the ring and the bread are curiously emblematic of the marriage, and theoccupation of the future husband.
Miss L⁠——, residing at Dalkeith, dreamed that her brother, who was ill, called her tohis bedside and gave her a letter, which he desired her to carry to their aunt, Mrs. H⁠——,
with the request that she would “deliver it to John.” (John was another brother, who had
died previously, and Mrs. H⁠—— was at the time ill.) He added that “he himself was going
there also, but that Mrs. H⁠—— would be there before him.” Accordingly, Miss L⁠——went, in her dream, with the letter to Mrs. H⁠——, whom she found dressed in white, andlooking quite radiant and happy. She took the letter, saying she was going there directly,
and would deliver it.
On the following morning Miss L⁠—— learned that her aunt had died in the night. The
brother died some little time afterward.
A gentleman who had been a short time visiting Edinburgh, was troubled with a cough,which, though it occasioned him no alarm, he resolved to go home to nurse. On the firstnight of his arrival he dreamed that one half of the house was blown away. His bailiff, who
resided at a distance, dreamed the same dream on the same night. The gentleman diedwithin a few weeks.
“This symbolical language, which the Deity appears to have used” (witness Peter’s
dream, Acts ii., and others) “in all his revelations to man, is in the highest degree, whatpoetry is in a lower, and the language of dreams, in the lowest, namely, the original natural
language of man; and we may fairly ask whether this language, which here plays aninferior part, be not, possibly, the proper language of a higher sphere, while we, who vainly
think ourselves awake, are, in reality, buried in a deep, deep sleep, in which, like dreamers
who imperfectly hear the voices of those around them, we occasionally apprehend, thoughobscurely, a few words of this divine tongue.” (Vide Schubert.)
This subject of sleeping and waking is a very curious one, and might give rise to
strange questionings. In the case of those patients abovementioned, who seem to have twodifferent spheres of existence, who shall say which is the waking one, or whether either ofthem be so? The speculations of Mr. Dove on this subject merited more attention, I think,than they met with when he lectured in Edinburgh. He maintained that, long before he had
paid any attention to magnetism, he had arrived at the conclusion that there are as manystates or conditions of mind beyond sleep as there are on this side of it; passing through thedifferent stages of dreaming, revery, contemplation, &c., up to perfect vigilance. However
this be, in this world of appearance, where we see nothing as it is, and where, both asregards our moral and physical relations, we live in a state of continual delusion, it is
impossible for us to pronounce on this question. It is a common remark, that some people
seem to live in a dream, and never to be quite awake; and the most cursory observer can not
fail to have been struck with examples of persons in this condition, especially in the aged.
With respect to this allegorical language, Ennemoser observes, that, “since no dreamer
learns it of another, and still less from those who are awake, it must be natural to all men.”
How different too, is its comprehensiveness and rapidity, to our ordinary language! We areaccustomed, and with justice, to wonder at the admirable mechanism by which, without
fatigue or exertion, we communicate with our fellow-beings; but how slow and ineffectualis human speech compared to this spiritual picture-language, where a whole history isunderstood at a glance! and scenes that seem to occupy days and weeks, are acted out in ten
minutes. It is remarkable that this hieroglyphic language appears to be the same among all
people; and that the dream-interpreters of all countries construe the signs alike. Thus, thedreaming of deep water denotes trouble, and pearls are a sign of tears.
I have heard of a lady who, whenever a misfortune was impending, dreamed that she
saw a large fish. One night she dreamed that this fish had bitten two of her little boy’s
fingers. Immediately afterward a schoolfellow of the child’s injured those two very fingers
by striking him with a hatchet; and I have met with several persons who have learned, by
experience, to consider one particular dream as the certain prognostic of misfortune.
A lady who had left the West Indies when six years old, came one night, fourteen years
afterward, to her sister’s bedside, and said, “I know uncle is dead. I have dreamed that I
saw a number of slaves in the large store-room at Barbadoes, with long brooms, sweeping
down immense cobwebs. I complained to my aunt, and she covered her face and said, ‘Yes,
he is no sooner gone than they disobey him.’ ” It was afterward ascertained that Mr. P⁠——
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had died on that night, and that he had never permitted the cobwebs in this room to be
swept away, of which, however, the lady assures me she knew nothing; nor could she or her
friends conceive what was meant by the symbol of the cobwebs, till they received the
explanation subsequently from a member of the family.
The following very curious allegorical dream I give, not in the words of the dreamer,
but in those of her son, who bears a name destined, I trust, to a long immortality:—“Wooer’s Abbey-Cottage, Dunfermline-in-the-Woods, }“Monday morning, 31st May, 1847. }“Dear Mrs. Crowe: That dream of my mother’s was as follows: She stood in a long,dark, empty gallery: on her one side was my father, and on the other my eldest sister
Amelia; then myself, and the rest of the family, according to their ages. At the foot of thehall stood my youngest sister Alexes, and above her my sister Catherine—a creature, bythe-way, in person and mind, more like an angel of heaven than an inhabitant of earth. We
all stood silent and motionless. At last it entered—the unimagined something, that, casting
its grim shadow before, had enveloped all the trivialities of the preceding dream in the
stifling atmosphere of terror. It entered, stealthily descending the three steps that led fromthe entrance down into the chamber of horror: and my mother felt it was Death! He wasdwarfish, bent, and shrivelled. He carried on his shoulder a heavy axe; and had come, shethought, to destroy ‘all her little ones at one fell swoop.’ On the entrance of the shape, mysister Alexes leaped out of the rank, interposing herself between him and my mother. He
raised his axe and aimed a blow at Catherine—a blow which, to her horror, my mother
could not intercept, though she had snatched up a three-legged stool, the sole furniture of
the apartment, for that purpose. She could not, she felt, fling the stool at the figure without
destroying Alexes, who kept shooting out and in between her and the ghastly thing. She
tried in vain to scream; she besought my father, in agony, to avert the impending stroke; but
he did not hear, or did not heed her, and stood motionless, as in a trance. Down came theaxe, and poor Catherine fell in her blood, cloven to ‘the white halse bane.’ Again the axe
was lifted, by the inexorable shadow, over the head of my brother, who stood next in theline. Alexes had somewhere disappeared behind the ghastly visitant; and, with a scream,
my mother flung the footstool at his head. He vanished, and she awoke.
“This dream left on my mother’s mind a fearful apprehension of impending misfortune,‘which would not pass away.’ It was murder she feared; and her suspicions were notallayed by the discovery that a man (some time before discarded by my father for bad
conduct, and with whom she had, somehow, associated the Death of her dream) had been
lurking about the place, and sleeping in an adjoining outhouse on the night it occurred, andfor some nights previous and subsequent to it. Her terror increased. Sleep forsook her; andevery night, when the house was still, she arose and stole, sometimes with a candle,
sometimes in the dark, from room to room, listening, in a sort of waking nightmare, for thebreathing of the assassin, who, she imagined, was lurking in some one of them. This could
not last. She reasoned with herself; but her terror became intolerable, and she related her
dream to my father, who, of course, called her a fool for her pains, whatever might be hisreal opinion of the matter.
“Three months had elapsed, when we children were all of us seized with scarlet fever.
My sister Catherine died almost immediately—sacrificed, as my mother in her miserythought, to her (my mother’s) over-anxiety for Alexes, whose danger seemed moreimminent. The dream-prophecy was in part fulfilled. I also was at death’s door—given up
by the doctors, but not by my mother: she was confident of my recovery; but for mybrother, who was scarcely considered in danger at all, but on whose head she had seen thevisionary axe impending, her fears were great; for she could not recollect whether the blow
had or had not descended when the spectre vanished. My brother recovered, but relapsed,and barely escaped with life; but Alexes did not. For a year and ten months the poor childlingered, and almost every night I had to sing her asleep—often, I remember, through bittertears, for I knew she was dying, and I loved her the more as she wasted away. I held herlittle hand as she died; I followed her to the grave—the last thing that I have loved on earth.
And the dream was fulfilled.
“Truly and sincerely yours,
J. Noel Paton.”
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The dreaming of coffins and funerals, when a death is impending, must be considered
as examples of this allegorical language. Instances of this kind are extremely numerous.
Not unfrequently the dreamer, as in cases of second-sight, sees either the body in the coffin,
so as to be conscious of who is to die, or else is made aware of it from seeing the funeralprocession at a certain house, or from some other significant circumstance. This faculty,
which has been supposed to belong peculiarly to the highlanders of Scotland, appears to be
fully as well known in Wales and on the continent, especially in Germany.
The language of dreams, however, is not always symbolical. Occasionally, the scene,that is transacting at a distance, or that is to be transacted at some future period, is literally
presented to the sleeper, as things appear to be presented in many cases of second-sight,
and also in clairvoyance; and, since we suppose him (that is, the sleeper) to be in a
temporarily magnetic state, we must conclude that the degree of perspicuity, ortranslucency of the vision, depends on the degree of that state. Nevertheless, there areconsiderable difficulties attending this theory. A great proportion of the prophetic dreams
we hear of are connected with the death of some friend or relative. Some, it is true, regard
unimportant matters, as visits, and so forth; but this is generally, though not exclusively, thecase only with persons who have a constitutional tendency to this kind of dreaming, andwith whom it is frequent; but it is not uncommon for those who have not discovered any
such tendency, to be made aware of a death: and the number of dreams of this description I
meet with is very considerable. Now, it is difficult to conceive what the condition is thatcauses this perception of an approaching death; or why, supposing, as we have suggested
above, that, when the senses sleep, the untrammelled spirit sees, the memory of thisrevelation, if I may so call it, so much more frequently survives than any other, unless,indeed, it be the force of the shock sustained—which shock, it is to be remarked, always
wakes the sleeper; and this may be the reason that, if he fall asleep again, the dream isalmost invariably repeated.
I could fill pages with dreams of this description which have come to my knowledge, or
been recorded by others.
Mr. H⁠——, a gentleman with whom I am acquainted—a man engaged in active
business, and apparently as little likely as any one I ever knew to be troubled with a facultyof this sort—dreamed that he saw a certain friend of his dead. The dream was so likereality, that, although he had no reason whatever to suppose his friend ill, he could notforbear sending in the morning to inquire for him. The answer returned was, that Mr.
A⁠—— was out, and was quite well. The impression, however, was so vivid, that, although
he had nearly three miles to send, Mr. H⁠—— felt that he could not start for Glasgow,
whither business called him, without making another inquiry. This time his friend was athome, and answered for himself, that he was very well, and that somebody must have beenhoaxing H⁠——, and making him believe otherwise. Mr. H⁠—— set out on his journey,
wondering at his own anxiety, but unable to conquer it. He was absent but a few days (Ithink three); and the first news he heard on his return was, that his friend had been seizedwith an attack of inflammation, and was dead.
A German professor lately related to a friend of mine, that, being some distance from
home, he dreamed that his father was dying, and was calling for him. The dream being
repeated, he was so far impressed as to alter his plans, and return home, where he arrived intime to receive his parent’s last breath. He was informed that the dying man had beencalling upon his name repeatedly, in deep anguish at his absence.
A parallel case to this is that of Mr. R⁠—— E⁠—— S⁠——, an accountant in Edinburgh,
and a shrewd man of business, who relates the following circumstance as occurring tohimself. He is a native of Dalkeith, and was residing there, when, being about fifteen yearsof age, he left home on a Saturday, to spend a few days with a friend at Prestonpans. On the
Sunday night he dreamed that his mother was extremely ill, and started out of his sleep
with an impression that he must go to her immediately. He even got out of bed with theintention of doing so, but, reflecting that he had left her quite well, and that it was only a
dream, he returned to bed, and again fell asleep. But the dream returned, and, unable longer
to control his anxiety, he arose, dressed himself in the dark, quitted the house, leaping therailings that surrounded it, and made the best of his way to Dalkeith. On reaching home,which he did before daylight, he tapped at the kitchen-window, and, on gaining admittance,
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seized with an attack of British cholera, and was lying above, extremely ill. She had been
lamenting his absence extremely, and had scarcely ceased crying, “Oh, Ralph, Ralph! whata grief that you are away!” At nine o’clock he was admitted to her room; but she was nolonger in a condition to recognise him, and she died within a day or two.
Instances of this sort are numerous, but it would be tedious to narrate them, especiallyas there is little room for variety in the details. I shall therefore content myself with giving
one or two specimens of each class, confining my examples to such as have beencommunicated to myself, except where any case of particular interest leads me to deviate
from this plan. The frequency of such phenomena may be imagined, when I mention thatthe instances I shall give, with few exceptions, have been collected with little trouble, andwithout seeking beyond my own small circle of acquaintance.
In the family of the above-named gentleman (Mr. R⁠—— E⁠—— S⁠——), there probably
existed a faculty of presentiment; for, in the year 1810, his elder brother being assistantsurgeon on board the “Gorgon,” war-brig, his father dreamed that he was promoted to the“Sparrowhawk,” a ship he had then never heard of—neither had the family received any
intelligence of the young man for several months. He told his dream, and was well laughedat for his pains; but in a few weeks a letter arrived announcing the promotion.
When Lord Burghersh was giving theatrical parties at Florence, a lady (Mrs. M⁠——,
whose presence was very important) excused herself one evening, being in great alarmfrom having dreamed in the night that her sister, in England, was dead, which proved to be
the fact.
Mr. W⁠——, a young man at Glasgow college, not long since dreamed that his aunt in
Russia was dead. He noted the date of his dream on the window-shutter of his chamber. Ina short time the news of the lady’s death arrived. The dates, however, did not accord; but,on mentioning the circumstance to a friend, he was reminded that the adherence of theRussians to the old style reconciled the difference.
A man of business, in Glasgow, lately dreamed that he saw a coffin, on which was
inscribed the name of a friend, with the date of his death. Some time afterward he wassummoned to attend the funeral of that person, who, at the time of the dream, was in good
health, and he was struck with surprise on seeing the plate of the coffin bearing the very
date he had seen in his dream.
A French gentleman, Monsieur de V⁠——, dreamed, some years since, that he saw atomb, on which he read very distinctly, the following date—23d June, 184⁠—; there were,also, some initials, but so much effaced that he could not make them out. He mentioned thecircumstance to his wife; and for some time, they could not help dreading the recurrence ofthe ominous month; but, as year after year passed, and nothing happened, they had ceased
to think of it, when at last the symbol was explained. On the 23d of June, 1846, their only
daughter died at the age of seventeen.
Thus far the instances I have related seem to resolve themselves into cases of simple
clairvoyance, or second sight in sleep, although, in using these words, I am very far frommeaning to imply that I explain the thing, or unveil its mystery. The theory above alluded
to, seems as yet, the only one applicable to the facts, namely, that the senses, being placedin a negative and passive state, the universal sense of the immortal spirit within, which
sees, and hears, and knows, or rather, in one word, perceives, without organs, becomes
more or less free to work unclogged. That the soul is a mirror in which the spirit sees allthings reflected, is a modification of this theory; but I confess I find myself unable to attach
any idea to this latter form of expression. Another view, which I have heard suggested byan eminent person, is, that if it be true, as maintained by Dr. Wigan, and some otherphysiologists, that our brains are double, it is possible that a polarity may exist between thetwo sides, by means of which the negative side may, under certain circumstances, become amirror to the positive. It seems difficult to reconcile this notion with the fact, that theseperceptions occur most frequently when the brain is asleep. How far the sleep is perfect andgeneral, however, we can never know; and of course, when the powers of speech andlocomotion continue to be exercised, we are aware that it is only partial, in a more or lessdegree. In the case of magnetic sleepers, observation shows us, that the auditory nerves arearoused by being addressed, and fall asleep again as soon as they are left undisturbed. In
most cases of natural sleep, the same process, if the voice were heard at all, would disperse
sleep altogether; and it must be remembered that, as Dr. Holland says, sleep is a fluctuating
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condition, varying from one moment to another, and this allowance must be made when
considering magnetic sleep also.
It is by this theory of the duality of the brain, which seems to have many arguments in
its favor, and the alternate sleeping and waking of the two sides, that Dr. Wigan seeks toaccount for the state of double or alternate consciousness above alluded to; and also, forthat strange sensation which most people have experienced, of having witnessed a scene, orheard a conversation, at some indefinite period before, or even in some earlier state ofexistence. He thinks that one half of the brain being in a more active condition than theother, it takes cognizance of the scene first; and that thus the perceptions of the second,
when they take place, appear to be a repetition of some former experiences. I confess thistheory, as regards this latter phenomenon, is to me eminently unsatisfactory, and it isespecially defective in not accounting for one of the most curious particulars connectedwith it, namely, that on these occasions people not only seem to recognise thecircumstances as having been experienced before; but they have, very frequently, an actual
foreknowledge of what will be next said or done.
Now, the explanation of this mystery, I incline to think, may possibly lie in the
hypothesis I have suggested; namely, that in profound, and what appears to us generally tohave been dreamless sleep, we are clear-seers. The map of coming events lies open before
us, the spirit surveys it; but with the awaking of the sensuous organs, this dream-life, with
its aerial excursions, passes away, and we are translated into our other sphere of existence.
But, occasionally, some flash of recollection, some ray of light from this visionary world,in which we have been living, breaks in upon our external objective existence, and we
recognise the locality, the voice, the very words, as being but a reacting of some foregone
scenes of a drama.
The faculty of presentiment, of which everybody must have heard instances, seems tohave some affinity to the phenomenon last referred to. I am acquainted with a lady, inwhom this faculty is in some degree developed, who has evinced it by a consciousness ofthe moment when a death was taking place in her family, or among her connections,although she does not know who it is that has departed. I have heard of several cases ofpeople hurrying home from a presentiment of fire; and Mr. M⁠—— of Calderwood wasonce, when absent from home, seized with such an anxiety about his family, that without
being able in any way to account for it, he felt himself impelled to fly to them and remove
them from the house they were inhabiting; one wing of which fell down immediately
afterward. No notion of such a misfortune had ever before occurred to him, nor was there
any reason whatever to expect it; the accident originating from some defect in thefoundations.
A circumstance, exactly similar to this, is related by Stilling, of Professor Böhm,
teacher of mathematics at Marburg; who being one evening in company, was suddenly
seized with a conviction that he ought to go home. As however, he was very comfortably
taking his tea, and had nothing to do at home, he resisted the admonition; but it returned
with such force that at length he was obliged to yield. On reaching his house, he foundeverything as he had left it; but he now felt himself urged to remove his bed from thecorner in which it stood to another; but as it had always stood there, he resisted thisimpulsion also. However, the resistance was vain, absurd as it seemed, he felt he must do it;
so he summoned the maid, and with her aid, drew the bed to the other side of the room;
after which he felt quite at ease and returned to spend the rest of the evening with his
friends. At ten o’clock the party broke up, and he retired home and went to bed and to
sleep. In the middle of the night, he was awakened by a loud crash, and on looking out, hesaw that a large beam had fallen, bringing part of the ceiling with it, and was lying exactly
on the spot his bed had occupied.
A young servant-girl in this neighborhood, who had been several years in an excellent
situation, where she was much esteemed, was suddenly seized with a presentiment that she
was wanted at home; and, in spite of all representations, she resigned her place, and set out
on her journey thither; where, when she arrived, she found her parents extremely ill, one ofthem mortally, and in the greatest need of her services. No intelligence of their illness had
reached her, nor could she herself in any way account for the impulse. I have heard ofnumerous well-authenticated cases of people escaping drowning from being seized with anunaccountable presentiment of evil when there were no external signs whatever to justify
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the apprehension. The story of Cazotte, as related by La Harpe, is a very remarkableinstance of this sort of faculty; and seems to indicate a power like that possessed byZschokke, who relates, in his autobiography, that frequently while conversing with astranger, the whole circumstances of that person’s previous life were revealed to him, evencomprising details of places and persons. In the case of Cazotte, it was the future that waslaid open to him, and he foretold, to a company of eminent persons, in the year 1788, thefate which awaited each individual, himself included, in consequence of the revolution thencommencing. As this story is already in print, I forbear to relate it.
One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is, that which occurred, notvery long since, on board one of her majesty’s ships, when lying off Portsmouth. The
officers being one day at the mess-table, young Lieutenant P⁠—— suddenly laid down his
knife and fork, pushed away his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from thetable, covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The president of themess, 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
arguments 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.
When any exhibition of this sort of faculty occurs in animals, which is by no means
unfrequent, it is termed instinct; and we look upon it, as what it probably is, only anotherand more rare development of that intuitive knowledge which enables them to seek theirfood, and perform the other functions necessary for the maintenance of their existence andthe continuance of their race. Now, it is remarkable, that the life of an animal is a sort of
dream-life; their ganglionic system is more developed than that of man, and the cerebral
less; and since it is, doubtless, from the greater development of the ganglionic system inwomen that they exhibit more frequent instances of such abnormal phenomena as I am
treating of, than men, we may be, perhaps, justified in considering the faculty ofpresentiment in a human being as a suddenly-awakened instinct; just as in an animal it is anintensified instinct.
Everybody has either witnessed or heard of instances of this sort of presentiment, indogs especially. For the authenticity of the following anecdote I can vouch, the traditions
being very carefully preserved in the family concerned, from whom I have it. In the lastcentury, Mr. P⁠——, a member of this family, who had involved himself in some of thestormy affairs of this northern part of the island, was one day surprised by seeing a favorite
dog, that was lying at his feet, start suddenly up and seize him by the knee, which he pulled—not with violence, but in a manner that indicated a wish that his master should follow
him to the door. The gentleman resisted the invitation for some time, till at length, theperseverance of the animal rousing his curiosity, he yielded, and was thus conducted by thedog into the most sequestered part of a neighboring thicket, where, however, he could see
nothing to account for his dumb friend’s proceeding, who now lay himself down, quitesatisfied, and seemed to wish his master to follow his example, which, determined topursue the adventure and find out, if possible, what was meant, he did. A considerable time
now elapsed before the dog would consent to his master’s going home; but at length hearose and led the way thither, when the first news Mr. P⁠—— heard was, that a party ofsoldiers had been there in quest of him; and he was shown the marks of their spikes, which
had been thrust through the bed-clothes in their search. He fled, and ultimately escaped, hislife being thus preserved by his dog.
Some years ago, at Plymouth, I had a brown spaniel that regularly, with great delight,
accompanied my son and his nurse in their morning’s walk. One day she came to complain
to me that Tiger would not go out with them. Nobody could conceive the reason of sounusual a caprice; and, unfortunately, we did not yield to it, but forced him to go. In lessthan a quarter of an hour he was brought back, so torn to pieces, by a savage dog that had
just come ashore from a foreign vessel, that it was found necessary to shoot him
immediately.

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C H A P T E R V.

66

WARNINGS.

This comparison between the power of presentiment in a human being and the instinctsof an animal, may be offensive to some people; but it must be admitted, that, as far as we
can see, the manifestation is the same, whatever be the cause. Now, the body of an animalmust be informed by an immaterial principle—let us call it soul or spirit, or anything else;
for it is evident that their actions are not the mere result of organization; and all I mean to
imply is, that this faculty of foreseeing must be inherent in intelligent spirit, let it be lodged
in what form of flesh it may; while, with regard to what instinct is, we are, in the
meanwhile, in extreme ignorance, Instinct being a word which, like Imagination,
everybody uses, and nobody understands.
Ennemoser and Schubert believe, that the instinct by which animals seek their food,consists in polarity, but I have met with only two modern theories which pretend to explain
the phenomena of presentiment; the one is, that the person is in a temporarily magnetic
state, and that the presentiment is a kind of clairvoyance. That the faculty, like that ofprophetic dreaming, is constitutional, and chiefly manifested in certain families, is wellestablished; and the very unimportant events, such as visits, and so forth, on which it
frequently exercises itself, forbid us to seek an explanation in a higher source. It seems,
also, to be quite independent of the will of the subject, as it was in the case of Zschokke,
who found himself thus let into the secrets of persons in whom he felt no manner ofinterest, while, where the knowledge might have been of use to him, he could not command
it. The theory of one half of the brain in a negative state, serving as a mirror to the other
half, if admitted at all, may answer as well, or better, for these waking presentiments, thanfor clear-seeing in dreams. But, for my own part, I incline very much to the views of that
school of philosophers who adopt the first and more spiritual theory, which seems to me tooffer fewer difficulties, while, as regards our present nature, and future hopes, it is certainly
more satisfactory. Once admitted that the body is but the temporary dwelling of animmaterial spirit, the machine through which, and by which, in its normal states, the spirit
alone can manifest itself, I can not see any great difficulty in conceiving that, in certain
conditions of that body, their relations may be modified, and that the spirit may perceive,by its own inherent quality, without the aid of its material vehicle; and, as this condition of
the body may arise from causes purely physical, we see at once why the revelations
frequently regard such unimportant events.
Plutarch, in his dialogue between Lamprius and Ammonius, observes, that if thedemons, or protecting spirits, that watch over mankind, are disembodied souls, we ought
not to doubt that those spirits, even when in the flesh, possessed the faculties they now
enjoy, since we have no reason to suppose that any new ones are conferred at the period of
dissolution; for these faculties must be inherent, although temporarily obscured, and weak
and ineffective in their manifestations. As it is not when the sun breaks from behind theclouds that he first begins to shine, so it is not when the soul issues from the body, as froma cloud that envelops it, that it first attains the power of looking into the future.
But the events foreseen are not always unimportant, nor is the mode of thecommunication always of the same nature. I have mentioned above some instances wherein
danger was avoided, and there are many of the same kind recorded in various works; and itis the number of instances of this description, corroborated by the universal agreement of
all somnambulists of a higher order, which has induced a considerable section of theGerman psychologists to adopt the doctrine of guardian spirits—a doctrine which has
prevailed, more or less, in all ages, and has been considered by many theologians to besupported by the Bible. There is in this country, and I believe in France, also, though withmore exceptions, such an extreme aversion to admit the possibility of anything like what iscalled supernatural agency, that the mere avowal of such a persuasion is enough to discredit
one’s understanding with a considerable part of the world, not excepting those who professto believe in the Scriptures. Yet, even apart from this latter authority, I can not see anythinghttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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repugnant to reason in such a belief. As far as we see of nature, there is a continued series
from the lowest to the highest; and what right have we to conclude that we are the last linkof the chain? Why may there not be a gamut of beings? That such should be the case, iscertainly in accordance with all that we see; and that we do not see them, affords, as I havesaid above, not a shadow of argument against their existence; man, immersed in businessand pleasure, living only his sensuous life, is too apt to forget how limited those senses are,how merely designed for a temporary purpose, and how much may exist of which they cantake no cognizance.
The possibility admitted, the chief arguments against the probability of such a
guardianship, are the interference it implies with the free-will of man, on the one hand, andthe rarity of this interference, on the other. With respect to the first matter of free-will, it isa subject of acknowledged difficulty, and beyond the scope of my work. Nobody canhonestly look back upon his past life without feeling perplexed by the question, of how far
he was, or was not, able at the moment to resist certain impulsions, which caused him tocommit wrong or imprudent actions; and it must, I fear, ever remain a quæstio vexata, how
far our virtues and vices depend upon our organization—an organization whose
constitution is beyond our own power, in the first instance, although we may certainly
improve or deteriorate it; but which we must admit, at the same time, to be, in its present
deteriorated form, the ill result of the world’s corruption, and the inherited penalty of thevices of our predecessors, whereby the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation.
There is, as the Scriptures say, but one way to salvation, though there are many toperdition—that is, though there are many wrongs, there is only one right; for truth is one,and our true liberty consists in being free to follow it; for we can not imagine that anybody
seeks his own perdition, and nobody, I conceive, loves vice for its own sake, as others love
virtue, that is, because it is vice: so that, when they follow its dictates, we must conclude
that they are not free, but in bondage, whose ever bond-slave they be, whether of an evil
spirit, or of their own organization; and I think every human being, who looks into himself,
will feel that he is in effect then only free when he is obeying the dictates of virtue; and thatthe language of Scripture, which speaks of sin as a bondage, is not only metaphorically but
literally true.
The warning a person of an impending danger or error implies no constraint; the subjectof the warning is free to take the hint or not, as he pleases; we receive many cautions, bothfrom other people and from our own consciences, which we refuse to benefit by.
With regard to the second objection, it seems to have greater weight; for although the
instances of presentiment are very numerous, taken apart, they are certainly, as far as weknow, still but exceptional cases. But here we must remember that an influence of this sortmight be very continuously, though somewhat remotely, exercised in favor of an individual,
without the occurrence of any instance of so striking a nature as to render the interference
manifest; and certain it is that some people—I have met with several, and very sensible
persons too—have all their lives an intuitive persuasion of such a guardianship existing in
relation to themselves. That in our normal states it was not intended we should holdsensible communion with the invisible world, seems evident; but nature abounds in
exceptions; and there may be conditions regarding both parties, the incorporated and theunincorporated spirit, which may at times bring them into a more intimate relation. No one
who believes that consciousness is to survive the death of the body, can doubt that thereleased spirit will then hold communion with its congeners; it being the fleshly tabernacles
we inhabit which alone disables us from doing so at present. But since the constitutions ofbodies vary exceedingly, not only in different individuals, but in the same individuals at
different times, may we not conceive the possibility of there existing conditions which, bydiminishing the obstructions, render this communion practicable within certain limits? For
there certainly are recorded and authentic instances of presentiments and warnings, thatwith difficulty admit of any other explanation; and that these admonitions are more
frequently received in the state of sleep than of vigilance, rather furnishes an additional
argument in favor of the last hypothesis; for if there be any foundation for the theories
above suggested, it is then that, the sensuous functions being in abeyance and the external
life thereby shut out from us, the spirit would be most susceptible to the operations ofspirit, whether of our deceased friends or of appointed ministers, if such there be. Jung
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Stelling is of opinion that we must decide from the aim and object of the revelation,
whether it be a mere development of the faculty of presentiment, or a case of spiritualintervention; but this would surely be a very erroneous mode of judging, since thepresentiment that foresees a visit may foresee a danger, and show us how to avoid it, as in
the following instance:—
A few years ago, Dr. W⁠——, now residing at Glasgow, dreamed that he received asummons to attend a patient at a place some miles from where he was living; that he started
on horseback; and that, as he was crossing a moor, he saw a bull making furiously at him,
whose horns he only escaped by taking refuge on a spot inaccessible to the animal, where
he waited a long time, till some people, observing his situation, came to his assistance andreleased him. While at breakfast on the following morning, the summons came; and,smiling at the odd coincidence, he started on horseback. He was quite ignorant of the roadhe had to go; but by-and-by he arrived at the moor, which he recognised, and presently thebull appeared, coming full tilt toward him. But his dream had shown him the place ofrefuge, for which he instantly made; and there he spent three or four hours, besieged by the
animal, till the country people set him free. Dr. W⁠—— declares that, but for the dream, heshould not have known in what direction to run for safety.
A butcher named Bone, residing at Holytown, dreamed a few years since that he wasstopped at a particular spot on his way to market, whither he was going on the following
day to purchase cattle, by two men in blue clothes, who cut his throat. He told the dream to
his wife, who laughed at him; but, as it was repeated two or three times and she saw he wasreally alarmed, she advised him to join somebody who was going the same road. He
accordingly listened till he heard a cart passing his door, and then went out and joined theman, telling him the reason for so doing. When they came to the spot, there actually stood
the two men in blue clothes, who, seeing he was not alone, took to their heels and ran.
Now, although the dream was here probably the means of saving Bone’s life, there is no
reason to suppose that this is a case of what is called supernatural intervention. The
phenomenon would be sufficiently accounted for by the admission of the hypothesis I havesuggested, namely, that he was aware of the impending danger in his sleep, and had beenable, from some cause unknown to us, to convey the recollection into his waking state.
I know instances in which, for several mornings previous to the occurrence of acalamity, persons have awakened with a painful sense of misfortune, for which they could
not account, and which was dispersed as soon as they had time to reflect that they had nocause for uneasiness. This is the only kind of presentiment I ever experienced myself; but it
has occurred to me twice, in a very marked and unmistakable manner. As soon as theintellectual life, the life of the brain, and the external world, broke in, the instinctive life
receded, and the intuitive knowledge was obscured. Or, according to Dr. Ennemoser’s
theory, the polar relations changed, and the nerves were busied with conveying sensuous
impressions to the brain, their sensibility or positive state now being transferred from theinternal to the external periphery. It is by the contrary change that Dr. Ennemoser seeks to
explain the insensibility to pain of mesmerized patients.
A circumstance of a similar kind to the above occurred in a well-known family in
Scotland, the Rutherfords of E⁠——. A lady dreamed that her aunt, who resided at somedistance, was murdered by a black servant. Impressed with the liveliness of the vision, she
could not resist going to the house of her relation, where the man she had dreamed of(whom I think she had never before seen) opened the door to her. Upon this, she induced agentleman to watch in the adjoining room during the night; and toward morning, hearing afoot upon the stairs, he opened the door and discovered the black servant carrying up a
coal-scuttle full of coals, for the purpose, as he said, of lighting his mistress’s fire. As thismotive did not seem very probable, the coals were examined, and a knife found hidden
among them, with which, he afterward confessed, he intended to have murdered his
mistress, provided she made any resistance to a design he had formed of robbing her of alarge sum of money which he was aware she had that day received.
The following case has been quoted in several medical works, at least in works writtenby learned doctors, and on that account I should not mention it here, but for the purpose ofremarking on the extraordinary facility with which, while they do not question the fact,
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Mr. D⁠——, of Cumberland, when a youth, came to Edinburgh, for the purpose of
attending college, and was placed under the care of his uncle and aunt, Major and Mrs.
Griffiths, who then resided in the castle. When the fine weather came, the young man wasin the habit of making frequent excursions with others of his own age and pursuits; and one
afternoon he mentioned that they had formed a fishing-party, and had bespoken a boat for
the ensuing day. No objections were made to this plan; but in the middle of the night, Mrs.
Griffiths screamed out, “The boat is sinking!—oh, save them!” Her husband said hesupposed she had been thinking of the fishing-party, but she declared she had never thought
about it at all, and soon fell asleep again. But, ere long, she awoke a second time, cryingout that she “saw the boat sinking!”—“It must have been the remains of the impression
made by the other dream,” she suggested to her husband, “for I have no uneasiness
whatever about the fishing-party.” But on going to sleep once more, her husband was again
disturbed by her cries: “They are gone!” she said, “the boat has sunk!” She now reallybecame alarmed, and, without waiting for morning, she threw on her dressing-gown, andwent to Mr. D⁠——, who was still in bed, and whom with much difficulty she persuaded torelinquish his proposed excursion. He consequently sent his servant to Leith with an
excuse, and the party embarked without him. The day was extremely fine when they put tosea, but some hours afterward a storm arose, in which the boat foundered—nor did any oneof the number survive to tell the tale!
“This dream is easily accounted for,” say the learned gentlemen above alluded to,“from the dread all women have of the water, and the danger that attends boating on thefirth of Forth!” Now, I deny that all women have a dread of the water, and there is not theslightest reason for concluding that Mrs. Griffiths had. At all events, she affirms that she
felt no uneasiness at all about the party, and one might take leave to think that her
testimony upon that subject is of more value than that of persons who never had any
acquaintance with her, and who were not so much as born at the time the circumstanceoccurred, which was in the year 1731. Besides, if Mrs. Griffiths’s dread arose simply from“the dread all women have of the water,” and that its subsequent verification was a mere
coincidence, since women constantly risk their persons for voyages and boating excursions,such dreams should be extremely frequent—the fact of there being any accident impending
or not, having, according to this theory, no relation whatever to the phenomenon. And as
for the danger that attends boating on the firth of Forth, we must naturally suppose that, had
it been considered so imminent, Major Griffiths would have at least endeavored to dissuade
a youth that was placed under his protection from risking his life so imprudently. It would
be equally reasonable to explain away Dr. W⁠——’s dream, by saying that all gentlemen
who have to ride across commons are in great dread of encountering a bull—commons ingeneral being infested by that animal!
Miss D⁠——, a friend of mine, was some time since invited to join a pic-nic excursion
into the country. Two nights before the day fixed for the expedition, she dreamed that thecarriage she was to go in was overturned down a precipice. Impressed with her dream, shedeclined the excursion, confessing her reason, and advising the rest of the party torelinquish their project. They laughed at her, and persisted in their scheme. When,subsequently, she went to inquire how they had spent the day, she found the ladies confinedto their beds from injuries received, the carriage having been overturned down a precipice.
Still, this was only a coincidence!
Another specimen of the haste with which people are willing to dispose of what they do
not understand, is afforded by a case that occurred not many years since in the north of
Scotland, where a murder having been committed, a man came forward, saying that he had
dreamed that the pack of the murdered pedlar was hidden in a certain spot; where, on asearch being made, it was actually found. They at first concluded he was himself theassassin, but the real criminal was afterward discovered; and it being asserted (though I
have been told erroneously) that the two men had passed some time together, since themurder, in a state of intoxication, it was decided that the crime and the place ofconcealment had been communicated to the pretended dreamer—and all who thought
otherwise were laughed at; “for why,” say the rationalists, “should not Providence have soordered the dream as to have prevented the murder altogether?”Who can answer that question, and whither would such a discussion lead us? Moreover,
if this faculty of presentiment be a natural one, though only imperfectly and capriciously
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developed, there may have been no design in the matter: it is an accident, just in the same
sense as an illness is an accident; that is, not without cause, but without a cause that we canpenetrate. If, on the other hand, we have recourse to the intervention of spiritual beings, it
may be answered that we are entirely ignorant of the conditions under which any such
communication is possible; and that we can not therefore come to any conclusions as towhy so much is done, and no more.
But there is another circumstance to be observed in considering the case, which is, thatthe dreamer is said to have passed some days in a state of intoxication. Now, evensupposing this had been true, it is well known that the excitement of the brain caused byintoxication has occasionally produced a very remarkable exaltation of certain faculties. It
is by means of either intoxicating draughts or vapors that the soothsayers of Lapland andSiberia place themselves in a condition to vaticinate; and we have every reason to believethat drugs, producing similar effects, were resorted to by the thaumaturgists of old, and by
the witches of later days, of which I shall have more to say hereafter. But, as a case inpoint, I may here allude to the phenomena exhibited in a late instance of the application ofether, by Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, to a lady who was at the moment undercircumstances not usually found very agreeable. She said that she was amusing herself
delightfully by playing over a set of quadrilles which she had known in her youth, but had
long forgotten them; but she now perfectly remembered them, and had played them over
several times. Here was an instance of the exaltation of a faculty from intoxication, similar
to that of the woman who, in her delirium, spoke a language which she had only heard inher childhood, and of which, in her normal state, she had no recollection.
That the inefficiency of the communication, or presentiment, or whatever it may be, isno argument against the fact of such dreams occurring, I can safely assert, from cases
which have come under my own knowledge. A professional gentleman, whose name would
be a warrant for the truth of whatever he relates, told me the following circumstanceregarding himself. He was, not very long since, at the seaside with his family, and, among
the rest, he had with him one of his sons, a boy about twelve years of age, who was in the
habit of bathing daily, his father accompanying him to the water-side. This had continued
during the whole of their visit, and no idea of danger or accident had ever occurred toanybody. On the day preceding the one appointed for their departure, Mr. H⁠——, thegentleman in question, felt himself after breakfast surprised by an unusual drowsiness,
which, having vainly struggled to overcome, he at length fell asleep in his chair, anddreamed that he was attending his son to the bath as usual, when he suddenly saw the boy
drowning, and that he himself had rushed into the water, dressed as he was, and brought
him ashore. Though he was quite conscious of the dream when he awoke, he attached noimportance to it; he considered it merely a dream—no more; and when, some hours
afterward, the boy came into the room, and said, “Now, papa, it’s time to go—this will be
my last bath”—his morning’s vision did not even recur to him. They walked down to thesea, as usual, and the boy went into the water, while the father stood composedly watching
him from the beach, when suddenly the child lost his footing, a wave had caught him, andthe danger of his being carried away was so imminent, that, without even waiting to takeoff his greatcoat, boots, or hat, Mr. H⁠—— rushed into the water, and was only just in time
to save him.
Here is a case of undoubted authenticity, which I take to be an instance of clear-seeing,or second-sight, in sleep. The spirit, with its intuitive faculty, saw what was impending; thesleeper remembered his dream, but the intellect did not accept the warning; and, whether
that warning was merely a subjective process—the clear-seeing of the spirit—or whether it
was effected by any external agency, the free-will of the person concerned was notinterfered with.
I quote the ensuing similar case from the “Frankfort Journal,” June 25, 1837: “A
singular circumstance is said to be connected with the late attempt on the life of thearchbishop of Autun. The two nights preceding the attack, the prelate dreamed that he saw
a man who was making repeated efforts to take away his life, and he awoke in extreme
terror and agitation from the exertions he had made to escape the danger. The features andappearance of the man were so clearly imprinted on his memory, that he recognised him themoment his eye fell upon him, which happened as he was coming out of church. The
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known his apprehensions. Facts of this description are far from uncommon. It appears thatthe assassin had entertained designs against the lives of the bishops of Dijon, Burgos, andNevers.”
The following case, which occurred a few years since in the north of England, andwhich I have from the best authority, is remarkable from the inexorable fatality whichbrought about the fulfilment of the dream: Mrs. K⁠——, a lady of family and fortune inYorkshire, said to her son, one morning on descending to breakfast: “Henry, what are you
going to do to-day?”“I am going to hunt,” replied the young man.
“I am very glad of it,” she answered. “I should not like you to go shooting, for I
dreamed last night that you did so, and were shot.” The son answered, gayly, that he would
take care not to be shot, and the hunting party rode away; but, in the middle of the day, they
returned, not having found any sport. Mr. B⁠——, a visiter in the house, then proposed thatthey should go out with their guns and try to find some woodcocks. “I will go with you,”returned the young man, “but I must not shoot, to-day, myself; for my mother dreamed lastnight I was shot; and, although it is but a dream, she would be uneasy.”
They went, Mr. B⁠—— with his gun, and Mr. K⁠—— without. But shortly afterward the
beloved son was brought home dead: a charge from the gun of his companion had struck
him in the eye, entered his brain, and killed him on the spot. Mr. B⁠——, the unfortunate
cause of this accident and also the narrator of it, died but a few weeks since.
It is well known that the murder of Mr. Percival, by Bellingham, was seen in sleep by agentleman at York, who actually went to London in consequence of his dream, which wasseveral times repeated. He arrived too late to prevent the calamity; neither would he havebeen believed, had he arrived earlier.
In the year 1461, a merchant was travelling toward Rome by Sienna, when he dreamed
that his throat was cut. He communicated his dream to the innkeeper, who did not like it,
and advised him to pray and confess. He did so, and then rode forth, and was presently
attacked by the priest he had confessed to, who had thus learned his apprehensions. He
killed the merchant, but was betrayed, and disappointed of his gains, by the horse taking
fright and running back to the inn with the money-bags.
I have related this story, though not a new one, on account of its singular resemblance
to the following, which I take from a newspaper paragraph, but which I find mentioned as afact in a continental publication:—“Singular Verification of a Dream.—A letter from Hamburgh contains thefollowing curious story relative to the verification of a dream. It appears that a locksmith’sapprentice, one morning lately, informed his master (Claude Soller) that on the previous
night he dreamed that he had been assassinated on the road to Bergsdorff, a little town at
about two hours’ distance from Hamburgh. 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 one hundred and forty rix dollars, 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 11 o’clock. On arriving at the village ofBillwaerder, about half-way between Hamburgh and Bergsdorff, he recollected his dreamwith 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 toaccompany him for protection across a small wood which lay in his way. The baillie
smiled, and, in obedience to his orders, one of his men set out with the young apprentice.
The next day, the corpse of the latter was conveyed by some peasants to the baillie, alongwith a reaping-hook which had been found by his side, and with which the throat of themurdered youth had been cut. The baillie immediately recognised 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, addingthat the recital of the dream had alone prompted him to commit the horrible act. The
assassin, who is thirty-five years of age, is a native of Billwaerder, and, previously to theperpetration of the murder, had always borne an irreproachable character.”
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The life of the great Harvey was saved by the governor of Dover refusing to allow him
to embark for the continent with his friends. The vessel was lost, with all on board; and thegovernor confessed to him, that he had detained him in consequence of an injunction hehad received in a dream to do so.
There is a very curious circumstance related by Mr. Ward, in his “Illustrations of
Human Life,” regarding the late Sir Evan Nepean, which I believe is perfectly authentic. I
have at least been assured, by persons well acquainted with him, that he himself testified to
its truth.
Being, at the time, secretary to the admiralty, he found himself one night unable tosleep, and urged by an undefinable feeling that he must rise, though it was then only two
o’clock. He accordingly did so, and went into the park, and from that to the home office,which he entered by a private door, of which he had the key. He had no object in doing this;
and, to pass the time, he took up a newspaper that was lying on the table, and there read aparagraph to the effect that a reprieve had been despatched to York, for the men condemnedfor coining.
The question occurred to him, was it indeed despatched? He examined the books andfound it was not; and it was only by the most energetic proceedings that the thing was
carried through, and reached York in time to save the men.
Is not this like the agency of a protecting spirit, urging Sir Evan to this discovery, inorder that these men might be spared, or that those concerned might escape the remorsethey would have suffered for their criminal neglect?
It is a remarkable fact, that somnambules of the highest order believe themselvesattended by a protecting spirit. To those who do not believe, because they have neverwitnessed, the phenomena of somnambulism, or who look upon the disclosures of persons
in that state as the mere raving of hallucination, this authority will necessarily have noweight; but even to such persons the universal coincidence must be considered worthy ofobservation, though it be regarded only as a symptom of disease. I believe I have remarked
elsewhere, that many persons, who have not the least tendency to somnambulism or any
proximate malady, have all their lives an intuitive feeling of such a guardianship; and, notto mention Socrates and the ancients, there are, besides, numerous recorded cases inmodern times, in which persons, not somnambulic, have declared themselves to have seen
and held communication with their spiritual protector.
The case of the girl called Ludwiger, who, in her infancy, had lost her speech and theuse of her limbs, and who was earnestly committed by her mother, when dying, to the careof her elder sisters, is known to many. These young women piously fulfilled their
engagement till the wedding-day of one of them caused them to forget their charge. On
recollecting it, at length, they hastened home, and found the girl, to their amazement, sitting
up in her bed, and she told them that her mother had been there and given her food. She
never spoke again, and soon after died. This circumstance occurred at Dessau, not many
years since, and is, according to Schubert, a perfectly-established fact in that neighborhood.
The girl at no other period of her life exhibited any similar phenomena, nor had she everdisplayed any tendency to spectral illusions.
The wife of a respectable citizen, named Arnold, at Heilbronn, held constantcommunications with her protecting spirit, who warned her of impending dangers,
approaching visiters, and so forth. He was only once visible to her, and it was in the formof an old man; but his presence was felt by others as well as herself, and they were sensiblethat the air was stirred, as by a breath.
Jung Stilling publishes a similar account, which was bequeathed to him by a very
worthy and pious minister of the church. The subject of the guardianship was his own wife,and the spirit first appeared to her after her marriage, in the year 1799, as a child, attired ina white robe, while she was busy in her bed-chamber. She stretched out her hand to takehold of the figure, but it disappeared. It frequently visited her afterward, and in answer to
her inquiries it said, “I died in my childhood!” It came to her at all hours, whether alone orin company, and not only at home, but elsewhere, and even when travelling, assisting her
when in danger; it sometimes floated in the air, spake to her in its own language, whichsomehow, she says, she understood, and could speak, too; and it was once seen by anotherperson. He bade her call him Immanuel. She earnestly begged him to show himself to her
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husband, but he alleged that it would make him ill, and cause his death. On asking him
wherefore, he answered, “Few persons are able to see such things.”
Her two children, one six years old, and the other younger, saw this figure as well as
herself.
Schubert, in his “Geschichte der Seele,” relates that the ecclesiastical councillor
Schwartz, of Heidelberg, when about twelve years of age, and at a time that he waslearning the Greek language, but knew very little about it, dreamed that his grandmother, avery pious woman, to whom he had been much attached, appeared to him, and unfolded aparchment inscribed with Greek characters which foretold the fortunes of his future life. He
read it off with as much facility as if it had been in German, but being dissatisfied withsome particulars of the prediction, he begged they might be changed. His grandmotheranswered him in Greek, whereupon he awoke, remembering the dream, but, in spite of all
the efforts to arrest them, he was unable to recall the particulars the parchment had
contained. The answer of his grandmother, however, he was able to grasp before it had fled
his memory, and he wrote down the words; but the meaning of them he could not discover
without the assistance of his grammar and lexicon. Being interpreted, they proved to bethese: “As it is prophesied to me, so I prophesy to thee!” He had written the words in a
volume of Gessner’s works, being the first thing he laid his hand on; and he often
philosophized on them in later days, when they chanced to meet his eye. How, he says,
should he have been able to read and produce that in his sleep, which, in his waking state,
he would have been quite incapable of? “Even long after, when I left school,” he adds, “I
could scarcely have put together such a sentence; and it is extremely remarkable that thefeminine form was observed in conformity with the sex of the speaker.” The words werethese: αῦτα Χρησμ῾ωδηθεισα Χρησμωδὲω σοι.
Grotius relates, that when Mr. de Saumaise was councillor of the parliament at Dijon, aperson, who knew not a word of Greek, brought him a paper on which was written somewords in that language, but not in the character. He said that a voice had uttered them tohim in the night, and that he had written them down, imitating the sound as well as hecould. Mons de Saumaise made out that the signification of the words was, “Begone! doyou not see that death impends?” Without comprehending what danger was predicted, theperson obeyed the mandate and departed. On that night the house that he had been lodging
in fell to the ground.
The difficulty in these two cases is equally great, apply to it whatever explanation wemay; for even if the admonitions proceeded from some friendly guardian, as we might be
inclined to conclude, it is not easy to conceive why they should have been communicatedin a language the persons did not understand.
After the death of Dante, it was discovered that the thirteenth canto of the “Paradiso”
was missing; great search was made for it, but in vain; and to the regret of everybody
concerned, it was at length concluded that it had either never been written, or had been
destroyed. The quest was therefore given up, and some months had elapsed, when Pietro
Allighieri, his son, dreamed that his father had appeared to him and told him that if heremoved a certain panel near the window of the room in which he had been accustomed towrite, the thirteenth canto would be found. Pietro told his dream, and was laughed at, ofcourse; however, as the canto did not turn up, it was thought as well to examine the spot
indicated in the dream. The panel was removed, and there lay the missing canto behind it;much mildewed, but, fortunately, still legible.
If it be true that the dead do return sometimes to solve our perplexities, here was not an
unworthy occasion for the exercise of such a power. We can imagine the spirit of the greatpoet still clinging to the memory of his august work, immortal as himself—the record of
those high thoughts which can never die.
There are numerous curious accounts extant of persons being awakened by the callingof a voice which announced some impending danger to them. Three boys are sleeping in
the wing of a castle, and the eldest is awakened by what appears to him to be the voice of
his father calling him by name. He rises and hastens to his parent’s chamber, situated inanother part of the building, where he finds his father asleep, who, on being awakened,assures him that he had not called him, and the boy returns to bed. But he is scarcely
asleep, before the circumstance recurs, and he goes again to his father with the same result.
A third time he falls asleep, and a third time he is aroused by the voice, too distinctly heard
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowefor him to doubt his senses; and now, alarmed at he knows not what, he rises and takes his
brothers with him to his father’s chamber; and while they are discussing the singularity of
the circumstance, a crash is heard, and that wing of the castle in which the boys slept falls
to the ground. This incident excited so much attention in Germany that it was recorded in aballad.
It is related by Amyraldus, that Monsieur Calignan, chancellor of Navarre, dreamed
three successive times in one night, at Berne, that a voice called to him and bade him quit
the place, as the plague would soon break out in that town; that, in consequence, heremoved his family, and the result justified his flight.
A German physician relates, that a patient of his told him, that he dreamed repeatedly,
one night, that a voice bade him go to his hop-garden, as there were thieves there. He
resisted the injunction some time, till at length he was told that if he delayed any longer hewould lose all his produce. Thus urged, he went at last, and arrived just in time to see thethieves, loaded with sacks, making away from the opposite side of the hop-ground.
A Madame Von Militz found herself under the necessity of parting with a property
which had long been in her family. When the bargain was concluded, and she waspreparing to remove, she solicited permission of the new proprietor to carry away with hersome little relic as a memento of former days—a request which he uncivilly denied. On oneof the nights that preceded her departure from the home of her ancestors, she dreamed thata voice spoke to her, and bade her go to the cellar and open a certain part of the wall, where
she would find something that nobody would dispute with her. Impressed with her dream,
she sent for a bricklayer, who, after long seeking, discovered a place which appeared lesssolid than the rest. A hole was made, and in a niche was found a goblet, which contained
something that looked like a pot pourri. On shaking out the contents, there lay at the bottom
a small ring, on which was engraven the name Anna Von Militz.
A friend of mine, Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, has some coins that were foundexactly in the same manner. The child of a Mr. Christison, in whose house his father was
lodging, in the year 1781, dreamed that there was a treasure hid in the cellar. Her father had
no faith in the dream; but Mr. Sharpe had the curiosity to have the place dug up, and acopper pot was found, full of coins.
A very singular circumstance was related to me by Mr. J⁠——, as having occurred notlong since to himself. A tonic had been prescribed to him by his physician, for some slightderangement of the system, and as there was no good chemist in the village he inhabited,
he was in the habit of walking to a town about five miles off, to get the bottle filled as
occasion required. One night, that he had been to M⁠—— for this purpose, and had obtained
his last supply, for he was now recovered, and about to discontinue the medicine, a voice
seemed to warn him that some great danger was impending, his life was in jeopardy; thenhe heard, but not with his outward ear, a beautiful prayer. “It was not myself that prayed,”
he said, “the prayer was far beyond anything I am capable of composing—it spoke of me in
the third person, always as he; and supplicated that for the sake of my widowed mother thiscalamity might be averted. My father had been dead some months. I was sensible of all
this, yet I can not say whether I was asleep or awake. When I rose in the morning, thewhole was present to my mind, although I had slept soundly in the interval; I felt, however,as if there was some mitigation of the calamity, though what the danger was with which I
was threatened, I had no notion. When I was dressed, I prepared to take my medicine, but
on lifting the bottle, I fancied that the color was not the same as usual. I looked again, andhesitated, and finally, instead of taking two tablespoonfuls, which was my accustomed
dose, I took but one. Fortunate it was that I did so; the apothecary had made a mistake; thedrug was poison; I was seized with a violent vomiting, and other alarming symptoms, fromwhich I was with difficulty recovered. Had I taken the two spoonfuls, I should, probably,
not have survived to tell the tale.”
The manner in which I happened to obtain these particulars is not uninteresting. I was
spending the evening with Mr. Wordsworth, at Ridal, when he mentioned to me that a
stranger, who had called on him that morning, had quoted two lines from his poem of“Laodamia,” which, he said, to him had a peculiar interest. They were these:—“The invisible world with thee hath sympathized;
Be thy affections raised and solemnized.”
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“I do not know what he alludes to,” said Mr. Wordsworth; “but he gave me to understandthat these lines had a deep meaning for him, and that he had himself been the subject ofsuch a sympathy.”
Upon this, I sought the stranger, whose address the poet gave me, and thus learned theabove particulars from himself. His very natural persuasion was, that the interceding spirit
was his father. He described the prayer as one of earnest anguish.
One of the most remarkable instances of warning that has come to my knowledge, isthat of Mr. M⁠——, of Kingsborough. This gentleman, being on a voyage to America,
dreamed, one night, that a little old man came into his cabin and said, “Get up! Your life isin danger!” Upon which, Mr. M⁠—— awoke; but considering it to be only a dream, he soon
composed himself to sleep again. The dream, however, if such it were, recurred, and the old
man urged him still more strongly to get up directly; but he still persuaded himself it was
only a dream; and after listening a few minutes, and hearing nothing to alarm him, heturned round and addressed himself once more to sleep. But now the old man appeared
again, and angrily bade him rise instantly, and take his gun and ammunition with him, forhe had not a moment to lose. The injunction was now so distinct that Mr. M⁠—— felt hecould no longer resist it; so he hastily dressed himself, took his gun, and ascended to thedeck, where he had scarcely arrived, when the ship struck on a rock, which he and several
others contrived to reach. The place, however, was uninhabited, and but for his gun, theywould never have been able to provide themselves with food till a vessel arrived to theirrelief.
Now these can scarcely be looked upon as instances of clear-seeing, or of second-sightin sleep, which, in Denmark, is called first-seeing, I believe; for in neither case did thesleeper perceive the danger, much less the nature of it. If, therefore, we refuse to attributethem to some external protecting influence, they resolve themselves into cases of vague
presentiment; but it must then be admitted that the mode of the manifestation is very
extraordinary; so extraordinary, indeed, that we fall into fully as great a difficulty as thatoffered by the supposition of a guardian spirit.
An American clergyman told me that an old woman, with whom he was acquainted,
who had two sons, heard a voice say to her in the night, “John’s dead!” This was her eldest
son. Shortly afterward, the news of his death arriving, she said to the person who
communicated the intelligence to her, “If John’s dead, then I know that David is dead, too,for the same voice has since told me so;” and the event proved that the information, whence
ever it came, was correct.
Not many years since, Captain S⁠—— was passing a night at the Manse of Strachur, in
Argyleshire, then occupied by a relation of his own; shortly after he retired, the bedcurtains were opened, and somebody looked in upon him. Supposing it to be some inmateof the house, who was not aware that the bed was occupied, he took no notice of thecircumstance, till it being two or three times repeated, he at length said, “What do you
want? Why do you disturb me in this manner?”“I come,” replied a voice, “to tell you, that this day twelvemonth you will be with yourfather!”After this, Captain S⁠—— was no more disturbed. In the morning, he related thecircumstance to his host, though, being an entire disbeliever in all such phenomena,
without attaching any importance to the warning.
In the natural course of events, and quite irrespective of this visitation, on that day
twelvemonth he was again at the Manse of Strachur, on his way to the north, for which
purpose it was necessary that he should cross the ferry to Craigie. The day was, however,so exceedingly stormy, that his friend begged him not to go; but he pleaded his business,
adding that he was determined not to be withheld from his intention by the ghost, and,
although the minister delayed his departure, by engaging him in a game of backgammon,he at length started up, declaring he could stay no longer. They, therefore, proceeded to thewater, but they found the boat moored to the side of the lake, and the boatman assured themthat it would be impossible to cross. Captain S⁠——, however, insisted, and, as the old man
was firm in his refusal, he became somewhat irritated, and laid his cane lightly across hisshoulders.
“It ill becomes you, sir,” said the ferryman, “to strike an old man like me; but, since
you will have your way, you must; I can not go with you, but my son will; but you will
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never reach the other side; he will be drowned, and you too.”
The boat was then set afloat, and Captain S⁠——, together with his horse and servant,and the ferryman’s son, embarked in it.
The distance was not great, but the storm was tremendous; and, after having with great
difficulty got half way across the lake, it was found impossible to proceed. The danger oftacking was, of course, considerable; but, since they could not advance, there was noalternative but to turn back, and it was resolved to attempt it. The manœuvre, however,failed; the boat capsized, and they were all precipitated into the water.
“You keep hold of the horse—I can swim,” said Captain S⁠—— to his servant, when hesaw what was about to happen.
Being an excellent swimmer, and the distance from the shore inconsiderable, he hoped
to save himself, but he had on a heavy top-coat, with boots and spurs. The coat hecontrived to take off in the water, and then struck out with confidence; but, alas! the coathad got entangled with one of the spurs, and, as he swam, it clung to him, getting heavier
and heavier as it became saturated with water, ever dragging him beneath the stream. He,
however, reached the shore, where his anxious friend still stood watching the event; and, as
the latter bent over him, he was just able to make a gesture with his hand, which seemed tosay, “You see, it was to be!” and then expired.
The boatman was also drowned; but, by the aid of the horse, the servant escaped.
As I do not wish to startle my readers, nor draw too suddenly on their faith, I havecommenced with this class of phenomena, which it must be admitted are sufficiently
strange, and, if true, must also be admitted to be well worthy of attention. No doubt thesecases, and still more those to which I shall next proceed, give a painful shock to thereceived notions of polished and educated society in general—especially in this country,
where the analytical or scientifical psychology of the eighteenth century has almost
superseded the study of synthetic or philosophical psychology. It has become a custom tolook at all the phenomena regarding man in a purely physiological point of view; foralthough it is admitted that he has a mind, and although there is such a science as
metaphysics, the existence of what we call mind is never considered but as connected withthe body. We know that body can exist without mind; for, not to speak of certain living
conditions, the body subsists without mind when the spirit has fled; albeit, without theliving principle it can subsist but for a short period, except under particular circumstances;
but we seem to have forgotten that mind, though dependent upon body as long as theconnection between them continues, can yet subsist without it. There have indeed been
philosophers, purely materialistic, who have denied this, but they are not many; and not
only the whole Christian world, but all who believe in a future state, must perforce admit it;for even those who hold that most unsatisfactory doctrine that there will be neither memory
nor consciousness till a second incorporation takes place, will not deny that the mind,
however in a state of abeyance and unable to manifest itself, must still subsist as aninherent property of man’s immortal part. Even if, as some philosophers believe, the spirit,when freed from the body by death, returns to the Deity and is reabsorbed in the being ofGod, not to become again a separate entity until reincorporated, still what we call mind can
not be disunited from it. And when once we have begun to conceive of mind, andconsequently of perception, as separated from and independent of bodily organs, it will not
be very difficult to apprehend that those bodily organs must circumscribe and limit theview of the spiritual in-dweller, which must otherwise be necessarily perceptive of spirit
like itself, though perhaps unperceptive of material objects and obstructions.
“It is perfectly evident to me,” said Socrates, in his last moments, “that, to see clearly,
we must detach ourselves from the body, and perceive by the soul alone. Not while we live,
but when we die, will that wisdom which we desire and love be first revealed to us; it must
be then, or never, that we shall attain to true understanding and knowledge, since by meansof the body we never can. But if, during life, we would make the nearest approaches
possible to its possession, it must be by divorcing ourselves as much as in us lies from theflesh and its nature.” In their spiritual views and apprehension of the nature of man, howthese old heathens shame us!
The Scriptures teach us that God chose to reveal himself to his people chiefly indreams, and we are entitled to conclude that the reason of this was, that the spirit was thenmore free to the reception of spiritual influences and impressions; and the class of dreams
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Croweto which I next proceed seem to be best explained by this hypothesis. It is also to beremarked that the awe or fear which pervades a mortal at the mere conception of beingbrought into relation with a spirit, has no place in sleep, whether natural or magnetic. Thereis no fear then, no surprise; we seem to meet on an equality—is it not that we meet spirit to
spirit? Is it not that our spirit being then released from the trammels—the dark chamber ofthe flesh—it does enjoy a temporary equality? Is not that true, that some German
psychologist has said—“The magnetic man is a spirit!”
There are numerous instances to be met with of persons receiving information in their
sleep, which either is, or seems to be, communicated by their departed friends. The
approach of danger, the period of the sleeper’s death, or of that of some persons beloved,
has been frequently made known in this form of dream.
Dr. Binns quotes, from Cardanus, the case of Johannes Maria Maurosenus, a Venetian
senator, who, while governor of Dalmatia, saw in a dream one of his brothers, to whom he
was much attached: the brother embraced him and bade him farewell, because he wasgoing into the other world. Maurosenus having followed him a long way weeping, awoke
in tears, and expressed much anxiety respecting this brother. Shortly afterward he received
tidings from Venice that this Domatus, of whom he had dreamed, had died on the night andat the hour of the dream, of a pestilential fever, which had carried him off in three days.
On the night of the 21st of June, in the year 1813, a lady, residing in the north ofEngland, dreamed that her brother, who was then with his regiment in Spain, appeared toher, saying, “Mary, I die this day at Vittoria!”
Vittoria was a town which, previous to the famous battle, was not generally known
even by name in this country, and this dreamer, among others, had never heard of it; but, on
rising, she eagerly resorted to a gazetteer for the purpose of ascertaining if such a place
existed. On finding that it was so, she immediately ordered her horses, and drove to thehouse of a sister, some eight or nine miles off, and her first words on entering the room
were, “Have you heard anything of John?”—“No,” replied the second sister, “but I know
he is dead! He appeared to me last night, in a dream, and told me that he was killed at
Vittoria. I have been looking into the gazetteer and the atlas, and I find there is such aplace, and I am sure that he is dead!” And so it proved: the young man died that day at
Vittoria, and, I believe, on the field of battle. If so, it is worthy of observation that thecommunication was not made till the sisters slept.
A similar case to this is that of Miss D⁠——, of G⁠——, who one night dreamed that she
was walking about the washing-greens, when a figure approached, which she recognised asthat of a beloved brother who was at that time with the British army in America. It
gradually faded away into a kind of anatomy, holding up its hands, through which the light
could be perceived, and asking for clothes to dress a body for the grave. The dreamrecurred more than once in the same night, and, apprehending some misfortune, Miss
D⁠—— noted down the date of the occurrence. In due course of post, the news arrived that
this brother had been killed at the battle of Bunker’s hill. Miss D⁠——, who died only
within the last few years, though unwilling to speak of the circumstance, never refused totestify to it as a fact.
Here, supposing this to be a real apparition, we see an instance of that desire for decent
obsequies so constantly attributed by the ancients to the souls of the dead.
When the German poet Collin died at Vienna, a person named Hartmann, who was his
friend, found himself very much distressed by the loss of a hundred and twenty florins,
which he had paid for the poet, under a promise of reimbursement. As this sum formed alarge portion of his whole possessions, the circumstance was occasioning him considerable
anxiety, when he dreamed one night that his deceased friend appeared to him, and bade him
immediately set two florins on No. 11, on the first calling of the little lottery, or loto, thenabout to be drawn. He was bade to confine his venture to two florins, neither less nor more;
and to communicate this information to nobody. Hartmann availed himself of the hint, andobtained a prize of a hundred and thirty florins.
Since we look upon lotteries, in this country, as an immoral species of gambling, it may
be raised as an objection to this dream, that such intelligence was an unworthy mission fora spirit, supposing the communication to have been actually made by Collin. But, in thefirst place, we have only to do with facts, and not with their propriety or impropriety,according to our notions; and, by-and-by, I shall endeavor to show that such discrepancies
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possibly arise from the very erroneous notions commonly entertained of the state of those
who have disappeared from the terrestrial life.
Simonides the poet, arriving at the seashore with the intention of embarking on board a
vessel on the ensuing day, found an unburied body, which he immediately desired should
be decently interred. On the same night, this deceased person appeared to him, and badehim by no means go to sea, as he had proposed. Simonides obeyed the injunction, andbeheld the vessel founder, as he stood on the shore. He raised a monument on the spot tothe memory of his preserver, which is said still to exist, on which are engraven some lines,
to the effect that it was dedicated by Simonides, the poet of Cheos, in gratitude to the dead
who had preserved him from death.
A much-esteemed secretary died a few years since, in the house of Mr. R⁠—— vonN⁠——. About eight weeks afterward, Mr. R⁠—— himself being ill, his daughter dreamed
that the house-bell rang, and that, on looking out, she perceived the secretary at the door.
Having admitted him, and inquired what he was come for, he answered, “To fetch
somebody.” Upon which, alarmed for her father, she exclaimed, “I hope not my father!” Heshook his head solemnly, in a manner that implied it was not the old man he had come for,and turned away toward a guest-chamber, at that time vacant, and there disappeared at thedoor. The father recovered, and the lady left home for a few days, on a visit. On her return,
she found her brother had arrived in the interval to pay a visit to his parents, and was lying
sick in that room, where he died.
I will here mention a curious circumstance regarding Mr. H⁠——, the gentleman alluded
to in a former page, who, being at the seaside, saw, in a dream, the danger that awaited his
son when he went to bathe. This gentleman has frequently, on waking, felt a consciousness
that he had been conversing with certain persons of his acquaintance—and, indeed, withsome of whom he knew little—and has afterward, not without a feeling of awe, learned thatthese persons had died during the hours of his sleep.
Do not such circumstances entitle us to entertain the idea that I have suggested above,
namely, that in sleep the spirit is free to see, and to know, and to communicate with spirit,
although the memory of this knowledge is rarely carried into the waking state?
The story of the two Arcadians, who travelled together to Megara, though reprinted inother works, I can not omit here. One of these established himself, on the night of theirarrival, at the house of a friend, while the other sought shelter in a public lodging-house forstrangers. During the night, the latter appeared to the former, in a dream, and besought him
to come to his assistance, as his villanous host was about to take his life, and only the most
speedy aid could save him. The dreamer started from his sleep, and his first movement was
to obey the summons, but, reflecting that it was only a dream, he presently lay down, andcomposed himself again to rest. But now his friend appeared before him a second time,
disfigured by blood and wounds, conjuring him, since he had not listened to his first
entreaties, that he would, at least, avenge his death. His host, he said, had murdered him,
and was, at that moment, depositing his body in a dung-cart, for the purpose of conveying it
out of the town. The dreamer was thoroughly alarmed, arose, and hastened to the gates of
the city, where he found, waiting to pass out, exactly such a vehicle as his friend had
described. A search being instituted, the body was found underneath the manure; and thehost was consequently seized, and delivered over to the chastisement of the law.
“Who shall venture to assert,” says Dr. Ennemoser, “that this communing with the deadin sleep is merely a subjective phenomenon, and that the presence of these apparitions is apure illusion?”
A circumstance fully as remarkable as any recorded, occurred at Odessa, in the year
1842. An old blind man, named Michel, had for many years been accustomed to get his
living by seating himself every morning on a beam in one of the timber-yards, with awooden bowl at his feet, into which the passengers cast their alms. This long-continued
practice had made him well known to the inhabitants, and, as he was believed to have been
formerly a soldier, his blindness was attributed to the numerous wounds he had received inbattle. For his own part, he spoke little, and never contradicted this opinion.
One night, Michel, by some accident, fell in with a little girl of ten years old, named
Powleska, who was friendless, and on the verge of perishing with cold and hunger. The old
man took her home, and adopted her; and, from that time, instead of sitting in the timberyards, he went about the streets in her company, asking alms at the doors of the houses. The
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child called him father, and they were extremely happy together. But when they had
pursued this mode of life for about five years, a misfortune befell them. A theft having
been committed in a house which they had visited in the morning, Powleska was suspected
and arrested, and the blind man was left once more alone. But, instead of resuming his
former habits, he now disappeared altogether; and this circumstance causing the suspicion
to extend to him, the girl was brought before the magistrate to be interrogated with regard
to his probable place of concealment.
“Do you know where Michel is?” said the magistrate.
“He is dead!” replied she, shedding a torrent of tears.
As the girl had been shut up for three days, without any means of obtaining informationfrom without, this answer, together with her unfeigned distress, naturally excitedconsiderable surprise.
“Who told you he was dead?” they inquired.
“Nobody!”“Then how can you know it?”“I saw him killed!”“But you have not been out of the prison?”“But I saw it, nevertheless!”“But how was that possible? Explain what you mean!”“I can not. All I can say is, that I saw him killed.”“When was he killed, and how?”“It was the night I was arrested.”“That can not be: he was alive when you were seized!”“Yes, he was; he was killed an hour after that. They stabbed him with a knife.”“Where were you then?”“I can’t tell; but I saw it.”
The confidence with which the girl asserted what seemed to her hearers impossible andabsurd, disposed them to imagine that she was either really insane, or pretending to be so.
So, leaving Michel aside, they proceeded to interrogate her about the robbery, asking her if
she was guilty.
“Oh, no!” she answered.
“Then how came the property to be found about you?”“I don’t know: I saw nothing but the murder.”“But there are no grounds for supposing Michel is dead: his body has not been found.”“It is in the aqueduct.”“And do you know who slew him?”“Yes—it is a woman. Michel was walking very slowly, after I was taken from him. A
woman came behind him with a large kitchen-knife; but he heard her, and turned round:and then the woman flung a piece of gray stuff over his head, and struck him repeatedly
with the knife; the gray stuff was much stained with the blood. Michel fell at the eighthblow, and the woman dragged the body to the aqueduct and let it fall in without ever lifting
the stuff which stuck to his face.”
As it was easy to verify these latter assertions, they despatched people to the spot; andthere the body was found, with the piece of stuff over his head, exactly as she described.
But when they asked her how she knew all this, she could only answer, “I don’t know.”“But you know who killed him?”“Not exactly: it is the same woman that put out his eyes; but, perhaps, he will tell me
her name to-night; and if he does, I will tell it to you.”“Whom do you mean by he?”“Why, Michel, to be sure!”
During the whole of the following night, without allowing her to suspect their intention,
they watched her; and it was observed that she never lay down, but sat upon the bed in asort of lethargic slumber. Her body was quite motionless, except at intervals, when thisrepose was interrupted by violent nervous shocks, which pervaded her whole frame. On theensuing day, the moment she was brought before the judge, she declared that she was now
able to tell them the name of the assassin.
“But stay,” said the magistrate: “did Michel never tell you, when he was alive, how helost his sight?”
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“No—but the morning before I was arrested, he promised me to do so; and that was thecause of his death.”“How could that be?”“Last night, Michel came to me, and he pointed to the man hidden behind thescaffolding on which he and I had been sitting. He showed me the man listening to us,
when he said, ‘I’ll tell you all about that to-night;’ and then the man——”“Do you know the name of this man?”“It is Luck. He went afterward to a broad street that leads down to the harbor, and heentered the third house on the right——”“What is the name of the street?”“I don’t know: but the house is one story lower than the adjoining ones. Luck told
Catherine what he had heard, and she proposed to him to assassinate Michel; but herefused, saying, ‘It was bad enough to have burnt out his eyes fifteen years before, while he
was asleep at your door, and to have kidnapped him into the country.’ Then I went in to ask
charity, and Catherine put a piece of plate into my pocket, that I might be arrested; then she
hid herself behind the aqueduct to wait for Michel, and she killed him.”“But, since you say all this, why did you keep the plate—why didn’t you giveinformation?”“But I didn’t see it then. Michel showed it me last night.”“But what should induce Catherine to do this?”“Michel was her husband, and she had forsaken him to come to Odessa and marryagain. One night, fifteen years ago, she saw Michel, who had come to seek her. She slipped
hastily into her house, and Michel, who thought she had not seen him, lay down at her door
to watch; but he fell asleep, and then Luck burnt out his eyes, and carried him to a
distance.”“And is it Michel who has told you this?”“Yes: he came, very pale, and covered with blood; and he took me by the hand andshowed me all this with his fingers.”
Upon this, Luck and Catherine were arrested; and it was ascertained that she had
actually been married to Michel in the year 1819, at Kherson. They at first denied theaccusation, but Powleska insisted, and they subsequently confessed the crime. When they
communicated the circumstances of the confession to Powleska, she said, “I was told it lastnight.”
This affair naturally excited great interest, and people all round the neighborhood
hastened into the city to learn the sentence.

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CHAPTER VI.

98

DOUBLE-DREAMING AND TRANCE.

Among the phenomena of the dream-life which we have to consider, that of doubledreaming forms a very curious department. A somewhat natural introduction to this subject
may be found in the cases above-recorded, of Professor Herder and Mr. S⁠——, ofEdinburgh, who appear, in their sleep, to have received so lively an impression of thoseearnest wishes of their dying friends to see them, that they found themselves irresistibly
impelled to obey the spiritual summons. These two cases occurred to men engaged in
active daily life, and in normal physical conditions, on which account I particularly refer tothem here, although many similar ones might be adduced.
With respect to this subject of double-dreaming, Dr. Ennemoser thinks that it is not so
difficult to explain as might appear on a first view, since he considers that there exists an
indisputable sympathy between certain organisms, especially where connected byrelationship or by affection, which may be sufficient to account for the supervention ofsimultaneous thoughts, dreams, or presentiments; and I have met with some cases where
the magnetiser and his patient have been the subjects of this phenomenon. With respect tothe power asserted to have been frequently exercised by causing or suggesting dreams byan operator at a distance from the sleeper, Dr. E. considers the two parties to stand in apositive and negative relation to each other; the antagonistic power of the sleeper being = 0,
he becomes a perfectly passive recipient of the influence exerted by his positive half, if I
may use the expression; for, where such a polarity is established, the two beings seem to bealmost blended into one; while Dr. Passavent observes, that we can not pronounce what
may be the limits of the nervous force, which certainly is not bounded by the termination ofits material conductors.
I have yet, myself, met with no instance of dream compelling by a person at a distance;
but Dr. Ennemoser says that Agrippa von Nettesheim asserts that this can assuredly be
done, and also that the abbot Trithemius and others possessed the power. In modern times,
Wesermann, in Dusseldorf, pretended to the same faculty, and affirms that he had
frequently exercised it.
All such phenomena, Dr. Passavent attributes to the interaction of imponderables—orof one universal imponderable under different manifestations—which acts not only within
the organism, but beyond it, independently of all material obstacles; just as a sympathy
appears between one organ and another, unobstructed by the intervening ones; and heinstances the sympathy which exists between the mother and the fœtus, as an example ofthis sort of double life, and standing as midway between the sympathy between two organs
in the same body and that between two separate bodies, each having its own life, and its life
also in and for another, as parts of one whole. The sympathy between a bird and the eggs itsits upon, is of the same kind; many instances having been observed, wherein eggs, takenfrom one bird and placed under another, have produced a brood feathered like the foster
instead of the real parent.
Thus, this vital force may extend dynamically the circle of its influence, till, underfavorable circumstances, it may act on other organisms, making their organs its own.
I need scarcely remind my readers of the extraordinary sympathies manifested by the
Siamese twins, Chang and Eng. I never saw them myself; and, for the benefit of others inthe same situation, I quote the following particulars from Dr. Passavent: “They were united
by a membrane which extended from the breast-bone to the navel; but, in other respects,
were not different from their countrymen in general. They were exceedingly alike, only thatEng was rather the more robust of the two. Their pulsations were not always coincident.
They were active and agile, and fond of bodily exercises; their intellects were welldeveloped, and their tones of voice and accent were precisely the same. As they neverconversed together, they had nearly forgotten their native tongue. If one was addressed,
they both answered. They played some games of skill, but never with each other; as that,they said, would have been like the right hand playing with the left. They read the same
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowebook at the same time, and sang together in unison. In America they had a fever, which ran
precisely a similar course with each. Their hunger, thirst, sleeping, and waking, were alway
coincident, and their tastes and inclinations were identical. Their movements were sosimultaneous, that it was impossible to distinguish with which the impulse had originated;
they appeared to have but one will. The idea of being separated by an operation wasabhorrent to them; and they consider themselves much happier in their duality than are theindividuals who look upon them with pity.”This admirable sympathy, although necessarily in an inferior degree, is generally
manifested, more or less, between all persons twin-born. Dr. Passavent and otherauthorities mention several instances of this kind, in which, although at some distance fromeach other, the same malady appeared simultaneously in both, and ran precisely a similarcourse. A very affecting instance of this sort of sympathy was exhibited, not very long ago,
by a young lady, twin-born, who was suddenly seized with an unaccountable horror,
followed by a strange convulsion, which the doctor, who was hastily called in, said exactly
resembled the struggles and sufferings of a person drowning. In process of time, the news
arrived that her twin-brother, then abroad, had been drowned precisely at that period.
It is probably a link of the same kind that is established between the magnetiser and hispatient, of which, besides those recorded in various works on the subject, some curious
instances have come to my knowledge, such as uncontrollable impulses to go to sleep, or toperform certain actions, in subservience to the will of the distant operator. Mr. W⁠——
W⁠——, a gentleman well known in the north of England, related to me that he had been
cured, by magnetism, of a very distressing malady. During part of the process of curé, after
the rapport had been well established, the operations were carried on while he was at
Malvern, and his magnetiser at Cheltenham, under which circumstances the existence of
this extraordinary dependence was frequently exhibited in a manner that left no possibilityof doubt. On one occasion, I remember that Mr. W⁠—— W⁠—— being in the magnetic
sleep, he suddenly started from his seat, clasping his hands as if startled, and presently
afterward burst into a violent fit of laughter. As, on waking, he could give no account ofthese impulses, his family wrote to the magnetiser to inquire if he had sought to excite any
particular manifestations in his patient, as the sleep had been somewhat disturbed. The
answer was, that no such intention had been entertained, but that the disturbance might
possibly have arisen from one to which he had himself been subjected. “While my mind
was concentrated on you,” said he, “I was suddenly so much startled by a violent knock at
the door, that I actually jumped off my seat, clasping my hands with affright. I had a heartylaugh at my own folly, but am sorry if you were made uncomfortable by it.”I have met with some accounts of a sympathy of this kind existing between young
children and their parents, so that the former have exhibited great distress and terror at the
moment that death or danger have supervened to the latter; but it would require a great
number of instances to establish this particular fact, and separate it from cases of accidental
coincidence. Dr. Passavent, however, admits the phenomena.
I shall return to these mysterious influences by-and-by; but to revert, in the meanwhile,to the subject of double dreams, I will relate one that occurred to two ladies, a mother anddaughter, the latter of whom related it to me. They were sleeping in the same bed at
Cheltenham, when the mother, Mrs. C⁠——, dreamed that her brother-in-law, then in
Ireland, had sent for her; that she entered his room, and saw him in bed, apparently dying.
He requested her to kiss him, but, owing to his livid appearance, she shrank from doing so,
and awoke with the horror of the scene upon her. The daughter awoke at the same moment,saying, “Oh, I have had such a frightful dream!” “Oh, so have I!” returned the mother; “Ihave been dreaming of my brother-in-law!”—“My dream was about him, too,” added MissC⁠——. “I thought I was sitting in the drawing-room, and that he came in wearing a shroud,
trimmed with black ribands, and, approaching me, he said: ‘My dear niece, your motherhas refused to kiss me, but I am sure you will not be so unkind!’ ”
As these ladies were not in habits of regular correspondence with their relative, theyknew that the earliest intelligence likely to reach them, if he were actually dead, would beby means of the Irish papers; and they waited anxiously for the following Wednesday,
which was the day these journals were received in Cheltenham. When that morning arrived,
Miss C⁠—— hastened at an early hour to the reading-room, and there she learned what the
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his decease had taken place on that night. They moreover observed, that neither one nor theother of them had been speaking or thinking of this gentleman for some time previous tothe occurrence of the dreams; nor had they any reason whatever for uneasiness with regard
to him. It is a remarkable peculiarity in this case, that the dream of the daughter appears to
be a continuation of that of the mother. In the one, he is seen alive; in the other, the shroud
and black ribands seem to indicate that he is dead, and he complains of the refusal to givehim a farewell kiss.
One is almost inevitably led here to the conclusion that the thoughts and wishes of thedying man were influencing the sleepers, or that the released spirit was hovering near them.
Pomponius Mela relates, that a certain people in the interior of Africa lay themselves
down to sleep on the graves of their forefathers, and believe the dreams that ensue to be theunerring counsel of the dead.
The following dream, from St. Austin, is quoted by Dr. Binns: Præstantius desired froma certain philosopher the solution of a doubt, which the latter refused to give him; but, on
the following night, the philosopher appeared at his bedside and told him what he desired
to know. On being asked, the next day, why he had chosen that hour for his visit, heanswered: ‘I came not to you truly, but in my dream I appeared to you to do so.’ In thiscase, however, only one of the parties seems to have been asleep, for Præstantius says that
he was awake; and it is perhaps rather an example of another kind of phenomena, similar to
the instance recorded of himself by the late Joseph Wilkins, a dissenting minister, who says
that, being one night asleep, he dreamed that he was travelling to London, and that, as it
would not be much out of his way, he would go by Gloucestershire and call upon his
friends. Accordingly he arrived at his father’s house, but, finding the front door closed, hewent round to the back and there entered. The family, however, being already in bed, heascended the stairs and entered his father’s bed-chamber. Him he found asleep; but to hismother, who was awake, he said, as he walked round to her side of the bed, ‘Mother, I am
going a long journey, and am come to bid you good-by;’ to which she answered, ‘Oh, dearson, thee art dead!’ Though struck with the distinctness of the dream, Mr. Wilkins attached
no importance to it, till, to his surprise, a letter arrived from his father, addressed tohimself, if alive—or, if not, to his surviving friends—begging earnestly for immediate
intelligence, since they were under great apprehensions that their son was either dead, or in
danger of death; for that, on such a night (naming that on which the above dream hadoccurred), he, the father, being asleep, and Mrs. Wilkins awake, she had distinctly heard
somebody try to open the fore door, which being fast, the person had gone round to theback and there entered. She had perfectly recognised the footstep to be that of her son, who
had ascended the stairs, and entering the bed-chamber, had said to her, ‘Mother, I am goinga long journey, and am come to bid you good-by;’ whereupon she had answered, ‘Oh, dearson, thee art dead!’ Much alarmed, she had awakened her husband and related what had
occurred, assuring him that it was not a dream, for that she had not been asleep at all. Mr.
Wilkins mentions that this curious circumstance took place in the year 1754, when he wasliving at Ottery; and that he had frequently discussed the subject with his mother, on whom
the impression made was even stronger than on himself. Neither death nor anything else
remarkable ensued.
A somewhat similar instance to this, which I also quote from Dr. Binns, is that of agentleman who dreamed that he was pushing violently against the door of a certain room,in a house with which he was well acquainted; while the people in that room were, at thesame time, actually alarmed by a violent pushing against the door, which it required theirutmost force effectually to resist. As soon as the attempt to burst open the door had ceased,
the house was searched, but nothing discovered to account for the disturbance.
These examples are extremely curious, and they conduct us by a natural transition toanother department of this mysterious subject.
There must be few persons who have not heard, among their friends and acquaintance,
instances of what is called a wraith; that is, that in the moment of death, a person is seen ina place where bodily he is not. I believe the Scotch use this term also in the same sense as
the Irish word fetch; which is a person’s double seen at some indefinite period previous tohis death, of which such an appearance is generally supposed to be a prognostic. The
Germans express the same thing by the word doppelgänger.
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With respect to the appearance of wraiths, at the moment of death, the instances to be
met with are so numerous and well-authenticated, that I generally find the most skeptical
people unable to deny that some such phenomenon exists, although they evade, without I
think, diminishing the difficulty, by pronouncing it to be of a subjective, and not of an
objective, nature; that is, that the image of the dying person is, by some unknown
operation, presented to the imagination of the seer, without the existence of any real
outstanding figure, from which it is reflected; which reduces such instances so nearly to theclass of mere sensuous illusion, that it seems difficult to draw the distinction. The
distinction these theorists wish to imply, however, is that the latter are purely subjective andself-originating, while the others have an external cause, although not an external visible
object—the image seen being protruded by the imagination of the seer, in consequence ofan unconscious intuition of the death of the person whose wraith is perceived.
Instances of this kind of phenomenon have been common in all ages of the world,
insomuch that Lucretius, who did not believe in the immortality of the soul, and was yet
unable to deny the facts, suggested the strange theory that the superficial surfaces of all
bodies were continually flying off, like the coats of an onion, which accounted for theappearance of wraiths, ghosts, doubles, &c.; and a more modern author, Gaffarillus,
suggests that corrupting bodies send forth vapors, which being compressed by the coldnight air, appear visible to the eye in the forms of men.
It will not be out of place, here, to mention the circumstance recorded in Professor
Gregory’s “Abstract of Baron von Reichenbach’s Researches in Magnetism,” regarding aperson called Billing, who acted in the capacity of amanuensis to the blind poet Pfeffel, atColmar. Having treated of various experiments, by which it was ascertained that certain
sensitive persons were not only able to detect electric influences of which others wereunconscious, but could also perceive, emanating from the wires and magnets, flames whichwere invisible to people in general; “the baron,” according to Dr. Gregory, “proceeded to a
useful application of the results, which is, he says, so much the more welcome, as it utterly
eradicates one of the chief foundations of superstition, that worst enemy to thedevelopment of human enlightenment and liberty. A singular occurrence, which took placeat Colmar, in the garden of the poet Pfeffel, has been made generally known by various
writings. The following are the essential facts. The poet, being blind, had employed ayoung clergyman, of the evangelical church, as amanuensis. Pfeffel, when he walked out,
was supported and led by this young man, whose name was Billing. As they walked in thegarden, at some distance from the town, Pfeffel observed, that as often as they passed overa particular spot, the arm of Billing trembled, and he betrayed uneasiness. On being
questioned, the young man reluctantly confessed, that as often as he passed over that spot,
certain feelings attacked him, which he could not control, and which he knew well, as healways experienced the same, in passing over any place where human bodies lay buried. He
added, that at night, when he came near such places, he saw supernatural appearances.
Pfeffel, with the view of curing the youth of what he looked on as fancy, went that nightwith him to the garden. As they approached the spot in the dark, Billing perceived a feeble
light, and when still nearer, he saw a luminous ghostlike figure floating over the spot. This
he described as a female form, with one arm laid across the body, the other hanging down,
floating in the upright posture, but tranquil, the feet only a hand-breadth or two above thesoil. Pfeffel went alone, as the young man declined to follow him, up to the place where thefigure was said to be, and struck about in all directions with his stick, besides running
actually through the shadow; but the figure was not more affected than a flame would havebeen; the luminous form, according to Billing always returned to its original position after
these experiments. Many things were tried during several months, and numerous
companies of people were brought to the spot, but the matter remained the same, and theghost-seer adhered to his serious assertion, and to the opinion founded on it, that someindividual lay buried there. At last, Pfeffel had the place dug up. At a considerable depth
was found a firm layer of white lime, of the length and breadth of a grave, and of
considerable thickness, and when this had been broken into, there were found the bones ofa human being. It was evident that some one had been buried in the place, and covered witha thick layer of lime (quicklime), as is generally done in times of pestilence, ofearthquakes, and other similar events. The bones were removed, the pit filled up, the lime
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Croweto the place, the phenomena did not return, and the nocturnal spirit had for everdisappeared.
“It is hardly necessary to point out to the reader what view the author takes of this story,
which excited much attention in Germany, because it came from the most truthful man
alive, and theologians and psychologists gave to it sundry terrific meanings. It obviously
falls into the province of chemical action, and thus meets with a simple and clear
explanation from natural and physical causes. A corpse is a field for abundant chemicalchanges, decompositions, fermentation, putrefaction, gasification, and general play ofaffinities. A stratum of quicklime, in a narrow pit, unites its powerful affinities to those of
the organic matters, and gives rise to a long-continued working of the whole. Rain-water
filters through and contributes to the action: the lime on the outside of the mass first falls toa fine powder, and afterward, with more water, forms lumps which are very slowly
penetrated by the air. Slaked lime prepared for building, but not used, on account of somecause connected with a warlike state of society some centuries since, has been found in
subterraneous holes or pits, in the ruins of old castles; and the mass, except on the outside,
was so unaltered that it has been used for modern buildings. It is evident, therefore, that insuch circumstances there must be a very slow and long-continued chemical action, partly
owing to the slow penetration of the mass of lime by the external carbonic acid, partly tothe change going on in the remains of animal matter, at all events as long as any is left. In
the above case, this must have gone on in Pfeffel’s garden, and, as we know that chemicalaction is invariably associated with light, visible to the sensitive, this must have been theorigin of the luminous appearance, which again must have continued until the mutual
affinities of the organic remains, the lime, the air, and water, had finally come to a state ofchemical rest or equilibrium. As soon, therefore, as a sensitive person, although otherwisequite healthy, came that way, and entered into the sphere of the force in action, he must
feel, by day, like Mdlle. Maix, the sensations so often described, and see by night, like
Mdlle. Reichel, the luminous appearance. Ignorance, fear, and superstition, would dress up
the feebly shining, vaporous light into a human form, and furnish it with human limbs andmembers; just as we can at pleasure fancy every cloud in the sky to represent a man or ademon.
“The wish to strike a fatal blow at the monster superstition, which, at no distant period,
poured out upon European society from a similar source, such inexpressible misery, when,in trials for witchcraft, not hundreds, not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of innocent
human beings perished miserably, either on the scaffold, at the stake, or by the effects of
torture—this desire induced the author to try the experiment of bringing, if possible, ahighly-sensitive patient by night to a churchyard. It appeared possible that such a person
might see, over graves in which mouldering bodies lie, something similar to that which
Billing had seen. Mdlle. Reichel had the courage, rare in her sex, to gratify this wish of theauthor. 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 neighboring churchyardof Grunzing. The result justified his anticipation in the most beautiful manner. She verysoon 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 the second grave. But she saw neither
witches nor ghosts; she described the fiery appearances as a shining vapor, one to twospans high, extending as far as the grave, and floating near its surface. Some time afterward
she was taken to two large cemeteries near Vienna, where several burials occur daily, andgraves 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 wasmost vivid over the newest graves, while in 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 flames were four feet high, sothat 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.
“Many ghost-stories will now find their natural explanation. We can also see that it was
not altogether erroneous, when old women declared that all had not the gift to see thedeparted wandering about their graves; for it must have always been the sensitive alone
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who were able to perceive the light given out by the chemical action going on in the corpse.
The author has thus, he hopes, succeeded in tearing down one of the most impenetrable
barriers erected by dark ignorance and superstitious folly against the progress of natural
truth.”“(The reader will at once apply the above most remarkable experiments to the
explanation of corpse-lights in churchyards, which were often visible to the gifted alone—to those who had the second-sight, for example. Many nervous or hysterical females must
often have been alarmed by white, faintly-luminous objects in dark churchyards, to which
objects fear has given a defined form. In this, as well as in numerous other points, which
will force themselves on the attention of the careful reader of both works, Baron
Reichenbach’s experiments illustrate the experiences of the Seeress of Prevorst.—W.
G.)”[1]That the flames here described may have originated in chemical action, is an opinion I
have no intention of disputing; the fact may possibly be so; such a phenomenon has
frequently been observed hovering over coffins and decomposing flesh: but I confess I can
not perceive the slightest grounds for the assertion that it was the ignorance, fear, andsuperstition, of Billing, who was an evangelical clergyman, that caused him to dress up thisvaporous light in a human form and supply it with members, &c. In the first place, I see no
proof adduced that Billing was either ignorant or superstitious, or even afraid—the feelings
he complained of appearing to be rather physical than moral; and it must be a weak person
indeed, who, in company with another, could be excited to such a freak of the imagination.
It is easily comprehensible that that which appeared only a luminous vapor by day, might,
when reflected on a darker atmosphere, present a defined form; and the suggestion of thispossibility might lead to some curious speculations with regard to a mystery called thepalinganesia, said to have been practised by some of the chemists and alchemists of thesixteenth century.
Gaffarillus, in his book, entitled “Curiosités Inouies,” published in 1650, when
speaking on the subject of talismans, signatures, &c., observes that, since in many instances
the plants used for these purposes were reduced to ashes, and no longer retained their form,
their efficacy, which depended on their figure, should inevitably be destroyed; but this, hesays, is not the case, since, by an admirable potency existing in nature, the form, thoughinvisible, is still retained in the ashes. This, he observes, may appear strange to those whohave never attended to the subject; but he asserts that an account of the experiment will befound in the works of Mr. Du Chesne, one of the best chemists of the period, who had beenshown, by a Polish physician at Cracow, certain vials containing ashes, which, when duly
heated, exhibited the forms of various plants. A small obscure cloud was first observed,
which gradually took on a defined form, and presented to the eye a rose, or whatever plantor flower the ashes consisted of. Mr. Du Chesne, however, had never been able to repeat
the experiment, though he had made several unsuccessful attempts to do so; but at length
he succeeded, by accident, in the following manner: Having for some purpose extracted thesalts from some burnt nettles, and having left the ley outside the house all night, to cool, inthe morning he found it frozen; and, to his surprise, the form and figure of the nettles wereso exactly represented on the ice, that the living plant could not be more perfect. Delighted
at this discovery, he summoned Mr. De Luynes, parliamentary councillor, to behold thiscuriosity; whence, he says, they both concluded that, when a body dies, its form or figure
still resides in its ashes.
Kircher, Vallemont, Digby, and others, are said to have practised this art of resuscitating
the forms of plants from their ashes and at the meeting of naturalists at Stuttgard, in 1834, a
Swiss savant seems to have revived the subject, and given a receipt for the experiment,
extracted from a work by Oetinger, called “Thoughts on the Birth and Generation ofThings.”—“The earthly husk,” says Oetinger, “remains in the retort, while the volatileessence ascends, like a spirit, perfect in form, but void of substance.”
But Oetinger also records another discovery of this description, which, he says, he fell
upon unawares. A woman having brought him a large bunch of balm, he laid it under thetiles, which were yet warm with the summer’s heat, where it dried in the shade. But, it
being in the month of September, the cold soon came, and contracted the leaves, without
expelling the volatile salts. They lay there till the following June, when he chopped up thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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afterward heated it till the water boiled, and then increased the heat—whereupon there
appeared on the water a coat of yellow oil, about the thickness of the back of a knife, andthis oil shaped itself into the forms of innumerable balm-leaves, which did not run one intoanother, but remained perfectly distinct and defined, and exhibited all the marks that are
seen in the leaves of the plant. Oetinger says he kept the fluid some time, and showed it to anumber of people. At length, wishing to throw it away, he shook it, and the leaves ran into
one another with the disturbance of the oil, but resumed their distinct shape again as soon
as it was at rest, the fluid form retaining the perfect signature.
Now, how far these experiments are really practicable, I can not say; their not being
repeated, or not being repeated successfully, is no very decided argument against their
possibility, as all persons acquainted with the annals of chemistry well know; but there iscertainly a curious coincidence between these details and the experience of Billing, where
it is to be observed that, according to his account—and what right have we to dispute it?—the figure, after being disturbed by Pfeffel, always resumed its original form. The same
peculiarity has been observed with respect to some apparitions, where the spectator has
been bold enough to try the experiment. In a letter to Dr. Bentley, from the Rev. Thomas
Wilkins, curate of Warblington, in Hampshire, written in the year 1695, wherein he gives
an account of an apparition which haunted the parsonage-house, and which he himself andseveral other persons had seen, he particularly mentions that, thinking it might be somefellow hid in the room, he put his arm out to feel it, and his hand seemingly went throughthe body of it, and felt no manner of substance, until it reached the wall. “Then I drew backmy hand, but still the apparition was in the same place.”
Yet this spectre did not appear above or near a grave, but moved from place to place,and gave considerable annoyance to the inhabitants of the rectory.
With respect to the lights over the graves, sufficing to account for the persuasion
regarding what are called corpse-candles, they certainly, up to a certain point, afford a verysatisfactory explanation, but that explanation does not comprehend the whole of themystery; for most of those persons who have professed to see corpse-candles, have also
asserted that they were not always stationary over the graves, but sometimes moved fromplace to place, as in the following instance, related to me by a gentleman who assured methat he received the account from the person who witnessed the phenomenon. Now, thislast fact—I mean the locomotion of the lights—will, of course, be disputed; but so wastheir existence: yet they exist, for all that, and may travel from place to place, for anything
we know to the contrary.
The story related to me, or a similar instance, is, I think, mentioned by Mrs. Grant; but
it was to the effect that a minister, newly inducted in his curé, was standing one evening
leaning over the wall of the churchyard which adjoined the manse, when he observed alight hovering over a particular spot. Supposing it to be somebody with a lantern, he
opened the wicket and went forward to ascertain who it might be; but before he reached thespot, the light moved onward; and he followed, but could see nobody. It did not rise far
from the ground, but advanced rapidly across the road, entered a wood, and ascended a hill,till it at length disappeared at the door of a farmhouse. Unable to comprehend of whatnature this light could be, the minister was deliberating whether to make inquiries at thehouse or return, when it appeared again, seeming to come out of the house, accompanied
by another, passed him, and, going over the same ground, they both disappeared on the spot
where he had first observed the phenomenon. He left a mark on the grave by which hemight recognise it, and the next day inquired of the sexton whose it was. The man said it
belonged to a family that lived up the hill (indicating the house the light had stopped at),named M’D⁠——, but that it was a considerable time since any one had been buried there.
The minister was extremely surprised to learn, in the course of the day, that a child of thatfamily had died of scarlet fever on the preceding evening.
With respect to the class of phenomena accompanied by this phosphorescent light, I
shall have more to say by-and-by. The above will appear a very incredible story to many
people, and there was a time that it would have appeared equally so to myself; but I have
met with so much strange corroborative evidence, that I no longer feel myself entitled toreject it. I asked the gentleman who told me the story, whether he believed it; he said thathe could not believe in anything of the sort. I then inquired if he would accept thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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testimony of that minister on any other question, and he answered, “Most assuredly.” As,however, I shall have occasion to recur to this subject in a subsequent chapter, I will leave
it aside for the present, and relate some of the facts which led me to the consideration of theabove theories and experiments.
Dr. S⁠—— relates that a Madame T⁠——, in Prussia, dreamed, on the 16th of March,
1832, that the door opened, and her god-father, Mr. D⁠——, who was much attached to her,entered the room, dressed as he usually was when prepared for church on Sundays; andthat, knowing him to be in bad health, she asked him what he was doing abroad at such an
early hour, and whether he was quite well again. Whereupon, he answered that he was; and,being about to undertake a very long journey, he had come to bid her farewell, and to
intrust her with a commission, which was, that she would deliver a letter he had written to
his wife; but accompanying it with an injunction that she (the wife) was not to open it tillthat day four years, when he would return himself, precisely at five o’clock in the morning,
to fetch the answer, till which period he charged her not to break the seal. He then handed
her a letter, sealed with black, the writing on which shone through the paper, so that she(the dreamer) was able to perceive that it contained an announcement to Mrs. D⁠——, thewife, with whom, on account of the levity of her character, he had long lived unhappily,that she would die at that time four years.
At this moment, the sleeper was awakened by what appeared to her a pressure of thehand; and, feeling an entire conviction that this was something more than an ordinary
dream, she was not surprised to learn that her god-father was dead. She related the dream to
Madame D⁠——, omitting, however, to mention the announcement contained in the letter,
which she thought the dream plainly indicated was not to be communicated. The widow
laughed at the story, soon resumed her gay life, and married again. In the winter of 1835-’6,
however, she was attacked by an intermittent fever, on which occasion Dr. S⁠—— wassummoned to attend her. After various vicissitudes, she finally sunk; and, on the 16th ofMarch, 1836, exactly at five o’clock in the morning, she suddenly started up in her bed,
and, fixing her eyes apparently on some one she saw standing at the foot, she exclaimed:“What are you come for? God be gracious to me! I never believed it!” She then sank back,closed her eyes, which she never opened again, and, in a quarter of an hour afterward,
expired very calmly.
A friend of mine, Mrs. M⁠——, a native of the West Indies, was at Blair Logie at theperiod of the death of Dr. Abercrombie, in Edinburgh, with whom she was extremely
intimate. Dr. A. died quite suddenly, without any previous indisposition, just as he wasabout to go out in his carriage, at 11 o’clock on a Thursday morning. On the night between
the Thursday and Friday, Mrs. M⁠—— dreamed that she saw the family of Dr. A. all dressedin white, dancing a solemn funereal dance; upon which she awoke, wondering that sheshould have dreamed a thing so incongruous, since it was contrary to their custom to danceon any occasion. Immediately afterward, while speaking to her maid who had come to callher, she saw Dr. Abercrombie against the wall, with his jaw fallen, and a livid countenance,
mournfully shaking his head as he looked at her. She passed the day in great uneasiness,
and wrote to inquire for the doctor, relating what had happened, and expressing her
certainty that he was dead; the letter was seen by several persons in Edinburgh on the dayof its arrival.
The two following cases seem rather to belong to what is called, in the east, second
hearing,—although sympathy was probably the exciting cause of the phenomena. A lady
and gentleman in Berwickshire were awakened one night by a loud cry, which they both
immediately recognised to proceed from the voice of their son, who was then absent and at
a considerable distance. Tidings subsequently reached them, that exactly at that period theirson had fallen overboard and was drowned. On another occasion, in Perthshire, a person
aroused her husband one night, saying that their son was drowned, for she had been
awakened by the splash. Her presentiment also proved too well founded, the young man
having fallen from the mast-head of the ship. In both cases, we may naturally conclude thatthe thoughts of the young men, at the moment of the accident, would rush homeward; and,admitting Dr. Ennemoser’s theory of polarity, the passive sleepers became the recipients ofthe force. I confess, however, that the opinions of another section of philosophers appear to
me to be more germain to the matter; although, to many persons, they will doubtless bedifficult of acceptance, from their appertaining to those views commonly called mystical.
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These psychologists then believe, as did Socrates and Plato, and others of the ancients,that in certain conditions of the body, which conditions may arise naturally, or be produced
artificially, the links which unite it with the spirit may be more or less loosened; and thatthe latter may thus be temporarily disjoined from the former, and so enjoy a foretaste of its
future destiny. In the lowest or first degree of this disunion, we are awake, though scarcely
conscious, while the imagination is vivified to an extraordinary amount, and our fancy
supplies images almost as lively as the realities. This probably is the temporary conditionof inspired poets and eminent discoverers.
Sleep is considered another stage of this disjunction; and the question has ever beenraised whether, when the body is in profound sleep, the spirit is not altogether free andliving in another world, while the organic life proceeds as usual, and sustains the temple till
the return of its inhabitant. Without at present attempting to support or refute this doctrine,
I will only observe, that once admitting the possibility of the disunion, all consideration oftime must be set aside as irrelevant to the question; for spirit, freed from matter, must movewith the rapidity of thought;—in short, a spirit must be where its thoughts and affectionsare.
It is the opinion of these psychologists, however, that in the normal and healthy
condition of man, the union of body, soul, and spirit, is most complete, and that all the
degrees of disunion in the waking state are degrees of morbid derangement. Hence it is thatsomnambulists and clairvoyants are chiefly to be found among sickly women. There havebeen persons who have appeared to possess a power which they could exert at will,
whereby they withdrew from their bodies, these remaining during the absence of the spirit
in a state of catalepsy, scarcely if at all to be distinguished from death.
I say withdrew from their bodies, assuming that to be the explanation of the mystery;for, of course, it is but an assumption. Epimenides is recorded to have possessed thisfaculty; and Hermotinus, of Clazomenes, is said to have wandered, in spirit, over the world,
while his body lay apparently dead. At length his wife, taking advantage of this absence of
his soul, burned his body and thus intercepted its return: so say Lucien and Pliny the elder;—and Varro relates, that the eldest of two brothers, named Corfidius, being supposed todie, his will was opened and preparations were made for his funeral by the other brother,
who was declared his heir. In the meantime, however, Corfidius revived, and told theastonished attendants, whom he summoned by clapping his hands, that he had just comefrom his younger brother, who had committed his daughter to his care, and informed him
where he had buried some gold, requesting that the funeral preparations he had made might
be converted to his own use. Immediately afterward, the news arrived that the younger
brother was unexpectedly deceased, and the gold was found at the place indicated. The lastappears to have been a case of natural trance; but the two most remarkable instances ofvoluntary trance I have met with in modern times is that of Colonel Townshend, and thedervish who allowed himself to be buried. With regard to the former, he could, to allappearance, die whenever he pleased; his heart ceased to beat; there was no perceptible
respiration; and his whole frame became cold and rigid as death itself; the features being
shrunk and colorless, and the eyes glazed and ghastly. He would continue in this state forseveral hours and then gradually revive; but the revival does not appear to have been aneffort of will—or rather, we are not informed whether it was so or not. Neither are we told
whether he brought any recollections back with him, nor how this strange faculty was firstdeveloped or discovered—all very important points, and well worthy of investigation.[2]With respect to the dervish, or fakeer, an account of his singular faculty was, I believe,
first presented to the public in the Calcutta papers about nine or ten years ago. He had thenfrequently exhibited it for the satisfaction of the natives; but subsequently he was put to theproof by some of the European officers and residents. Captain Wade, political agent at
Loodhiana, was present when he was disinterred, ten months after he had been buried byGeneral Ventura, in presence of the maharajah and many of his principal sirdars.
It appears that the man previously prepared himself by some processes, which, he says,
temporarily annihilate the powers of digestion, so that milk received into the stomach
undergoes no change. He next forces all the breath in his body into his brain, whichbecomes very hot, upon which the lungs collapse, and the heart ceases to beat. He thenstops up, with wax, every aperture of the body through which air could enter, except thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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mouth, but the tongue is so turned back as to close the gullet, upon which a state ofinsensibility ensues. He is then stripped and put into a linen bag; and, on the occasion inquestion, this bag was sealed with Runjeet Sing’s own seal. It was then placed in a dealbox, which was also locked and sealed, and the box being buried in a vault, the earth wasthrown over it and trod down, after which a crop of barley was sown on the spot, andsentries placed to watch it. The maharajah, however, was so skeptical, that, in spite of allthese precautions, he had him, twice in the course of the ten months, dug up and examined,
and each time he was found to be exactly in the same state as when they had shut him up.
When he is disinterred, the first step toward his recovery is to turn back his tongue,
which is found quite stiff, and requires for some time to be retained in its proper positionby the finger; warm water is poured upon him, and his eyes and lips moistened with ghee,or oil. His recovery is much more rapid than might be expected, and he is soon able torecognise the bystanders, and converse. He says, that, during this state of trance, his dreams
are ravishing, and that it is very painful to be awakened; but I do not know that he has everdisclosed any of his experiences. His only apprehension seems to be, lest he should be
attacked by insects, to avoid which accident the box is slung to the ceiling. The interval
seems to be passed in a complete state of hibernation; and when he is taken up, no pulse isperceptible, and his eyes are glazed like those of a corpse.
He subsequently refused to submit to the conditions proposed by some English officers,
and thus incurred their suspicions, that the whole thing was an imposition; but theexperiment has been too often repeated by people very well capable of judging, and under
too stringent precautions, to allow of this mode of escaping the difficulty. The man assumes
to be holy, and is very probably a worthless fellow, but that does not affect the question one
way or the other. Indian princes do not permit themselves to be imposed on with impunity;
and, as Runjeet Sing would not value the man’s life at a pin’s point, he would neglect nomeans of debarring him all access to food or air.
In the above-quoted cases, except in those of Corfidius and Hermotinus, the absence ofthe spirit is alone suggested to the spectator by the condition of the body; since the memoryof one state does not appear to have been carried into the other—if the spirit wandered into
other regions it brings no tidings back; but we have many cases recorded where thisdeficient evidence seems to be supplied. The magicians and soothsayers of the northerncountries, by narcotics, and other means, produce a cataleptic state of the body, resembling
death, when their prophetic faculty is to be exercised; and although we know that an alloyof imposition is generally mixed up with these exhibitions, still it is past a doubt, that astate of what we call clear-seeing is thus induced; and that on awaking, they bring tidings
from various parts of the world of actions then performing and events occurring, which
subsequent investigations have verified.
One of the most remarkable cases of this kind, is that recorded by Jung Stilling, of aman, who about the year 1740, resided in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, in the UnitedStates. His habits were retired, and he spoke little; he was grave, benevolent, and pious, andnothing was known against his character, except that he had the reputation of possessing
some secrets that were not altogether lawful. Many extraordinary stories were told of him,
and among the rest, the following: The wife of a ship-captain, whose husband was on avoyage to Europe and Africa, and from whom she had been long without tidings,
overwhelmed with anxiety for his safety, was induced to address herself to this person.
Having listened to her story, he begged her to excuse him for awhile, when he would bringher the intelligence she required. He then passed into an inner room, and she sat herself
down to wait; but his absence continuing longer than she expected, she became impatient,
thinking he had forgotten her; and so softly approaching the door, she peeped through someaperture, and to her surprise, beheld him lying on a sofa, as motionless as if he was dead.
She of course, did not think it advisable to disturb him, but waited his return, when he told
her that her husband had not been able to write to her for such and such reasons; but that hewas then in a coffeehouse in London, and would shortly be home again. Accordingly, hearrived, and as the lady learned from him that the causes of his unusual silence had been
precisely those alleged by the man, she felt extremely desirous of ascertaining the truth of
the rest of the information; and in this she was gratified; for he no sooner set his eyes on themagician than he said that he had seen him before, on a certain day, in a coffeehouse in
London; and that he had told him his wife was extremely uneasy about him; and that he,https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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the captain, had thereon mentioned how he had been prevented writing; adding that he wason the eve of embarking for America. He had then lost sight of the stranger among thethrong, and knew nothing more about him.
I have no authority for this story, but that of Jung Stilling; and if it stood alone, it might
appear very incredible; but it is supported by so many parallel examples of information
given by people in somnambulic states, that we are not entitled to reject it on the score of
impossibility.
The late Mr. John Holloway, of the bank of England, brother to the engraver of that
name, related of himself that being one night in bed with his wife and unable to sleep, he
had fixed his eyes and thoughts with uncommon intensity on a beautiful star that wasshining in at the window, when he suddenly found his spirit released from his body andsoaring into that bright sphere. But, instantly seized with anxiety for the anguish of his
wife, if she discovered his body apparently dead beside her, he returned, and re-entered itwith difficulty (hence, perhaps, the violent convulsions with which some somnambules of
the highest order are awakened). He described that returning, was returning to darkness;and that while the spirit was free, he was alternately in the light or the dark, accordingly as
his thoughts were with his wife or with the star. He said that he always avoided anythingthat could produce a repetition of this accident, the consequences of it being very
distressing.
We know that by intense contemplation of this sort, the dervishes produce a state of
ecstasy, in which they pretend to be transported to other spheres; and not only the seeress of
Prevorst, but many other persons in a highly magnetic state, have asserted the same thing ofthemselves; and certainly the singular conformity of the intelligence they bring is not alittle remarkable.
Dr. Kerner relates of his somnambule, Frederica Hauffe, that one day, at Weinsberg, she
exclaimed in her sleep, “Oh! God!” She immediately awoke, as if aroused by theexclamation, and said that she seemed to have heard two voices proceeding from herself.
At this time her father was lying dead in his coffin, at Oberstenfeld, and Dr. Fohr, thephysician, who had attended him in his illness, was sitting with another person in an
adjoining room, with the door open, when he heard the exclamation “Oh, God!” so
distinctly, that, feeling certain there was nobody there, he hastened to the coffin, whence
the sound had appeared to proceed, thinking that Mr. W⁠——’s death had only been
apparent, and that he was reviving. The other person, who was an uncle of Frederica, had
heard nothing. No person was discovered from whom the exclamation could haveproceeded, and the circumstance remained a mystery till an explanation ensued. Plutarchrelates, that a certain man, called Thespesius, having fallen from a great height, was taken
up apparently dead from the shock, although no external wound was to be discovered. On
the third day after the accident, however, when they were about to bury him, he
unexpectedly revived; and it was afterward observed, to the surprise of all who knew him,
that, from being a vicious reprobate, he became one of the most virtuous of men. On being
interrogated with respect to the cause of the change, he related that, during the period of hisbodily insensibility, it appeared to him that he was dead, and that he had been first plunged
into the depths of an ocean, out of which however, he soon emerged, and then, at one view,
the whole of space was disclosed to him. Everything appeared in a different aspect, and thedimensions of the planetary bodies, and the intervals between them, were tremendous,
while his spirit seemed to float in a sea of light, like a ship in calm waters. He also
described many other things that he had seen. He said that the souls of the dead, on quitting
the body, appeared like a bubble of light, out of which a human form was quickly evolved.
That of these, some shot away at once in a direct line, with great rapidity, while others, on
the contrary, seemed unable to find their due course, and continued to hover about, going
hither and thither, till at length they also darted away in one direction or another. He
recognised few of these persons he saw, but those whom he did, and sought to address,
appeared as if they were stunned and amazed, and avoided him with terror. Their voices
were indistinct, and seemed to be uttering vague lamentings. There were others, also, who
floated farther from the earth, who looked bright, and were gracious; these avoided theapproach of the last. In short, the demeanor and appearance of these spirits manifested
clearly their degrees of joy or grief. Thespesius was then informed by one of them, that hewas not dead, but that he had been permitted to come there by a Divine decree, and that his
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soul, which was yet attached to his body, as by an anchor, would return to it again.
Thespesius then observed that he was different to the dead by whom he was surrounded,and this observation seemed to restore him to his recollection. They were transparent, andenvironed by a radiance, but he seemed to trail after him a dark ray, or line of shadow.
These spirits also presented very different aspects; some were entirely pervaded by a mild,clear radiance, like that of the full moon; through others there appeared faint streaks, thatdiminished this splendor; while others, on the contrary, were distinguished by spots, or
stripes of black, or of a dark color, like the marks on the skin of a viper.
There is a circumstance which I can not help here mentioning in connection with thishistory of Thespesius, which on first reading struck me very forcibly.
About three years ago, I had several opportunities of seeing two young girls, then under
the care of a Mr. A⁠——, of Edinburgh, who hoped, chiefly by means of magnetism, torestore them to sight. One was a maid-servant afflicted with amaurosis, whom he had taken
into his house from a charitable desire to be of use to her; the other, who had been blindfrom her childhood, was a young lady in better circumstances, the daughter of respectabletradespeople in the north of England. The girl with amaurosis was restored to sight, and theother was so far benefited that she could distinguish houses, trees, carriages, &c., and at
length, though obscurely, the features of a person near her. At this period of the curé she
was, unhappily, removed, and may possibly have relapsed into her former state. My reason,
however, for alluding to these young women on this occasion is, that they were in the habitof saying, when in the magnetic state—for they were both, more or less, clairvoyantes—
that the people whom Dr. A⁠—— was magnetizing, in the same room, presented very
different appearances. Some of them they described as looking bright, while others were, indifferent degrees, streaked with black.
One or two they mentioned over whom there seemed to hang a sort of cloud, like aragged veil of darkness. They also said, though this was before any tidings of Baron vonReichenbach’s discoveries had reached this country, that they saw light streaming from thefingers of Mr. A⁠—— when he magnetized them; and that sometimes his whole person
seemed to them radiant. Now, I am positively certain that neither Mr. A⁠—— nor these girls
had ever heard of this story of Thespesius; neither had I, at that time; and I confess, when I
did meet with it I was a good deal struck by the coincidence. These young people said that
it was the “goodness or badness,” meaning the moral state, of the persons that was thus
indicated. Now, surely, this concurrence between the man mentioned by Plutarch, and these
two girls—one of whom had no education whatever, and the other very little—is worthy ofsome regard.
I once asked a young person in a highly clairvoyant state, whether she ever “saw thespirits of them that had passed away;” for so she designated the dead, never using the word
death herself, in any of its forms. She answered me that she did.
“Then where are they?” I inquired.
“Some are waiting, and some are gone on before.”“Can you speak to them?” I asked.
“No,” she replied, “there is no meddling nor direction.”
In her waking state she would have been quite incapable of these answers; and that“some are waiting and some gone on before,” seems to be much in accordance with thevision of Thespesius.
Dr. Passavent mentions a peasant-boy who, after a short but painful illness, apparently
died, his body being perfectly stiff. He, however, revived, complaining bitterly of being
called back to life. He said he had been in a delightful place, and seen his deceased
relations. There was a great exaltation of the faculties after this; and having been before
rather stupid, he now, while his body lay stiff and immoveable and his eyes closed, prayedand discoursed with eloquence. He continued in this state for seven weeks, but finally
recovered.
In the year 1733, Johann Schwerzeger fell into a similar state of trance, after an illness,but revived. He said he had seen his whole life, and every sin he had committed, even thosehe had quite forgotten—everything had been as present to him as when it happened. He
also lamented being recalled from the happiness he was about to enter into; but said that hehad only two days to spend in this valley of tears, during which time he wished everybody
that would, should come and listen to what he had to tell them. His before sunken eyes now
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looked bright, his face had the bloom of youth, and he discoursed so eloquently, that theminister said they had exchanged offices, and the sick man had become his teacher. He diedat the time he had foretold.
The most frightful cases of trance recorded are those in which the patient retains entire
consciousness, although utterly unable to exhibit any evidence of life; and it is dreadful tothink how many persons may have been actually buried, hearing every nail that wasscrewed into their own coffin, and as perfectly aware of the whole ceremony as those who
followed them to the grave.
Dr. Binns mentions a girl, at Canton, who lay in this state, hearing every word that wassaid around her, but utterly unable to move a finger. She tried to cry out, but could not, andsupposed that she was really dead. The horror of finding herself about to be buried at length
caused a perspiration to appear on her skin, and she finally revived. She described that she
felt that her soul had no power to act upon her body, and that it seemed to be in her bodyand out of it, at the same time!
Now, this is very much what the somnambulists say: their soul is out of the body, but isstill so far in rapport with it, that it does not leave it entirely. Probably magnetism would be
the best means of reviving a person from this state.
The custom of burying people before there are unmistakable signs of death, is a very
condemnable one. A Mr. M’G⁠—— fell into a trance, some few years since, and remained
insensible for five days, his mother being meanwhile quite shocked that the physician
would not allow him to be buried. He had afterward a recurrence of the malady, which
continued seven days.
A Mr. S⁠——, who had been some time out of the country, died, apparently, two days
after his return. As he had eaten of a pudding which his stepmother had made for his dinnerwith her own hands, people took into their heads she had poisoned him; and, the grave
being opened for purposes of investigation, the body was found lying on its face.
One of the most frightful cases extant is that of Dr. Walker, of Dublin, who had sostrong a presentiment on this subject, that he had actually written a treatise against the Irish
customs of hasty burial. He himself subsequently died, as was believed, of a fever. His
decease took place in the night, and on the following day he was interred. At this time, Mrs.
Bellamy, the once-celebrated actress, was in Ireland; and as she had promised him, in thecourse of conversation, that she would take care he should not be laid in the earth tillunequivocal signs of dissolution had appeared, she no sooner heard of what had happened
than she took measures to have the grave reopened; but it was, unfortunately, too late; Dr.
Walker had evidently revived, and had turned upon his side; but life was now quite extinct.
The case related by Lady Fanshawe, of her mother, is very remarkable, from theconfirmation furnished by the event of her death. “My mother, being sick of a fever,” says
Lady Fanshawe, in her memoirs, “her friends and servants thought her deceased, and she
lay in that state for two days and a night; but Mr. Winslow, coming to comfort my father,went into my mother’s room, and, looking earnestly in her face, said, ‘She was so
handsome, and looked so lovely, that he could not think her dead;’ and, suddenly taking alancet out of his pocket, he cut the sole of her foot, which bled. Upon this, he immediately
caused her to be removed to the bed again, and to be rubbed, and such means used that shecame to life, and, opening her eyes, saw two of her kinswomen standing by her (Lady
Knollys and Lady Russell), both with great wide sleeves, as the fashion then was; and she
said, ‘Did you not promise me fifteen years, and are you come again already?’—which
they, not understanding, bade her keep her spirits quiet in that great weakness wherein she
was; but, some hours after, she desired my father and Dr. Howlesworth might be left alone
with her, to whom she said: ‘I will acquaint you, that, during my trance, I was in great
grief, but in a place I could neither distinguish nor describe; but the sense of leaving mygirl, who is dearer to me than all my children, remained a trouble upon my spirits.
Suddenly I saw two by me, clothed in long white garments, and methought I fell down
upon my face in the dust, and they asked me why I was so troubled in so great happiness. I
replied, “Oh, let me have the same grant given to Hezekiah, that I may live fifteen years to
see my daughter a woman!”—to which they answered, “It is done!”—and then at that
instant I awoke out of my trance!’ And Dr. Howlesworth did affirm that the day she diedmade just fifteen years from that time.”
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I have met with a somewhat similar case to this, which occurred to the mother of a very
respectable person now living in Edinburgh. She having been ill, was supposed to be dead,and preparations were making for her funeral, when one of her fingers was seen to move,and restoratives being applied, she revived. As soon as she could speak, she said she had
been at the gates of heaven, where she saw some going in, but that they told her she was
not ready. Among those who had passed her, and been admitted, she said she had seen Mr.
So-and-so, the baker, and the remarkable thing was, that during the time she had been in
the trance, this man had died.
On the 10th of January, 1717, Mr. John Gardner, a minister, at Elgin, fell into a trance,
and, being to all appearance dead, he was put into a coffin, and on the second day was
carried to the grave. But, fortunately, a noise being heard, the coffin was opened, and he
was found alive and taken home again, where, according to the record, “he related many
strange and amazing things which he had seen in the other world.”
Not to mention somnambules, there are numerous other cases recorded of persons who
have said, on awaking from a trance, that they had been in the other world; thoughfrequently the freed spirit—supposing that to be the interpretation of the mystery—seems
busied with the affairs of the earth, and brings tidings from distant places, as in the case of
the American above mentioned. Perhaps, in these latter cases, the disunion is less complete.
Dr. Werner relates of his somnambule, that it was after those attacks of catalepsy, in which
her body had lain stiff and cold, that she used to say she had been wandering away throughother spheres. Where the catalepsy is spontaneous and involuntary, and resembles death sonearly as not to be distinguished from it, we may naturally conclude, if we admit thishypothesis at all, that the seeing of the spirit would be clear in proportion to its
disentanglement from the flesh.
I have spoken above of dream compelling or suggesting, and I have heard of persons
who have a power of directing their own dreams to any particular subject.
This faculty may be in some degree analogous to that of the American, and a few
somnambulic persons, who appear to carry the recollections of one state into the other. The
effects produced by the witch-potions seem to have been somewhat similar, inasmuch as
they dreamed what they wished or expected to dream. Jung Stilling mentions that a woman
gave in evidence, on a witch-trial, that having visited the so-called witch, she had found herconcocting a potion over the fire, of which she had advised her (the visiter) to drink,assuring her that she would then accompany her to the Sâbbath. The woman said, lest sheshould give offence, she had put the vessel to her lips, but had not drunk of it. The witch,
however, swallowed the whole, and immediately afterward sunk down upon the hearth in a
profound sleep, where she had left her. When she went to see her on the following day, shedeclared she had been to the Brocken.
Paolo Minucci relates that a woman accused of sorcery, being brought before a certain
magistrate at Florence, she not only confessed her guilt, but she declared that, provided
they would let her return home and anoint herself, she would attend the Sâbbath that verynight. The magistrate, a man more enlightened than the generality of his contemporaries,
consented. The woman went home, used her unguent, and fell immediately into a profoundsleep; whereupon they tied her to the bed, and tested the reality of the sleep by burns,
blows, and pricking her with sharp instruments. When she awoke on the following day, sherelated that she had attended the Sâbbath.
I could quote several similar facts; and Gassendi actually endeavored to undeceive
some peasants who believed themselves witches, by composing an ointment that produced
the same effects as their own magical applications.
In the year 1545, André Laguna, physician to Pope Julius III., anointed a patient of his,
who was suffering from frenzy and sleeplessness, with an unguent found in the house of asorcerer, who had been arrested. The patient slept for thirty-six hours consecutively, andwhen, with much difficulty, she was awakened, she complained that they had torn her fromthe most ravishing delights—delights which seem to have rivalled the heaven of theMohammedan. According to Llorente, the women who were dedicated to the service of themother of the gods, heard continually the sounds of flutes and tambourines, beheld thejoyous dances of the fauns and satyrs, and tasted of intoxicating pleasures, doubtless from asimilar cause.
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It is difficult to imagine that all the unfortunate wretches who suffered death at the
stake in the middle ages, for having attended the unholy assemblies they described, had nofaith in their own stories; yet, in spite of the unwearied vigilance of public authorities andprivate malignity, no such assemblage was ever detected. How, then, are we to account forthe pertinacity of their confessions, but by supposing them the victims of someextraordinary delusion? In a paper addressed to the Inquisition, by Llorente, he does not
scruple to assert that the crimes imputed to and confessed by witches have most frequently
no existence but in their dreams, and that their dreams are produced by the drugs withwhich they anointed themselves.
The recipes for these compositions, which had descended traditionally from age to age,have been lost since witchcraft went out of fashion, and modern science has no time toinvestigate secrets which appear to be more curious than profitable; but in the profoundsleep produced by these applications, it is not easy to say what phenomena may haveoccurred to justify, or, at least, account for, their self-accusations.
[1]

This very curious work I have translated from the German. Published by
Moore, London.—C. C. Also republished in this country.—Am. Ed.

[2]

Since the above was penned, I find from the account of Dr. Cheyne, who
attended him, that Colonel Townshend’s own way of describing thephenomenon to which he was subject, was, that he “could die, or expire,when he pleased; and yet, by an effort or somehow, he could come tolife again.” He performed the experiment in the presence of three
medical men, one of whom kept his hand on his heart, another held his
wrist, and the third placed a looking-glass before his lips; and they foundthat all traces of respiration and pulsation gradually ceased, insomuch
that, after consulting about his condition for some time, they wereleaving the room, persuaded that he was really dead, when signs of life
appeared and he slowly revived. He did not die while repeating thisexperiment, as has been sometimes stated.
This reviving “by an effort or somehow,” seems to be better
explained by the hypothesis I have suggested, than by any other—namely, that, as in the case of Mr. Holloway (mentioned on page 120),
his spirit, or soul, was released from his body, but a sufficient rapport
was maintained to reunite them.

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CHAPTER VII.

130

WRAITHS.

Such instances as that of Lady Fanshawe, and other similar ones, certainly seem tofavor the hypothesis that the spirit is freed from the body when the latter becomes nolonger a fit habitation for it. It does so when actual death supervenes, and the reason of its
departure we may naturally conclude to be, that the body has ceased to be available for its
manifestations; and in these cases, which seem so nearly allied to death, that frequently
there would actually be no revival but for the exertions used, it does not seem very difficult
to conceive that this separation may take place. When we are standing by a death-bed, all
we see is the death of the body—of the going forth of the spirit we see nothing: so, in casesof apparent death, it may depart and return, while we are aware of nothing but thereanimation of the organism. Certain it is, that the Scriptures countenance this view of thecase in several instances; thus, Luke says, viii. 34: “And he put them all out, and took her
by the hand, and called, saying, ‘Maid, arise!’ And her spirit came again, and she arose
straightway,” &c., &c.
Dr. Wigan observes, when speaking of the effects of temporary pressure on the brain,that the mind is not annihilated, because, if the pressure is timely removed, it is restored,
though, if continued too long, the body will be resolved into its primary elements: and hecompares the human organism to a watch, which we can either stop or set going at will—
which watch, he says, will also be gradually resolved into its original elements by chemicalaction; and he adds that, to ask where the mind is, during the interruption, is like asking
where the motion of the watch is. I think a wind-instrument would be a better simile, forthe motion of the watch is purely mechanical. It requires no informing, intelligent spirit tobreathe into its apertures, and make it the vehicle of the harshest discords, or of the mosteloquent discourses. “The divinely mysterious essence, which we call the soul,” he adds,“is not, then, the mind, from which it must be carefully distinguished, if we would hope tomake any progress in mental philosophy. Where the soul resides during the suspension of
the mental powers by asphyxia, I know not, any more than I know where it resided before it
was united with that specific compound of bones, muscles, and nerve.”
By a temporary pressure on the brain, the mind is certainly not annihilated, but its
manifestations by means of the brain are suspended—the source of these manifestations
being the soul, or anima, in which dwells the life, fitting the temple for its divine
inhabitant, the spirit. The connection of the soul and the body is probably a much more
intimate one than that of the latter with the spirit,—though the soul, as well as the spirit, isimmortal, and survives when the body dies. Somnambulic persons seem to intimate that thesoul of the fleshly body becomes hereafter the body of the spirit, as if the imago or idolon
were the soul.
Dr. Wigan and indeed psychologists in general do not appear to recognise the old
distinction between the pneuma, or anima, and the psyches—the soul and the spirit; and,indeed, the Scriptures occasionally seem to use the terms indifferently. But still there arepassages enough which mark the distinction; as where St. Paul speaks of a “living soul anda quickening spirit:” 1 Cor. xv. 45;—again, 1 Thess. v. 23: “I pray God your whole spirit,and soul, and body,” &c.;—and also Heb. iv. 12, where he speaks of the sword of God“dividing asunder the soul and spirit.” In Genesis, chap. ii., we are told that “man became aliving soul;” but it is distinctly said, 1 Cor. xii., that the gifts of prophecy, the discerning of
spirits, &c., &c., belong to the spirit. Then, with regard to the possibility of the spirit
absenting itself from the body, St. Paul says, in referring to his own vision—2 Cor. xii.—“Iknew a man in Christ, about fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I can not tell; or outof the body, I can not tell: God knoweth); such a one caught up to the third heaven:” andwe are told, also, that to be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord;” and thatwhen we are “at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.” We are told, also, “thespirit returns to God, who gave it;” but it depends on ourselves whether or not our souls
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divine spirit remains with the soul as long as the latter is not utterly perverted and rendered
incapable of salvation.
St. John also says, that when he prophesied, he was in the spirit; but it was the “souls of
the slain” that he saw, and that “cried with a loud voice,” &c., &c.; souls, here, being
probably used in the sense of individuals,—as we say, so many “souls perished by
shipwreck,” &c.
In the Revue de Paris, 29th July, 1838, it is related that a child saw the soul of awoman, who was lying insensible in a magnetic crisis in which death nearly ensued, departout of her; and I find recorded in another work that a somnambule, who was brought togive advice to a patient, said: “It is too late—her soul is leaving her: I see the vital flame
quitting her brain.”
From some of the cases I have above related, we are led to the conclusion that in certain
conditions of the body, the spirit, in a manner unknown to us, resumes a portion of its
freedom, and is enabled to exercise more or less of its inherent properties. It is somewhat
released from those inexorable conditions of time and space which bound and limit its
powers, while in close connection with matter, and it communes with other spirits who arealso liberated. How far this liberation (if such it be), or reintegration of natural attributes,
may take place in ordinary sleep, we can only conclude from examples. In prophetic
dreams, and in those instances of information apparently received from the dead, thiscondition seems to occur; as also in such cases as that of the gentleman mentioned in aformer chapter, 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, and this is a man apparently in excellent health, endowed with a vigorous
understanding, and immersed in active business.
In the story of the American, quoted in a former chapter from Jung Stilling, there was
one point which I forebore to comment on at the moment, but to which I must now revert:
this is the assertion that the voyager had seen the man, and even conversed with him, in thecoffeehouse in London whence the desired intelligence was brought. Now, this single case,standing alone, would amount to nothing, although Jung Stilling, who was one of the mostconscientious of men, declares himself to have been quite satisfied with the authority on
which he relates it; but, strange to say—for undoubtedly the thing is very strange—there
are numerous similar instances recorded; and it seems to have been believed in all ages of
the world, that people were sometimes seen where bodily they were not—seen, not by
sleepers alone, but by persons in a perfect state of vigilance; and that this phenomenon,
though more frequently occurring at the moment that the individual seen is at the point ofdeath, does occasionally occur at indefinite periods anterior to the catastrophe, andsometimes where no such catastrophe is impending. In some of these cases, an earnest
desire seems to be the cause of the phenomenon. It is not very long since a very estimablelady, who was dying in the Mediterranean, expressed herself perfectly ready to meet death,
if she could but once more behold her children, who were in England. She soon afterward
fell into a comatose state, and the persons surrounding her were doubtful whether she had
not already breathed her last; at all events, they did not expect her to revive. She did so,
however, and now cheerfully announced that, having seen her children, she was ready todepart. During the interval that she lay in this state, her family saw her in England, andwere thus aware of her death before the intelligence reached them. As it is a subject, I
understand, they are unwilling to speak of, I do not know precisely under whatcircumstances she was seen;—but this is an exactly analogous case to that already recordedof Maria Goffe, of Rochester, who, when dying away from home, expressed precisely thesame feelings. She said she could not die happy till she had seen her children. By-and-by
she fell into a state of coma, which left them uncertain whether she was dead or alive. Hereyes were open and fixed, her jaw fallen, and there was no perceptible respiration. Whenshe revived, she told her mother, who attended her, that she had been home and seen her
children; which the other said was impossible, since she had been lying there in bed thewhole time. “Yes,” replied the dying woman, “but I was there in my sleep.” A widow
woman, called Alexander, who had the care of these children, declared herself ready to takeoath upon the sacrament, that, during this period, she had seen the form of Maria Goffe
come out of the room where the oldest child slept, and approach the bed where she herself
lay with the younger beside her. The figure had stood there nearly a quarter of an hour, as
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far as she could judge; and she remarked that the eyes and the mouth moved, though sheheard no sound. She declared herself to have been perfectly awake, and that, as it was thelongest night in the year, it was quite light. She sat up in bed, and while she was looking on
the figure the clock on the bridge struck two. She then adjured the form in the name ofGod, whereupon it moved. She immediately arose and followed it, but could not tell what
had become of it. She then became alarmed, and throwing on her clothes, went out andwalked on the quay, returning to the house ever and anon to look at the children. At fiveo’clock she knocked at a neighbor’s door, but they would not let her in. At six she knockedagain and was then admitted, and related to them what she had seen, which they, of course,
endeavored to persuade her was a dream or an illusion. She declared herself, however, tohave been perfectly awake, and said that if she had ever seen Maria Goffe in her life she
had seen her that night.
The following story has been currently related in Rome, and is already in print. I take itfrom a German work, and I do not know how far its authenticity can be established. It is tothe effect that two friends having agreed to attend confession together, one of them went at
the appointed time to the Abbate B⁠——, and made his confession; after which the priest
commenced the usual admonition, in the midst of which he suddenly ceased speaking.
After waiting a short time, the penitent stepped forward and perceived him lying in theconfessional in a state of insensibility. Aid was summoned and means used to restore him,
which were for some time ineffectual; at length, when he opened his eyes, he bade thepenitent recite a prayer for his friend, who had just expired. This proved to be the case, on
inquiry; and when the young man, who had naturally hastened to his friend’s house,
expressed a hope that he had not died without the last offices of the church, he was told inamazement, that the Abbate B⁠—— had arrived just as he was in extremis, and hadremained with him till he died.
These appearances seem to have taken place when the corporeal condition of the person
seen elsewhere, permits us to conceive the possibility of the spirit’s having withdrawn fromthe body; but the question then naturally arises, what is it that was seen; and I confess, thatof all the difficulties that surround the subject, I have undertaken to treat of, this seems tome the greatest; for we can not suppose that a spirit can be visible to the human eye, andboth in the above instances and several others I have to narrate, there is nothing that canlead us to the conclusion, that the persons who saw the wraith or double, were in any otherthan a normal state; the figure, in short, seems to have been perceived through theirexternal organs of sense. Before I discuss this question, however, any further, I will relate
some instances of a similar kind, only with this difference, that the wraith appearing as
nearly as could be ascertained at the moment of death, it remains uncertain whether it wasseen before or after the dissolution had taken place. As in both these cases above related
and those that follow, the material body was visible in one place, while the wraith was
visible in another, they appear to be strictly analogous; especially, as in both class of
examples, the body itself was either dead or in a state that closely resembled death.
Instances of people being seen at a distance from the spot on which they are dying, areso numerous, that in this department I have positively an embarras de richesse, and find it
difficult to make a selection; more especially as there is in each case little to relate, thewhole phenomenon being comprised in the fact of the form being observed and the chiefvariations consisting in this, that the seer, or seers, frequently entertain no suspicion thatwhat they have seen is any other than a form of flesh and blood; while on other occasions
the assurance that the person is far away, or some peculiarity connected with theappearance itself, produces the immediate conviction that the shape is not corporeal.
Mrs. K⁠——, the sister of Provost B⁠——, of Aberdeen, was sitting one day with her
husband, Dr. K⁠——, in the parlor of the manse, when she suddenly said, “Oh! there’s mybrother come! he has just passed the window,” and, followed by her husband, she hastened
to the door to meet the visiter. He was however not there. “He is gone round to the backdoor,” said she; and thither they went; but neither was he there, nor had the servants seen
anything of him. Dr. K⁠—— said she must be mistaken, but she laughed at the idea; herbrother had passed the window and looked in; he must have gone somewhere, and would
doubtless be back directly. But he came not; and the intelligence shortly arrived from St.
Andrew’s, that at that precise time, as nearly as they could compare circumstances, he had
died quite suddenly at his own place of residence. I have heard this story from connections
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believe,” returned Dr. K⁠——, and then he accounted for his conviction by narrating theabove particulars.
Lord and Lady M⁠—— were residing on their estate in Ireland: Lord M⁠—— had goneout shooting in the morning, and was not expected to return till toward dinner-time. In thecourse of the afternoon, Lady M⁠—— and a friend were walking on the terrace that forms apromenade in front of the castle, when she said, “Oh, there is M⁠—— returning!”
whereupon she called to him to join them. He, however, took no notice, but walked on
before them, till they saw him enter the house, whither they followed him;—but he was not
to be found: and before they had recovered their surprise at his sudden disappearance, he
was brought home dead, having been killed by his own gun. It is a curious fact, in this case,that while the ladies were walking behind the figure on the terrace, Lady M⁠—— called theattention of her companion to the shooting-jacket, observing that it was a convenient one,and that she had the credit of having contrived it for him herself.
A person in Edinburgh, busied about her daily work, saw a woman enter her house,
with whom she was on such ill terms that she could not but be surprised at the visit; butwhile she was expecting an explanation, and under the influence of her resentment
avoiding to look at her, she found she was gone. She remained quite unable to account for
the visit, and, as she said, “was wondering what had brought her there,” when she heardthat the woman had expired at that precise time.
Madame O⁠—— B⁠—— was engaged to marry an officer who was with his regiment inIndia; and, wishing to live in privacy till the union took place, she retired to the country andboarded with some ladies of her acquaintance, awaiting his return. She at length heard that
he had obtained an appointment, which, by improving his prospects, had removed somedifficulties out of the way of the marriage, and that he was immediately coming home. A
short time after the arrival of this intelligence, this lady, and one of those with whom she
was residing, were walking over a bridge, when the friend said, alluding to an officer she
saw on the other side of the way, “What an extraordinary expression of face!” But, withoutpausing to answer, Madame O⁠—— B⁠—— darted across the road to meet the stranger—but
he was gone: where? they could not conceive. They ran to the toll-keepers at the ends ofthe bridge, to inquire if they had observed such a person, but they had not. Alarmed andperplexed—for it was her intended husband that she had seen—Madame O⁠—— B⁠——
returned home; and in due time the packet which should have brought himself, brought thesad tidings of his unexpected death.
Madame O⁠—— B⁠—— never recovered the shock, and died herself of a broken heart
not long afterward.
Mr. H⁠——, an eminent artist, was walking arm in arm with a friend in Edinburgh, when
he suddenly left him, saying, “Oh, there’s my brother!” He had seen him with the mostentire distinctness; but was confounded by losing sight of him, without being able toascertain whither he had vanished. News came, ere long, that at that precise period his
brother had died.
Mrs. T⁠——, sitting in her drawing-room, saw her nephew, then at Cambridge, passacross the adjoining room. She started up to meet him, and, not finding him, summoned theservants to ask where he was. They, however, had not seen him, and declared he could not
be there; while she as positively declared he was. The young man had died at Cambridgequite unexpectedly.
A Scotch minister went to visit a friend who was dangerously ill. After sitting with theinvalid for some time, he left him to take some rest, and went below. He had been readingin the library some little time, when, on looking up, he saw the sick man standing at thedoor. “God bless me!” he cried, starting up, “how can you be so imprudent?” The figure
disappeared; and, hastening up stairs, he found his friend had expired.
Three young men at Cambridge had been out hunting, and afterward dined together in
the apartments of one of them. After dinner, two of the party, fatigued with their morning’s
exercise, fell asleep, while the third, a Mr. M⁠——, remained awake. Presently the door
opened, and a gentleman entered and placed himself behind the sleeping owner of therooms, and, after standing there a minute, proceeded to the gyp-room—a small innerchamber, from which there was no egress. Mr. M⁠—— waited a little while, expecting thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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stranger would come out again; but, as he did not, he awoke his host, saying, “There’s
somebody gone into your room: I don’t know who it can be.”The young man rose and looked into the gyp-room; but, there being nobody there, henaturally accused Mr. M⁠—— of dreaming; but the other assured him he had not been
asleep. He then described the stranger—an elderly man, &c., dressed like a country squire,with gaiters on, &c. “Why that’s my father,” said the host, and he immediately madeinquiry, thinking it possible the old gentleman had slipped out unobserved by Mr. M⁠——.
He was not, however, to be heard of; and the post shortly brought a letter announcing that
he had died at the time he had been seen in his son’s chamber at Cambridge.
Mr. C⁠—— F⁠—— and some young ladies, not long ago, were standing together looking
in at a shop window at Brighton,—when he suddenly darted across the way, and they saw
him hurrying along the street, apparently in pursuit of somebody. After waiting a little
while, as he did not return, they went home without him; and, when he was come, they ofcourse arraigned him for his want of gallantry.
“I beg your pardon,” said he; “but I saw an acquaintance of mine that owes me money,
and I wanted to get hold of him.”“And did you?” inquired the ladies.
“No,” returned he; “I kept sight of him some time; but I suddenly missed him—I can’t
think how.”
No more was thought of the matter; but, by the next morning’s post, Mr. C⁠—— F⁠——
received a letter enclosing a draft, from the father of the young man he had seen, sayingthat his son had just expired, and that one of his last requests had been that he would pay
Mr. C⁠—— F⁠—— the money that he owed him.
Two young ladies, staying at the Queen’s Ferry, arose one morning early to bathe; asthey descended the stairs, they each exclaimed: “There’s my uncle!” They had seen him
standing by the clock. He died at that time.
Very lately, a gentleman living in Edinburgh, while sitting with his wife, suddenly arosefrom his seat and advanced toward the door with his hand extended, as if about to welcome
a visiter. On his wife’s inquiring what he was about, he answered that he had seen so-andso enter the room. She had seen nobody. A day or two afterward, the post brought a letter
announcing the death of the person seen.
A regiment, not very long since, stationed at New Orleans, had a temporary mess-room
erected, at one end of which was a door for the officers, and at the other, a door and a spacerailed off for the messman. One day, two of the officers were playing at chess, or draughts,
one sitting with his face toward the centre of the room, the other with his back to it. “Blessme! why, surely that is your brother!” exclaimed the former to the latter, who looked
eagerly round, his brother being then, as he believed, in England. By this time the figure,having passed the spot where the officers were sitting, presented only his back to them.
“No,” replied the second, “that is not my brother’s regiment; that’s the uniform of the riflebrigade. By heavens! it is my brother, though,” he added, starting up and eagerly pursuing
the stranger, who at that moment turned his head and looked at him, and then, somehow,
strangely disappeared among the people standing at the messman’s end of the room.
Supposing he had gone out that way, the brother pursued him, but he was not to be found;neither had the messman, nor anybody there, observed him. The young man died at thattime in England, having just exchanged into the rifle-brigade.
I could fill pages with similar instances, not to mention those recorded in othercollections and in history. The case of Lord Balcarres is perhaps worth alluding to, from its
being so perfectly well established. Nobody has ever disputed the truth of it, only they getout of the difficulty by saying that it was a spectral illusion! Lord Balcarres was inconfinement in the castle of Edinburgh, under suspicion of Jacobitism, when one morning,
while lying in bed, the curtains were drawn aside by his friend, Viscount Dundee, wholooked upon him steadfastly, leaned for some time on the mantel-piece, and then walked
out of the room. Lord Balcarres, not supposing that what he saw was a spectre, called to
Dundee to come back and speak to him, but he was gone; and shortly afterward the news
came that he had fallen about that same hour at Killicranky.
Finally, I have met with three instances of persons who are so much the subjects of thisphenomenon, that they see the wraiths of most people that die belonging to them, andfrequently of those who are merely acquaintance. They see the person as if he were alive,
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the conviction. Sometimes, as in the case of Mr. C⁠—— F⁠——, above alluded to, nosuspicion arises till the news of the death arrives; and they mention, without reserve, thatthey have met so and so, but he did not stop to speak, and so forth.
On other occasions, however, the circumstances of the appearance are such that the seer
is instantly aware of its nature. In the first place, the time and locality may produce theconviction.
Mrs. J⁠—— wakes her husband in the night, and tells him she has just seen her father
pass through the room—she being in the West Indies and her father in England. He diedthat night. Lord T⁠—— being at sea, on his way to Calcutta, saw his wife enter his cabin.
Mrs. Mac⁠——, of Skye, went from Lynedale, where she resided, to pay a visit in
Perthshire. During her absence there was a ball given at Lynedale, and when it was over,three young ladies, two of them her daughters, assembled in their bed-room to talk over theevening’s amusement. Suddenly, one of them cried, “O God! my mother.” They all saw her
pass across the room toward a chest of drawers, where she vanished. They immediately
told their friends what they had seen, and afterward learned that the lady died that night.
Lord M⁠—— being from home, saw Lady M⁠——, whom he had left two days before,
perfectly well, standing at the foot of his bed; aware of the nature of the appearance, but
wishing to satisfy himself that it was not a mere spectral illusion, he called his servant, who
slept in the dressing-room, and said, “John, who’s that?” “It’s my lady!” replied the man.
Lady M⁠—— had been seized with inflammation, and died after a few hours’ illness. This
circumstance awakened so much interest at the time, that, as I am informed by one of thefamily, George the Third was not satisfied without hearing the particulars from Lord
M⁠—— and from the servant also.
But, besides time and locality, there are very frequently other circumstances
accompanying the appearance, which not only show the form to be spectral, but also makeknown to the seer the nature of the death that has taken place.
A lady, with whose family I am acquainted, had a son abroad. One night she was lying
in bed, with a door open which led into an adjoining room, where there was a fire. She had
not been asleep, when she saw her son cross this adjoining room and approach the fire,over which he leaned, as if very cold. She saw that he was shivering and dripping wet. She
immediately exclaimed, “That’s my G⁠——!” The figure turned its face round, looked at her
sadly, and disappeared. That same night the young man was drowned.
Mr. P⁠——, the American manager, in one of his voyages to England, being in bed onenight, between sleeping and waking, was disturbed by somebody coming into his cabin,
dripping with water. He concluded that the person had fallen overboard, and asked him
why he came there to disturb him, when there were plenty of other places for him to go to.
The man muttered something indistinctly, and Mr. P⁠—— then perceived that it was his own
brother. This roused him completely, and feeling quite certain that somebody had been
there, he got out of bed to feel if the carpet was wet on the spot where his brother stood. It
was not, however; and when he questioned his shipmates, the following morning, they
assured him that nobody had been overboard, nor had anybody been in his cabin. Upon
this, he noted down the date and the particulars of the event, and, on his arrival at
Liverpool, sent the paper sealed to a friend in London, desiring it might not be opened till
he wrote again. The Indian post, in due time, brought the intelligence that on that night Mr.
P⁠——’s brother was drowned.
A similar case to this is that of Captain Kidd, which Lord Byron used to say he heard
from the captain himself. He was one night awakened in his hammock, by feelingsomething heavy lying upon him. He opened his eyes, and saw, or thought he saw, by theindistinct light in the cabin, his brother, in uniform, lying across the bed. Concluding that
this was only an illusion arising out of some foregone dream, he closed his eyes again to
sleep; but again he felt the weight, and there was the form still lying across the bed. He
now stretched out his hand, and felt the uniform, which was quite wet. Alarmed, he calledout for somebody to come to him; and, as one of the officers entered, the figure
disappeared. He afterward learned that his brother was drowned on that night in the Indian
ocean.
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Ben Jonson told Drummond, of Hawthornden, that, being at Sir Robert Cotton’s house,in the country, with old Cambden, he saw, in a vision, his eldest son, then a child at
London, appear to him with a mark of a bloody cross on his forehead; at which, amazed, heprayed to God; and, in the morning, mentioned the circumstance to Mr. Cambden, who
persuaded him it was fancy. In the meantime, came letters announcing that the boy had diedof the plague. The custom of indicating an infected house by a red cross is here suggested,
the cross apparently symbolizing the manner of the death.
Mr. S⁠—— C⁠——, a gentleman of fortune, had a son in India. One fine, calm summer’smorning, in the year 1780, he and his wife were sitting at breakfast, when she arose andwent to the window; upon which, turning his eyes in the same direction, he started up andfollowed her, saying, “My dear, do you see that?”—“Surely,” she replied, “it is our son. Let
us go to him!” As she was very much agitated, however, he begged her to sit down andrecover herself; and when they looked again, the figure was gone. The appearance was thatof their son, precisely as they had last seen him. They took note of the hour, and afterward
learned that he had died in India at that period.
A lady, with whose family I am acquainted, was sitting with her son, named Andrew,when she suddenly exclaimed that she had seen him pass the window, in a white mantle. As
the window was high from the ground, and overhung a precipice, no one could havepassed; else, she said, “Had there been a path, and he not beside her at the moment, sheshould have thought he had walked by on stilts.” Three days afterward, Andrew was seizedwith a fever which he had caught from visiting some sick neighbors, and expired after ashort illness.
In 1807, when several people were killed in consequence of a false alarm of fire, atSadler’s Wells, a woman named Price, in giving her evidence at the inquest, said that her
little girl had gone into the kitchen about half-past ten o’clock, and was surprised to see herbrother there, whom she supposed to be at the theatre. She spoke to him, whereupon hedisappeared. The child immediately told her mother, who, alarmed, set off to the theatre,
and found the boy dead.
In the year 1813, a young lady in Berlin, whose intended husband was with the army at
Dusseldorf, heard some one knock at the door of her chamber, and her lover entered in awhite negligé, stained with blood. Thinking that this vision proceeded from some disorderin herself, she arose and quitted the room, to call a servant; who not being at hand, shereturned, and found the figure there still. She now became much alarmed, and having
mentioned the circumstance to her father, inquiries were made of some prisoners that weremarching through the town, and it was ascertained that the young man had been wounded,
and carried to the house of Dr. Ehrlick, in Leipsic, with great hopes of recovery. It
afterward proved, however, that he had died at that period, and that his last thoughts werewith her. This lady earnestly wished and prayed for another such visit, but she never saw
him again.
In the same year, a woman in Bavaria, who had a brother with the army in Russia, was
one day at field-work, on the skirts of a forest, and everything quiet around her, when she
repeatedly felt herself hit by small stones, though, on looking round, she could see nobody.
At length, supposing it was some jest, she threw down her implements, and stepped into thewood whence they had proceeded, when she saw a headless figure, in a soldier’s mantle,
leaning against a tree. Afraid to approach, she summoned some laborers from aneighboring field, who also saw it; but on going up to it, it disappeared. The woman
declared her conviction that the circumstance indicated her brother’s death; and it wasafterward ascertained that he had, on that day, fallen in a trench.
Some few years ago, a Mrs. H⁠——, residing in Limerick, had a servant whom she
much esteemed, called Nelly Hanlon. Nelly was a very steady person, who seldom asked
for a holy-day, and consequently Mrs. H⁠—— was the less disposed to refuse her when she
requested a day’s leave of absence for the purpose of attending a fair that was to take placea few miles off. The petition was therefore favorably heard; but when Mr. H⁠—— camehome and was informed of Nelly’s proposed excursion, he said she could not be spared, as
he had invited some people to dinner for that day, and he had nobody he could trust withthe keys of the cellar except Nelly, adding that it was not likely his business would allow
him to get home time enough to bring up the wine himself.
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Unwilling, however, after giving her consent, to disappoint the girl, Mrs. H⁠—— said
that she would herself undertake the cellar department on the day in question; so when thewished-for morning arrived, Nelly departed in great spirits, having faithfully promised toreturn that night, if possible, or, at the latest, the following morning.
The day passed as usual, and nothing was thought about Nelly, till the time arrived forfetching up the wine, when Mrs. H⁠—— proceeded to the cellar-stairs with the key,followed by a servant carrying a bottle-basket. She had, however, scarcely begun todescend, when she uttered a loud scream and dropped down in a state of insensibility. She
was carried up stairs and laid upon the bed, while, to the amazement of the other servants,
the girl who had accompanied her said that they had seen Nelly Hanlon, dripping withwater, standing at the bottom of the stairs. Mr. H⁠—— being sent for, or coming home at the
moment, this story was repeated to him, whereupon he reproved the woman for her folly;
and, proper restoratives being applied, Mrs. H⁠—— at length began to revive. As she
opened her eyes, she heaved a deep sigh, saying, “Oh, Nelly Hanlon!” and as soon as she
was sufficiently recovered to speak, she corroborated what the girl had said: she had seen
Nelly at the foot of the stairs, dripping as if she had just come out of the water. Mr. H⁠——
used his utmost efforts to persuade his wife out of what he looked upon to be an illusion;
but in vain. “Nelly,” said he, “will come home by-and-by and laugh at you;” while she, on
the contrary, felt sure that Nelly was dead.
The night came, and the morning came, but there was no Nelly. When two or three days
had passed, inquiries were made; and it was ascertained that she had been seen at the fair,and started to return home in the evening; but from that moment all traces of her were lost
till her body was ultimately found in the river. How she came by her death was neverknown.
Now, in most of these cases which I have above detailed, the person was seen where his
dying thoughts might naturally be supposed to have flown, and the visit seems to have been
made either immediately before or immediately after the dissolution of the body: in either
case, we may imagine that the final parting of the spirit had taken place, even if the organic
life was not quite extinct.
I have met with some cases in which we are not left in any doubt with respect to the last
wishes of the dying person. For example: a lady, with whom I am acquainted, was on her
way to India; when near the end of her voyage, she was one night awakened by a rustling in
her cabin, and a consciousness that there was something hovering about her. She sat up,
and saw a bluish, cloudy form moving away; but persuading herself it must be fancy, sheaddressed herself again to sleep; but as soon as she lay down, she both heard and felt thesame thing: it seemed to her as if this cloudy form hung over and enveloped her. Overcome
with horror, she screamed. The cloud then moved away, assuming distinctly a humanshape. The people about her naturally persuaded her that she had been dreaming; and she
wished to think so; but when she arrived in India, the first thing she heard was, that a very
particular friend had come down to Calcutta to be ready to receive her on her landing, butthat he had been taken ill and died, saying he only wished to live to see his old friend once
more. He had expired on the night she saw the shadowy form in her room.
A very frightful instance of this kind of phenomenon is related by Dr. H. Werner, ofBaron Emilius von O⁠——. This young man had been sent to prosecute his studies in Paris;but, forming some bad connections, he became dissipated, and neglected them. His father’s
counsels were unheeded, and his letters remained unanswered. One day the young baron
was sitting alone on a seat, in the Bois de Boulogne, and had fallen somewhat into a revery,
when, on raising his eyes, he saw his father’s form before him. Believing it to be a mere
spectral illusion, he struck at the shadow with his riding-whip, upon which it disappeared.
The next day brought him a letter, urging his return home instantly, if he wished to see his
parent alive. He went, but found the old man already in his grave. The person who had been
about him said that he had been quite conscious, and had a great longing to see his son; hehad, indeed, exhibited one symptom of delirium, which was, that after expressing thisdesire, he had suddenly exclaimed, “My God! he is striking at me with his riding-whip!”and immediately expired.
In this case, the condition of the dying man resembles that of a somnambulist, in which
the patient describes what he sees taking place at a distance; and the archives of magnetism
furnish some instances, especially that of Auguste Müller, of Carlsruhe, in which, by the
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force of will, the sleeper has not only been able to bring intelligence from a distance, butalso, like the American magician, to make himself visible. The faculties of prophecy andclear or far seeing, frequently disclosed by dying persons, is fully acknowledged by Dr.
Abercrombie and other physiologists.
Mr. F⁠—— saw a female relative, one night, by his bedside. Thinking it was a trick ofsome one to frighten him, he struck at the figure; whereon she said: “What have I done? I
know I should have told it you before.” This lady was dying at a distance, earnestly
desiring to speak to Mr. F⁠—— before she departed.
I will conclude this chapter with the following extract from “Lockhart’s Life of
Scott:”—“Walter Scott to Daniel Terry, April 30, 1818. (The new house at Abbotsford being
then in progress, Scott living in an older part, close adjoining.)“ ‘.....The exposed state of my house has led to a mysterious disturbance. The night
before last we were awakened by a violent noise, like drawing heavy boards along the newpart of the house. I fancied something had fallen, and thought no more about it. This was
about two in the morning. Last night, at the same witching hour, the very same noiseoccurred. Mrs. Scott, as you know, is rather timbersome; so up I got, with Beardie’s
broadsword under my arm—
“Bolt upright,
And ready to fight.”

But nothing was out of order, neither can I discover what occasioned the disturbance.’ ”
Mr. Lockhart adds: “On the morning that Mr. Terry received the foregoing letter, inLondon, Mr. William Erskine was breakfasting with him, and the chief subject of theirconversation was the sudden death of George Bullock, which had occurred on the samenight, and, as nearly as they could ascertain, at the very hour when Scott was roused fromhis sleep by the ‘mysterious disturbance’ here described. This coincidence, when Scottreceived Erskine’s minute detail of what had happened in Tenterdon street (that is, thedeath of Bullock, who had the charge of furnishing the new rooms at Abbotsford), made amuch stronger impression on his mind than might be gathered from the tone of an ensuingcommunication.”
It appears that Bullock had been at Abbotsford, and made himself a great favorite with
old and young. Scott, a week or two afterward, wrote thus to Terry: “Were you not struck
with the fantastical coincidence of our nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford, with themelancholy event that followed? I protest to you, the noise resembled half a dozen men
hard at work, putting up boards and furniture; and nothing can be more certain than that
there was nobody on the premises at the time. With a few additional touches, the story
would figure in Glanville or Aubrey’s collection. In the meantime, you may set it downwith poor Dubisson’s warnings, as a remarkable coincidence coming under your own
observation.”

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CHAPTER VIII.

149

DOPPELGÄNGERS, OR DOUBLES.

In the instances detailed in the last chapter, the apparition has shown itself, as nearly as
could be discovered, at the moment of dissolution; but there are many cases in which thewraith is seen at an indefinite period before or after the catastrophe. Of these I could quotea great number; but as they generally resolve themselves into simply seeing a person where
they were not, and death ensuing very shortly afterward, a few will suffice.
There is a very remarkable story of this kind, related by Macnish, which he calls “acase of hallucination, arising without the individual being conscious of any physical cause
by which it might be occasioned.” If this case stood alone, strange as it is, I should think so
too: but when similar instances abound, as they do, I can not bring myself to dispose of itso easily. The story is as follows: Mr. H⁠—— was one day walking along the street,apparently in perfect health, when he saw, or supposed he saw, his acquaintance, Mr.
C⁠——, walking before him. He called to him aloud; but he did not seem to hear him, andcontinued moving on. Mr. H⁠—— then quickened his pace for the purpose of overtaking
him; but the other increased his, also, as if to keep ahead of his pursuer, and proceeded atsuch a rate that Mr. H⁠—— found it impossible to make up to him. This continued for sometime, till, on Mr. C⁠——’s reaching a gate, he opened it and passed in, slamming it violently
in Mr. H⁠——’s face. Confounded at such treatment from a friend, the latter instantly
opened the gate, and looked down the long lane into which it led, where, to his
astonishment, no one was to be seen. Determined to unravel the mystery, he then went to
Mr. C⁠——’s house, and his surprise was great to hear that he was confined to his bed, andhad been so for several days. A week or two afterward, these gentlemen met at the house of
a common friend, when Mr. H⁠—— related the circumstance, jocularly telling Mr. C⁠——
that, as he had seen his wraith, he of course could not live long. The person addressedlaughed heartily, as did the rest of the party; but, in a few days, Mr. C⁠—— was attacked
with putrid sore throat and died; and within a short period of his death, Mr. H⁠—— was also
in the grave.
This is a very striking case; the hastening on, and the actually opening and shutting thegate, evincing not only will but power to produce mechanical effects, at a time the person
was bodily elsewhere. It is true he was ill, and it is highly probable was at the time asleep.
The showing himself to Mr. H⁠——, who was so soon to follow him to the grave, is anotherpeculiarity which appears frequently to attend these cases, and which seems like what wasin old English, and is still in Scotch, called a tryst—an appointment to meet again between
those spirits, so soon to be free. Supposing Mr. C⁠—— to have been asleep, he was possibly,in that state, aware of what impended over both.
There is a still more remarkable case given by Mr. Barham in his reminiscences. I haveno other authority for it: but he relates, as a fact, that a respectable young woman wasawaked, one night, by hearing somebody in her room, and that on looking up she saw ayoung man to whom she was engaged. Extremely offended by such an intrusion, she badehim instantly depart, if he wished her ever to speak to him again. Whereupon he bade her
not be frightened, but said he was come to tell her that he was to die that day six weeks,—
and then disappeared. Having ascertained that the young man himself could not possibly
have been in her room, she was naturally much alarmed, and, her evident depression
leading to some inquiries, she communicated what had occurred to the family with whom
she lived—I think as dairy-maid; but I quote from memory. They attached little importanceto what seemed so improbable, more especially as the young man continued in perfectly
good health, and entirely ignorant of this prediction, which his mistress had the prudence toconceal from him. When the fatal day arrived, these ladies saw the girl looking very
cheerful, as they were going for their morning’s ride, and observed to each other that theprophecy did not seem likely to be fulfilled; but when they returned, they saw her runningup the avenue toward the house in great agitation, and learned that her lover was either
dead or dying, from an accident.
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The only key I can suggest as the explanation of such a phenomenon as this, is, that the
young man in his sleep was aware of the fate that awaited him,—and that while the bodylay in his bed, in a state approaching to trance or catalepsy, the freed spirit—free as thespirits of the actual dead—went forth to tell the tale to the mistress of his soul.
Franz von Baader says, in a letter to Dr. Kerner, that Eckartshausen, shortly before his
death, assured him that he possessed the power of making a person’s double or wraithappear, while his body lay elsewhere in a state of trance or catalepsy. He added that theexperiment might be dangerous, if care were not taken to prevent intercepting the rapportof the ethereal form with the material one.
A lady, an entire disbeliever in these spiritual phenomena, was one day walking in her
own garden with her husband, who was indisposed, leaning on her arm, when seeing a manwith his back toward them, and a spade in his hand, digging, she exclaimed, “Look there!
who’s that?” “Where?” said her companion; and at that moment the figure leaning on the
spade turned round and looked at her, sadly shaking its head, and she saw it was her
husband. She avoided an explanation, by pretending she had made a mistake. Three days
afterward the gentleman died,—leaving her entirely converted to a belief she had
previously scoffed at.
Here, again, the foreknowledge and evident design, as well as the power of manifestingit, are extremely curious—more especially as the antitype of the figure was neither in a
trance nor asleep, but perfectly conscious, walking and talking. If any particular purpose
were to be gained by the information indicated, the solution might be less difficult. One
object, it is true, may have been, and indeed was attained, namely, the change in theopinions of the wife; and it is impossible to say what influence such a conversion may have
had on her after-life.
It must be admitted that these cases are very perplexing. We might, indeed, get rid ofthem by denying them; but the instances are too numerous, and the phenomenon has been
too well known in all ages, to be set aside so easily. In the above examples, the apparition,
or wraith, has been in some way connected with the death of the person whose visionary
likeness is seen; and, in most of these instances, the earnest longing to behold thosebeloved seems to have been the means of effecting the object. The mystery of death is to us
so awful and impenetrable, and we know so little of the mode in which the spiritual and thecorporeal are united and kept together during the continuance of life, or what condition
may ensue when this connection is about to be dissolved, that while we look with wonder
upon such phenomena as those above alluded to, we yet find very few persons who aredisposed to reject them as utterly apocryphal. They feel that in that department, already somysterious, there may exist a greater mystery still; and the very terror with which thethoughts of present death inspires most minds, deters people from treating this class of facts
with that scornful skepticism with which many approximate ones are denied and laughedat. Nevertheless, if we suppose the person to have been dead, though it be but aninappreciable instant of time before he appears, the appearance comes under thedenomination of what is commonly called a ghost; for whether the spirit has been parted
from the body one second or fifty years, ought to make no difference in our appreciation of
the fact, nor is the difficulty less in one case than the other.
I mention this because I have met with, and do meet with, people constantly, who admit
this class of facts, while they declare they can not believe in ghosts; the instances, they say,of people being seen at a distance at the period of their death, are too numerous to permit of
the fact being denied. In granting it, however, they seem to me to grant everything. If, as I
have said above, the person be dead, the form seen is a ghost or spectre, whether he has
been dead a second or a century; if he be alive, the difficulty is certainly not diminished; onthe contrary, it appears to me to be considerably augmented; and it is to this perplexingclass of facts that I shall next proceed, namely, those in which the person is not only alive,
as in some of the cases above related, but where the phenomenon seems to occur without
any reference to the death of the subject, present or prospective.
In either case, we are forced to conclude that the thing seen is the same; the questions
are, what is it that we see, and how does it render itself visible? and, still more difficult toanswer, appears the question, of how it can communicate intelligence, or exert amechanical force. As, however, this investigation will be more in its place when I havereached that department of my subject commonly called ghosts, I will defer it for the
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present, and merely confine myself to that of doubles, or doppelgängers, as the Germans
denominate the appearance of a person out of his body.
In treating of the case of Auguste Müller, a remarkable somnambule, who possessed thepower of appearing elsewhere, while his body lay cold and stiff in his bed, Professor
Keiser, who attended him, says, that the phenomenon, as regards the seer, must be looked
upon as purely subjective—that is, that there was no outstanding form of Auguste Müller
visible to the sensuous organs, but that the magnetic influence of the somnambule, by theforce of his will, acted on the imagination of the seer, and called up the image which hebelieved he saw. But then, allowing this to be possible, as Dr. Werner says, how are we toaccount for those numerous cases in which there is no somnambule concerned in thematter, and no especial rapport, that we are aware of, established between the parties? And
yet these latter cases are much the most frequent; for, although I have met with numerous
instances recorded by the German physiologists, of what is called far-working on the partof the somnambules, this power of appearing out of the body seems to be a very rare one.
Many persons will be surprised at these allusions to a kind of magnetic phenomena, of
which, in this country, so little is known or believed; but the physiologists andpsychologists of Germany have been studying this subject for the last fifty years, and thevolumes filled with their theoretical views and records of cases, are numerous beyond
anything the English public has an idea of.
The only other theory I have met with, which pretends to explain the mode of thisdouble appearance, is that of the spirit leaving the body, as we have supposed it to do incases of dreams and catalepsy; in which instances the nerve-spirit, which seems to be thearchæus or astral spirit of the ancient philosophers, has the power of projecting a visible
body out of the imponderable matter of the atmosphere. According to this theory, thisnerve-spirit, which seems to be an embodiment of—or rather, a body constructed out of thenervous fluid, or ether—in short, the spiritual body of St. Paul, is the bond of union
between the body and the soul, or spirit; and has the plastic force of raising up an aerial
form. Being the highest organic power, it can not by any other, physical or chemical, be
destroyed; and when the body is cast off, it follows the soul; and as, during life, it is themeans by which the soul acts upon the body, and is thus enabled to communicate with theexternal world, so when the spirit is disembodied, it is through this nerve-spirit that it canmake itself visible, and even exercise mechanical powers.
It is certain, that not only somnambules, but sick persons, are occasionally sensible of afeeling that seems to lend some countenance to this latter theory.
The girl at Canton, for example, mentioned in a former chapter, as well as many
somnambulic patients, declare, while their bodies are lying stiff and cold, that they see it, as
if out of it; and, in some instances, they describe particulars of its appearance, which they
could not see in the ordinary way. There are also numerous cases of sick persons seeing
themselves double, where no tendency to delirium or spectral illusion has been observed.
These are, in this country, always placed under the latter category; but I find various
instances recorded by the German physiologists, where this appearance has been seen byothers, and even by children, at the same that it was felt by the invalid. In one of thesecases, I find the sick person saying, “I can not think how I am lying. It seems to me that I
am divided and lying in two places at once.” It is remarkable, that a friend of my own,
during an illness in the autumn of 1845, expressed precisely the same feeling; we, however,saw nothing of this second ego; but it must be remembered, that the seeing of these things,
as I have said in a former chapter, probably depends on a peculiar faculty or condition of
the seer. The servant of Elisha was not blind, but yet he could not see what his master saw,
till his eyes were opened—that is, till he was rendered capable of perceiving spiritual
objects.
When Peter was released from prison by the angel—and it is not amiss here to remark,that even he “wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw avision,” that is, he did not believe his senses, but supposed himself the victim of a spectral
illusion—but when he was released, and went and knocked at the door of the gate, where
many of his friends were assembled, they, not conceiving it possible he could have escaped,
said, when the girl who had opened the door insisted that he was there, “It is his angel.”
What did they mean by this? The expression is not an angel, but his angel. Now, it is not alittle remarkable, that in the East, to this day, a double, or doppelgänger, is called a man’s
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Croweangel, or messenger. As we can not suppose that this term was used otherwise thanseriously by the disciples that were gathered together in Mark’s house, for they were introuble about Peter, and, when he arrived, were engaged in prayer, we are entitled tobelieve they alluded to some recognised phenomenon. They knew, either that the likenessof a man—his spiritual self—sometimes appeared where bodily he was not; and that thisimago or idolon was capable of exerting a mechanical force, or else that other spirits
sometimes assumed a mortal form, or they would not have supposed it to be Peter’s angelthat had knocked at the gate.
Dr. Ennemoser, who always leans to the physical rather than the psychical explanationof a phenomenon, says, that the faculty of self-seeing, which is analogous to seeing anotherperson’s double, is to be considered an illusion; but that this imago of another seen at a
distance, at the moment of death, must be supposed to have an objective reality. But if weare capable of thus perceiving the imago of another person, I can not comprehend why we
may not see our own; unless, indeed, the former was never perceived but when the body ofthe person seen was in a state of insensibility; but this does not always seem to be anecessary condition, as will appear by some examples I am about to detail. The faculty ofperceiving the object, Dr. Ennemoser considers analogous to that of second sight, andthinks it may be evolved by local, as well as idiosyncratical conditions. The difficultyarising from the fact that some persons are in the habit of seeing the wraiths of their friends
and relations, must be explained by his hypothesis. The spirit, as soon as liberated from thebody, is adapted for communion with all spirits, embodied or otherwise; but all embodied
spirits are not prepared for communion with it.
A Mr. R⁠——, a gentleman who has attracted public attention by some scientificdiscoveries, had had a fit of illness at Rotterdam. He was in a state of convalescence, but
was still so far taking care of himself as to spend part of the day in bed, when, as he waslying there one morning, the door opened, and there entered in tears, a lady with whom he
was intimately acquainted, but whom he believed to be in England. She walked hastily tothe side of his bed, wrung her hands, evincing by her gestures extreme anguish of mind,
and before he could sufficiently recover his surprise to inquire the cause of her distress andsudden appearance, she was gone. She did not disappear, but walked out of the room again,
and Mr. R⁠—— immediately summoned the servants of the hotel, for the purpose of making
inquiries about the English lady—when she came, what had happened to her, and where
she had gone to, on quitting his room? The people declared there was no such person there;
he insisted there was, but they at length convinced him that they, at least, knew nothing
about her. When his physician visited him, he naturally expressed the great perplexity into
which he had been thrown by this circumstance; and, as the doctor could find no symptoms
about his patient that could warrant a suspicion of spectral illusion, they made a note of thedate and hour of the occurrence, and Mr. R⁠—— took the earliest opportunity ofascertaining if anything had happened to the lady in question. Nothing had happened toherself, but at that precise period her son had expired, and she was actually in the state of
distress in which Mr. R⁠—— beheld her. It would be extremely interesting to know whether
her thoughts had been intensely directed to Mr. R⁠—— at the moment; but that is a point
which I have not been able to ascertain. At all events the impelling cause of the form
projected, be the mode of it what it may, appears to have been violent emotion. The
following circumstance, which is forwarded to me by the gentleman to whom it occurred,appears to have the same origin:—“On the evening of the 12th of March, 1792,” says Mr. H⁠——, an artist, and a man ofscience, “I had been reading in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ and retired to my room
somewhat fatigued, but not inclined to sleep. It was a bright moonlight night and I had
extinguished my candle and was sitting on the side of the bed, deliberately taking off myclothes, when I was amazed to behold the visible appearance of my half-uncle, Mr. R.
Robertson, standing before me; and, at the same instant, I heard the words, ‘Twice will be
sufficient!’ The face was so distinct that I actually saw the pock-pits. His dress seemed tobe made of a strong twilled sort of sackcloth, and of the same dingy color. It was more likea woman’s dress than a man’s—resembling a petticoat, the neck-band close to the chin, andthe garment covering the whole person, so that I saw neither hands nor feet. While thefigure stood there, I twisted my fingers till they cracked, that I might be sure I was awake.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“On the following morning, I inquired if anybody had heard lately of Mr. R., and waswell laughed at when I confessed the origin of my inquiry. I confess I thought he was dead;but when my grandfather heard the story, he said that the dress I described, resembled thestrait-jacket Mr. R. had been put in formerly, under an attack of insanity. Subsequently, welearned that on the night, and at the very hour I had seen him, he had attempted suicide, andbeen actually put into a strait-jacket.
“He afterward recovered, and went to Egypt with Sir Ralph Abercrombie. Some people
laugh at this story, and maintain that it was a delusion of the imagination; but surely this isblinking the question! Why should my imagination create such an image, while my mind
was entirely engrossed with a mathematical problem?”
The words “Twice will be sufficient.” probably embodied the thought, uttered or not, ofthe maniac, under the influence of his emotion—two blows or two stabs would be
sufficient for his purpose.
Dr. Kerner relates a case of a Dr. John B⁠——, who was studying medicine in Paris,
seeing his mother one night, shortly after he had got into bed, and before he had put out his
light. She was dressed after a fashion in which he had never seen her; but she vanished,—
and thus, aware of the nature of the appearance, he became much alarmed, and wrote home
to inquire after her health. The answer he received was that she was extremely unwell,having been under the most intense anxiety on his account, from hearing that several
medical students in Paris had been arrested as resurrectionists; and, knowing his passion for
anatomical investigations, she had apprehended he might be among the number. The letterconcluded with an earnest request that he would pay her a visit. He did so; and his surprise
was so great on meeting her, to perceive that she was dressed exactly as he had seen her in
his room at Paris, that he could not at first embrace her, and was obliged to explain thecause of his astonishment and repugnance.
An analogous case to these is that of Dr. Donne,—which is already mentioned in somany publications, that I should not allude to it here but for the purpose of showing thatthese examples belong to a class of facts, and that it is not to be supposed that similarity
argues identity, or that one and the same story is reproduced with new names and localities.
I mention this because, when circumstances of this kind are related, I sometimes hearpeople say, “Oh, I have heard that story before, but it was said to have happened to Mr. Soand-so, or at such a place;” the truth being, that these things happen in all places and to agreat variety of people.
Dr. Donne was with the embassy in Paris, where he had been but a short time, when his
friend Mr. Roberts, entering the salon, found him in a state of considerable agitation. As
soon as he was sufficiently recovered to speak, he said that his wife had passed twice
through the room with a dead child in her arms. An express was immediately despatched toEngland to inquire for the lady, and the intelligence returned was that, after much suffering,
she had been delivered of a dead infant. The delivery had taken place at the time that her
husband had seen her in Paris. Nobody has ever disputed Dr. Donne’s assertion that he saw
his wife: but, as usual, the case is crammed into the theory of spectral illusions. They say
Dr. Donne was naturally very anxious about his wife’s approaching confinement, of which
he must have been aware, and that his excited imagination did all the rest. In the first place,
I do not find it recorded that he was suffering any particular anxiety on the subject; and,even if he were, the coincidences in time and in the circumstance of the dead child remain
unexplained. Neither are we led to believe that the doctor was unwell, or living the kind oflife that is apt to breed thick-coming fancies. He was attached to the embassy in the gay
city of Paris; he had just been taking luncheon with others of the suite, and had been left
alone but a short time, when he was found in the state of amazement above described. Ifsuch extraordinary cases of spectral illusion as this, and many others I am recording, cansuddenly arise in constitutions apparently healthy, it is certainly high time that the medical
world reconsider the subject, and give us some more comprehensible theory of it; if they
are not cases of spectral illusion, but are to be explained under that vague and abused term
imagination, let us be told something more about imagination—a service which those who
consider the word sufficient to account for these strange phenomena, must of course bequalified to perform. If, however, both these hypotheses—for they are but simple
hypotheses, unsupported by any proof whatever, only, being delivered with an air ofauthority in a rationalistic age, they have been allowed to pass unquestioned—if, however,https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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they are not found sufficient to satisfy a vast number of minds, which I know to be thecase, I think the inquiry I am instituting can not be wholly useless or unacceptable, let itlead us where it may. The truth is all I seek; and I think there is a very important truth to be
deduced from the further investigation of this subject in its various relations—in short, a
truth of paramount importance to all others; one which contains evidence of a fact in which
we are more deeply concerned than in any other, and which, if well established, brings
demonstration to confirm intuition and tradition. I am very well aware of all the difficulties
in the way—difficulties internal and external,—many inherent to the subject itself, andothers extraneous but inseparable from it; and I am very far from supposing that my book is
to settle the question even with a single mind. All I hope or expect is to show that thequestion is not disposed of yet, either by the rationalists or the physiologists, and that it isstill an open one; and all I desire is to arouse inquiry and curiosity, and that thus somemind, better qualified than mine to follow out the investigation, may be incited toundertake it.
Dr. Kerner mentions the case of a lady named Dillenius, who was awakened one nightby her son, a child six years of age; her sister-in-law, who slept in the same room, also
awoke at the same time, and all three saw Madame Dillenius enter the room, attired in a
black dress, which she had lately bought. The sister said, “I see you double! you are in bed,
and yet you are walking about the room.” They were both extremely alarmed, while thefigure stood between the doors in a melancholy attitude with the head leaning on the hand.
The child—who also saw it, but seems not to have been terrified—jumped out of bed, andrunning to the figure, put his hand through it as he attempted to push it, exclaiming, “Go
away, you black woman.” The form, however, remained as before; and the child, becoming
alarmed, sprung into bed again. Madame Dillenius expected that the appearance foreboded
her own death; but that did not ensue. A serious accident immediately afterward occurredto her husband, and she fancied there might be some connection between the two events.
This is one of those cases which, from their extremely perplexing nature, have induced
some psychologists to seek an explanation in the hypothesis that other spirits may for some
purpose, or under certain conditions, assume the form of a person with a view to giving an
intimation or impression, which the gulf separating the material from the spiritual world
renders it difficult to convey. As regards such instances as that of Madame Dillenius,
however, we are at a loss to discover any motive—unless, indeed, it be sympathy—for suchan exertion of power, supposing it to be possessed. But in the famous case of Catherine of
Russia, who is said, while lying in bed, to have been seen by the ladies to enter the throneroom, and, being informed of the circumstance, went herself and saw the figure seated on
the throne, and bade her guards fire on it, we may conceive it possible that her guardianspirit, if such she had, might adopt this mode of warning her to prepare for a change,
which, after such a life as hers, we are entitled to conclude she was not very fit toencounter.
There are numerous examples of similar phenomena to be met with. Professor Stilling
relates that he heard from the son of a Madame M⁠——, that his mother, having sent her
maid up stairs on an errand, the woman came running down in a great fright, saying that
her mistress was sitting above, in her arm-chair, looking precisely as she had left her below.
The lady went up stairs, and saw herself as described by the woman, very shortly after
which she died.
Dr. Werner relates that a jeweller at Ludwigsburg, named Ratzel, when in perfect
health, one evening, on turning the corner of a street, met his own form, face to face. The
figure seemed as real and lifelike as himself; and he was so close as to look into its veryeyes. He was seized with terror, and it vanished. He related the circumstance to several
people, and endeavored to laugh, but, nevertheless, it was evident he was painfully
impressed with it. Shortly afterward, as he was passing through a forest, he fell in withsome wood-cutters, who asked him to lend a hand to the ropes with which they werepulling down an oak-tree. He did so, and was killed by its fall.
Becker, professor of mathematics at Rostock, having fallen into argument with somefriends regarding a disputed point of theology, on going to his library to fetch a book which
he wished to refer to, saw himself sitting at the table in the seat he usually occupied. He
approached the figure, which appeared to be reading, and, looking over its shoulder, heobserved that the book open before it was a bible, and that, with one of the fingers of thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Croweright hand, it pointed to the passage—“Make ready thy house, for thou must die!” He
returned to the company, and related what he had seen, and, in spite of all their arguments
to the contrary, remained fully persuaded that his death was at hand. He took leave of his
friends, and expired on the following day, at six o’clock in the evening. He had alreadyattained a considerable age.
Those who would not believe in the appearance, said he had died of the fright; but,whether he did so or not, the circumstance is sufficiently remarkable: and, if this were areal, outstanding apparition, it would go strongly to support the hypothesis alluded toabove, while, if it were a spectral illusion, it is certainly an infinitely strange one.
As I am aware how difficult it is, except where the appearance is seen by more persons
than one, to distinguish cases of actual self-seeing from those of spectral illusion, I do notlinger longer in this department; but, returning to the analogous subject of doppelgängers, I
will relate a few curious instances of this kind of phenomena:—
Stilling relates that a government-officer, of the name of Triplin, in Weimar, on going tohis office to fetch a paper of importance, saw his own likeness sitting there, with the deed
before him. Alarmed, he returned home, and desired his maid to go there and fetch thepaper she would find on the table. The maid saw the same form, and imagined that her
master had gone by another road, and got there before her. His mind seems to havepreceded his body.
The landrichter, or sheriff, F⁠——, in Frankfort, sent his secretary on an errand.
Presently afterward, the secretary re-entered the room, and laid hold of a book. His masterasked him what had brought him back, whereupon the figure vanished, and the book fell to
the ground. It was a volume of Linnæus. In the evening, when the secretary returned, andwas interrogated with regard to his expedition, he said that he had fallen into an eager
dispute with an acquaintance, as he went along, about some botanical question, and had
ardently wished he had had his Linnæus with him to refer to.
Dr. Werner relates that Professor Happach had an elderly maid-servant, who was in the
habit of coming every morning to call him, and on entering the room, which he generally
heard her do, she usually looked at a clock which stood under the mirror. One morning, sheentered so softly, that, though he saw her, he did not hear her foot. She went, as was hercustom, to the clock, and came to his bedside, but suddenly turned round and left the room.
He called after her, but she not answering, he jumped out of bed and pursued her. He could
not see her, however, till he reached her room, where he found her fast asleep in bed.
Subsequently, the same thing occurred frequently with this woman.
An exactly parallel case was related to me, as occurring to himself, by a publisher in
Edinburgh. His housekeeper was in the habit of calling him every morning. On one
occasion, being perfectly awake, he saw her enter, walk to the window, and go out again
without speaking. Being in the habit of fastening his door, he supposed he had omitted to
do so; but presently afterward he heard her knocking to come in, and he found the door was
still locked. She assured him she had not been there before. He was in perfectly good healthat the time this happened.
Only a few nights since, a lady, with whom I am intimately acquainted, was in bed, andhad not been to sleep, when she saw one of her daughters, who slept in an upper room, andwho had retired to rest some time before, standing at the foot of her bed. “H⁠——,” she said,“what is the matter? what are you come for?” The daughter did not answer, but moved
away. The mother jumped out of bed, but not seeing her, got in again: but the figure wasstill there. Perfectly satisfied it was really her daughter, she spoke to her, asking if anything
had happened; but again the figure moved silently away, and again the mother jumped outof bed, and actually went part of the way up stairs: and this occurred a third time! The
daughter was during the whole of this time asleep in her bed, and the lady herself is quite in
her usual state of health—not robust, but not by any means sickly, nor in the slightest
degree hysterical or nervous; yet she is perfectly convinced that she saw the figure of her
daughter on that occasion, though quite unable to account for the circumstance. Probably
the daughter was dreaming of the mother.
Edward Stern, author of some German works, had a friend who was frequently seen outof the body, as the Germans term it; and the father of that person was so much the subjectof this phenomenon, that he was frequently observed to enter his house while he was yetworking in the fields! His wife used to say to him, “Why, papa, you came home before;”
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and he would answer, “I dare say, I was so anxious to get away earlier, but it was
impossible!”
The cook in a convent of nuns, at Ebersdorf, was frequently seen picking herbs in thegarden, when she was in the kitchen and much in need of them.
A Danish physician, whose name Dr. Werner does not mention, is said to have beenfrequently seen entering a patient’s room, and on being spoken to, the figure would
disappear, with a sigh. This used to occur when he had made an appointment which he wasprevented keeping, and was rendered uneasy by the failure. The hearing of it, however,occasioned him such an unpleasant sensation, that he requested his patients never to tell
him when it happened.
A president of the supreme court, in Ulm, named Pfizer, attests the truth of thefollowing case: A gentleman, holding an official situation, had a son at Göttingen, whowrote home to his father, requesting him to send him, without delay, a certain book, which
he required to aid him in preparing a dissertation he was engaged in. The father answeredthat he had sought but could not find the work in question. Shortly afterward, the latter had
been taking a book from his shelves, when, on turning round, he beheld, to his amazement,
his son just in the act of stretching up his hand toward one on a high shelf in another part of
the room. “Hallo!” he exclaimed, supposing it to be the young man himself, but the figure
disappeared; and, on examining the shelf, the father found there the book that was required,
which he immediately forwarded to Göttingen; but before it could arrive there, he received
a letter from his son, describing the exact spot where it was to be found.
A case of what is called spectral illusion is mentioned by Dr. Paterson, which appears to
me to belong to the class of phenomena I am treating of. One Sunday evening, Miss N⁠——was left at home, the sole inmate of the house, not being permitted to accompany her
family to church on account of her delicate state of health. Her father was an infirm oldman, who seldom went from home, and she was not aware whether, on this occasion, he
had gone out with the rest or not. By-and-by, there came on a severe storm of thunder,
lightning, and rain, and Miss N⁠—— is described as becoming very uneasy about her father.
Under the influence of this feeling, Dr. Paterson says she went into the back room, where
he usually sat, and there saw him in his arm-chair. Not doubting but it was himself, sheadvanced and laid her hand upon his shoulder, but her hand encountered vacancy; and,alarmed, she retired. As she quitted the room, however, she looked back, and there still sat
the figure. Not being a believer in what is called the “supernatural,” Miss N⁠—— resolved
to overcome her apprehensions, and return into the room, which she did, and saw the figure
as before. For the space of fully half an hour she went in and out of the room in thismanner, before it disappeared. She did not see it vanish, but the fifth time she returned, it
was gone.
Dr. Paterson vouches for the truth of this story, and no doubt of its being a mere illusion
occurs to him, though the lady had never before or since, as she assured him, been troubled
with the malady. It seems to me much more likely that, when the storm came on, thethoughts of the old man would be intensely drawn homeward: he would naturally wish
himself in his comfortable arm-chair, and, knowing his young daughter to be alone, hewould inevitably feel some anxiety about her too. There was a mutual projection of their
spirits toward each other; and the one that was most easily freed from its bonds, was seen
where in the spirit it actually was; for, as I have said above, a spirit out of the flesh, towhom space is annihilated, must be where its thoughts and affections are, for its thoughts
and affections are itself.
I observe that Sir David Brewster and others, who have written on this subject, and who
represent all these phenomena as images projected on the retina from the brain, dwell muchon the fact that they are seen alike, whether the eye be closed or open. There are, however,
two answers to be made to this argument: first, that even if it were so, the proof would not
be decisive, since it is generally with closed eyes that somnambulic persons see, whether
natural somnambules or magnetic patients; and, secondly, I find in some instances, whichappear to me to be genuine cases of an objective appearance, that where the experiment has
been tried, the figure is not seen when the eyes are closed.
The author of a work entitled “An Inquiry into the Nature of Ghosts,” who adopts theillusion theory, relates the following story, as one he can vouch for, though not permitted togive the names of the parties:—
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“Miss ——, at the age of seven years, being in a field not far from her father’s house, inthe parish of Kirklinton, in Cumberland, saw what she thought was her father in the field, at
a time that he was in bed, from which he had not been removed for a considerable period.
There were in the field also, at the same moment, George Little, and John, his fellowservant. One of these cried out, ‘Go to your father, miss!’ She turned round, and the figure
had disappeared. On returning home, she said, ‘Where is my father?’ The mother answered,‘In bed, to be sure, child!’—out of which he had not been.”
I quote this case, because the figure was seen by two persons. I could mention several
similar instances, but when only seen by one, they are, of course, open to anotherexplanation.
Goethe (whose family, by-the-way, were ghost-seers) relates that as he was once in an
uneasy state of mind, riding along the footpath toward Drusenheim, he saw, “not with theeyes of his body, but with those of his spirit,” himself on horseback coming toward him, ina dress that he then did not possess. It was gray, and trimmed with gold. The figure
disappeared; but eight years afterward he found himself, quite accidentally, on that spot, on
horseback, and in precisely that attire. This seems to have been a case of second-sight.
The story of Byron’s being seen in London when he was lying in a fever at Patras, iswell known; but may possibly have arisen from some extraordinary personal resemblance,
though so firm was the conviction of its being his actual self, that a bet of a hundred
guineas was offered on it.
Some time ago, the “Dublin University Magazine” related a case—I know not on what
authority—as having occurred at Rome, to the effect that a gentleman had, one night ongoing home to his lodging, thrown his servant into great amazement, the man exclaiming,“Good Lord, sir, you came home before!” He declared that he had let his master into thehouse, attended him up stairs, and, I think, undressed him, and seen him get into bed. Whenthey went to the room, they found no clothes; but the bed appeared to have been lain in,and there was a strange mark upon the ceiling, as if from the passage of an electrical fluid.
The only thing the young man could remember, whereby to account for this extraordinary
circumstance, was, that while abroad, and in company, he had been overcome with ennui,
fallen into a deep reverie, and had for a time forgotten that he was not at home.
When I read this story, though I have learned from experience to be very cautious how I
pronounce that impossible which I know nothing about, I confess it somewhat exceeded
my receptive capacity, but I have since heard of a similar instance, so well authenticated,that my incredulity is shaken.
Dr. Kerner relates that a canon of a catholic cathedral, of somewhat dissipated habits,
on coming home one evening, saw a light in his bed-room. When the maid opened thedoor, she started back with surprise, while he inquired why she had left a candle burning up
stairs; upon which she declared that he had come home just before, and gone to his room,and she had been wondering at his unusual silence. On ascending to his chamber, he saw
himself sitting in the arm-chair. The figure rose, passed him, and went out at the room-door.
He was extremely alarmed, expecting his death was at hand. He, however, lived many
years afterward, but the influence on his moral character was very beneficial.
Not long since, a professor, I think of theology, at a college at Berlin, addressed hisclass, saying, that, instead of his usual lecture, he should relate to them a circumstancewhich, the preceding evening, had occurred to himself, believing the effects would be noless salutary.
He then told them that, as he was going home the last evening, he had seen his own
imago, or double, on the other side of the street. He looked away, and tried to avoid it, but,finding it still accompanied him, he took a short cut home, in hopes of getting rid of it,
wherein he succeeded, till he came opposite his own house, when he saw it at the door.
It rang, the maid opened, it entered, she handed it a candle, and, as the professor stoodin amazement, on the other side of the street, he saw the light passing the windows, as it
wound its way up to his own chamber. He then crossed over and rang; the servant was
naturally dreadfully alarmed on seeing him, but, without waiting to explain, he ascended
the stairs. Just as he reached his own chamber, he heard a loud crash, and, on opening thedoor, they found no one there, but the ceiling had fallen in, and his life was thus saved. The
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the Scotch churches, was present when the professor told his tale. Without admitting thedoctrine of protecting spirits, it is difficult to account for these latter circumstances.
A very interesting case of an apparent friendly intervention occurred to the celebrated
Dr. A⁠—— T⁠——, of Edinburgh. He was sitting up late one night, reading in his study,
when he heard a foot in the passage, and knowing the family were, or ought to be, all in
bed, he rose and looked out to ascertain who it was, but, seeing nobody, he sat down again.
Presently, the sound recurred, and he was sure there was somebody, though he could notsee him. The foot, however, evidently ascended the stairs, and he followed it, till it led him
to the nursery-door, which he opened, and found the furniture was on fire; and thus, but forthis kind office of his good angel, his children would have been burned in their beds.
The most extraordinary history of this sort, however, with which I am acquainted, is thefollowing, the facts of which are perfectly authentic:—
Some seventy or eighty years since, the apprentice, or assistant, of a respectable
surgeon in Glasgow, was known to have had an illicit connection with a servant-girl, whosomewhat suddenly disappeared. No suspicion, however, seems to have been entertained offoul play. It appears rather to have been supposed that she had retired for the purpose ofbeing confined, and, consequently, no inquiries were made about her.
Glasgow was, at that period, a very different place to what it is at present, in more
respects than one; and, among its peculiarities, was the extraordinary strictness with which
the observance of the sabbath was enforced, insomuch, that nobody was permitted to show
themselves in the streets or public walks during the hours dedicated to the church services,and there were actually inspectors appointed to see that this regulation was observed, and to
take down the names of defaulters.
At one extremity of the city, there is some open ground, of rather considerable extent,on the north side of the river, called “The Green,” where people sometimes resort for air
and exercise; and where lovers not unfrequently retire to enjoy as much solitude as theproximity to so large a town can afford.
One Sunday morning, the inspectors of public piety above alluded to having traversed
the city, and extended their perquisitions as far as the lower extremity of the Green, where
it was bounded by a wall, observed a young man lying on the grass, whom they
immediately recognised to be the surgeon’s assistant. They, of course, inquired why he was
not at church, and proceeded to register his name in their books, but, instead of attempting
to make any excuse for his offence, he only rose from the ground, saying, “I am a miserable
man; look in the water!” He then immediately crossed a stile, which divided the wall, andled to a path extending along the side of the river toward the Rutherglen road. They saw
him cross the stile, but, not comprehending the significance of his words, instead ofobserving him further, they naturally directed their attention to the water, where theypresently perceived the body of a woman. Having with some difficulty dragged it ashore,
they immediately proceeded to carry it into the town, assisted by several other persons,who by this time had joined them. It was now about one o’clock, and, as they passed
through the streets, they were obstructed by the congregation that was issuing from one ofthe principal places of worship; and, as they stood up for a moment, to let them pass, they
saw the surgeon’s assistant issue from the church door. As it was quite possible for him tohave gone round some other way, and got there before them, they were not much surprised.
He did not approach them, but mingled with the crowd, while they proceeded on their way.
On examination, the woman proved to be the missing servant-girl. She was pregnant,and had evidently been murdered with a surgeon’s instrument, which was found entangled
among her clothes. Upon this, in consequence of his known connection with her, and his
implied self-accusation to the inspectors, the young man was apprehended on suspicion of
being the guilty party, and tried upon the circuit. He was the last person seen in her
company, immediately previous to her disappearance; and there was, altogether, suchstrong presumptive evidence against him, as corroborated by what occurred on the green
would have justified a verdict of guilty. But, strange to say, this last most important item inthe evidence failed, and he established an incontrovertible alibi; it being proved, beyond all
possibility of doubt, that he had been in church from the beginning of the service to the endof it. He was, therefore, acquitted; while the public were left in the greatest perplexity, toaccount as they could for this extraordinary discrepancy. The young man was well known
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their books. Neither, it must be remembered, were they seeking for him, nor thinking ofhim, nor of the woman, about whom there existed neither curiosity nor suspicion. Least ofall, would they have sought her where she was, but for the hint given to them.
The interest excited, at the time, was very great; but no natural explanation of themystery has ever been suggested.

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CHAPTER IX.

171

APPARITIONS.

The number of stories on record, which seem to support the views I have suggested in
my last chapter, is, I fancy, little suspected by people in general; and still less is it imaginedthat similar occurrences are yet frequently taking place. I had, indeed, myself no idea of
either one circumstance or the other, till my attention being accidentally turned in thisdirection, I was led into inquiries, the result of which has extremely surprised me. I do notmean to imply that all my acquaintance are ghost-seers, or that these things happen every
day; but the amount of what I do mean, is this: first, that besides the numerous instances ofsuch phenomena alluded to in history, which have been treated as fables by those who
profess to believe the rest of the narratives, though the whole rests upon the same
foundation, that is, tradition and hearsay; besides these, there exists in one form or another,
hundreds and hundreds of recorded cases, in all countries, and in all languages, exhibitingthat degree of similarity which mark them as belonging to a class of facts, many of thesebeing of a nature which seems to preclude the possibility of bringing them under the theoryof spectral illusions; and, secondly, that I scarcely meet any one man or woman, who, if I
can induce them to believe I will not publish their names, and am not going to laugh atthem, is not prepared to tell me of some occurrence of the sort, as having happened tothemselves, their family, or their friends. I admit that in many instances they terminate theirnarration, by saying, that they think it must have been an illusion, because they can notbring themselves to believe in ghosts; not unfrequently adding, that they wish to think so;since to think otherwise would make them uncomfortable. I confess, however, that thisseems to me a very unwise, as well as a very unsafe way of treating the matter. Believing
the appearance to be an illusion, because they can not bring themselves to believe inghosts, simply amounts to saying, “I don’t believe, because I don’t believe;” and is anargument of no effect, except to invalidate their capacity for judging the question, at all; but
the second reason for not believing, namely, that they do not wish to do so, has not only thesame disadvantage, but is liable to much more serious objections; for it is our duty toascertain the truth in an affair that concerns every soul of us so deeply; and to shrink fromlooking at it, lest it should disclose something we do not like, is an expedient as childish as
it is desperate.
In reviewing my late novel of “Lilly Dawson,” where I announce the present work, I
observe that while some of the reviewers scout the very idea of anybody’s believing in
ghosts, others, less rash, while they admit that it is a subject we know nothing about, object
to further investigation, on account of the terrors and uncomfortable feelings that will beengendered. Now, certainly, if it were a matter in which we had no personal concern, andwhich belonged merely to the region of speculative curiosity, everybody would be perfectly
justified in following their inclinations with regard to it; there would be no reason forfrightening themselves, if they did not like it; but, since it is perfectly certain that the fate ofthese poor ghosts, be what it may, will be ours some day—perhaps before another year oranother week has passed over our heads—to shut our eyes to the truth, because it may
perchance occasion us some uncomfortable feelings, is surely a strange mixture ofcontemptible cowardice and daring temerity. If it be true that, by some law of nature,
departed souls occasionally revisit the earth, we may be quite certain that it was intended
we should know it, and that the law is to some good end; for no law of God can be
purposeless or mischievous; and is it conceivable that we should say we will not know it,
because it is disagreeable to us? Is not this very like saying, “Let us eat, drink, and be
merry, for to-morrow we die!” and yet refusing to inquire what is to become of us when we
do die? refusing to avail ourselves of that demonstrative proof which God has mercifully
placed within our reach? And, with all this obstinacy, people do not get rid of theapprehension; they go on struggling against it and keeping it down by argument andreason; but there are very few persons indeed, men or women, who, when placed in asituation calculated to suggest the idea, do not feel the intuitive conviction striving withinhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowethem. In the ordinary circumstances of life, nobody suffers from this terror; in theextraordinary ones, I find the professed disbelievers not much better off than the believers.
Not long ago, I heard a lady expressing the great alarm she should have felt, had she been
exposed to spend a whole night on Ben Lomond, as Margaret Fuller, the American
authoress, did lately; “for,” said she, “though I don’t believe in ghosts, I should have beendreadfully afraid of seeing one then!”Moreover, though I do not suppose that man, in his normal state, could ever encounter
an incorporeal spirit without considerable awe, I am inclined to think that the extreme
terror the idea inspires arises from bad training. The ignorant frighten children with ghosts,
and the better educated assure them there is no such thing. Our understanding may believe
the latter, but our instincts believe the former; so that, out of this education, we retain theterror, and just belief enough to make it very troublesome whenever we are placed incircumstances that awaken it. Now, perhaps, if the thing were differently managed, theresult might be different. Suppose the subject were duly investigated, and it wereascertained that the views which I and many others are disposed to entertain with regard to
it are correct,—and suppose, then, children were calmly told that it is not impossible butthat, on some occasion, they may see a departed friend again—that the laws of nature,established by an allwise Providence, admit of the dead sometimes revisiting the earth,doubtless for the benevolent purpose of keeping alive in us our faith in a future state—that
death is merely a transition to another life, which it depends on ourselves to make happy orotherwise—and that while those spirits which appear bright and blessed may well beobjects of our envy, the others should excite only our intense compassion: I am persuadedthat a child so educated would feel no terror at the sight of an apparition, more especially as
there very rarely appears to be anything terrific in the aspect of these forms; they generally
come in their “habits as they lived,” and appear so much like the living person in the flesh,that where they are not known to be already dead, they are frequently mistaken for them.
There are exceptions to this rule,—but the forms in themselves rarely exhibit anything tocreate alarm.
As a proof that a child would not naturally be terrified at the sight of an apparition, I
will adduce the following instance, the authenticity of which I can vouch for:—A lady with her child embarked on board a vessel at Jamaica, for the purpose of visiting
her friends in England, leaving her husband behind her quite well. It was a sailing packet;
and they had been some time at sea, when one evening, while the child was kneeling before
her saying his prayers previous to going to rest, he suddenly said: “Mamma, papa!”“Nonsense, my dear!” the mother answered, “you know your papa is not here!”—“He isindeed, mamma,” returned the child, “he is looking at us now.” Nor could she convince him
to the contrary. When she went on deck, she mentioned the circumstance to the captain,
who thought it so strange, that he said he would note down the date of the occurrence. The
lady begged him not to do so, saying it was attaching a significance to it which would makeher miserable. He did it, however; and, shortly after her arrival in England, she learned that
her husband had died exactly at that period.
I have met with other instances in which children have seen apparitions without
exhibiting any alarm; and in the case of Fredericka Hauffe, the infant in her arms was
frequently observed to point smilingly to those which she herself said she saw. In the above
related case, we find a valuable example of an apparition which we can not believe to havebeen a mere subjective phenomenon, being seen by one person and not by another. The
receptivity of the child may have been greater, or the rapport between it and its father
stronger; but this occurrence inevitably leads us to suggest, how often our departed friends
may be near us, and we not see them!
A Mr. B⁠——, with whom I am acquainted, informed me that, some years ago, he lost
two children. There was an interval of two years between their deaths; and about as long a
period had elapsed since the decease of the second, when the circumstance I am about torelate took place. It may be conceived that at that distance of time, however vivid theimpression had been at first, it had considerably faded from the mind of a man engaged inbusiness; and he assures me that, on the night this event occurred, he was not thinking of
the children at all; he was, moreover, perfectly well, and had neither eaten nor drank
anything unusual, nor abstained from eating or drinking anything to which he was
accustomed. He was therefore in his normal state; when shortly after he had lain down in
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bed, and before he had fallen asleep, he heard the voice of one of the children say: “Papa—
papa!”“Do you hear that?” he said to his wife, who lay beside him—“I hear Archy calling me,
as plain as ever I heard him in my life!”“Nonsense!” returned the lady; “you are fancying it.”
But presently he again heard “Papa, papa!” and now both voices spoke. Upon which—exclaiming, “I can stand this no longer”—he started up, and, drawing back the curtains,
saw both children in their night-dresses, standing near the bed. He immediately jumped out;
whereupon they retreated slowly, and with their faces toward him, to the window, where
they disappeared. He says that the circumstance made a great impression upon him at thetime; and, indeed, that it was one that could never be effaced; but he did not know what tothink of it, not believing in ghosts, and therefore concluded it must have been someextraordinary spectral illusion, especially as his wife heard nothing. It may have been so;
but that circumstance by no means proves it.
From these varying degrees of susceptibility, or affinity, there seems to arise anotherconsequence, namely, that more than one person may see the same object, and yet see it
differently, and I mention this particularly, because it is one of the objections that
unreflecting persons make to phenomena of this kind, second sight especially. In theremarkable instance which is recorded to have occurred at Ripley, in the year 1812, towhich I shall allude more particularly in a future chapter, much stress was laid on the fact,that the first seer said, “Look at those beasts!” While the second answered, they were “notbeasts, but men.” In a former chapter, I mentioned the case of a lady, on board a ship,seeing and feeling a sort of blue cloud hanging over her, which afterward, as it retired,assumed a human form, though still appearing a vapory substance. Now, possibly, had her
receptivity, or the rapport, been greater, she might have seen the distinct image of her dying
friend. I have met with several instances of these cloudy figures being seen, as if the spirit
had built itself up a form of atmospheric air; and it is remarkable, that when other persons
perceived the apparitions that frequented the Seeress of Prevorst, some saw those as cloudy
forms, which she saw distinctly attired in the costume they wore when alive; and thus, onsome occasions, apparitions are represented as being transparent, while on others they havenot been distinguishable from the real corporeal body. All these discrepancies, and others,
to be hereafter alluded to, are doubtless only absurd to our ignorance; they are the results ofphysical laws, as absolute, though not so easily ascertained, as those by which the mostordinary phenomena around us are found explicable.
With respect to these cloudy forms, I have met with four instances lately, two occurring
to ladies, and two to gentlemen; the one a minister, and the other a man engaged inbusiness; and although I am quite aware that these cases are not easily to be distinguishedfrom those of spectral illusion, yet I do not think them so myself; and as they occurred topersons in their normal state of health, who never before or since experienced anything of
the kind, and who could find nothing in their own circumstances to account for its
happening then, I shall mention them. In the instances of the gentlemen and one of theladies, they were suddenly awakened, they could not tell by what, and perceived bending
over them a cloudy form, which immediately retreated slowly to the other end of the room,and disappeared. In the fourth case, which occurred to an intimate friend of my own, she
had not been asleep; but having been the last person up in the house, had just stepped into
the bed, where her sister had already been some time asleep. She was perfectly awake,when her attention was attracted by hearing the clink of glass, and, on looking up, she saw
a figure standing on the hearth, which was exactly opposite her side of the bed, and as there
was water and a tumbler there, she concluded that her sister had stepped out at the bottom,
unperceived by her, and was drinking. While she was carelessly observing the figure, it
moved toward the bed, and laid a heavy hand upon her, pressing her arm in a manner thatgave her pain. “Oh, Maria, don’t!” she exclaimed; but as the form retreated, and she lostsight of it, a strange feeling crept over her, and she stretched out her hand to ascertain if hersister was beside her. She was, and asleep; but this movement awoke her, and she found theother now in considerable agitation. She, of course, tried to persuade her that it was a
dream, or night-mare, as did the family the next day; but she was quite clear in her mind at
the time, as she then assured me, that it was neither one nor the other; though now, at the
distance of a year from the occurrence, she is very desirous of putting that construction
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upon it. As somebody will be ready to suggest that this was a freak played by one of thefamily, I can only answer that that is an explanation that no one who is acquainted with all
the circumstances, could admit; added to which, the figure did not disappear in the
direction of the door, but in quite an opposite one.
A very singular thing happened to the accomplished authoress of “Letters from theBaltic,” on which my readers may put what interpretation they please, but I give it here as apendant to the last story. The night before she left Petersburgh she passed in the house of afriend. The room appropriated to her use was a large dining-room, in which a temporary
bed was placed, and a folding screen was so arranged as to give an air of comfort to thenook where the bed stood. She went to bed, and to sleep, and no one who knows her cansuspect her of seeing spectral illusions, or being incapable of distinguishing her own
condition when she saw anything whatever. As she was to commence her journey on thefollowing day, she had given orders to be called at an early hour, and, accordingly, shefound herself awakened toward morning by an old woman in a complete Russian costume,
who looked at her, nodding and smiling, and intimating, as she supposed, that it was time torise. Feeling, however, very sleepy, and very unwilling to do so, she took her watch frombehind her pillow, and, looking at it, perceived that it was only four o’clock. As, from thecostume of the old woman, she knew her to be a Russian, and therefore not likely tounderstand any language she could speak, she shook her head, and pointed to the watch,
giving her to understand that it was too early. The woman looked at her, and nodded, andthen retreated, while the traveller lay down again and soon fell asleep. By-and-by, she wasawakened by a knock at the door and the voice of the maid whom she had desired to callher. She bade her come in, but, the door being locked on the inside, she had to get out of
bed to admit her. It now occurred to her to wonder how the old woman had entered, but,taking it for granted that there was some other mode of ingress she did not trouble herself
about it, but dressed, and descended to breakfast. Of course, the inquiry usually addressed
to a stranger was made—they hoped she had slept well! “Perfectly,” she said, “only that
one of their good people had been somewhat over anxious to get her up in the morning;”and she then mentioned the old woman’s visit, but to her surprise, they declared they had
no such person in the family. “It must have been some old nurse, or laundress, or somethingof that sort,” she suggested. “Impossible!” they answered; “you must have dreamed thewhole thing; we have no old woman in the house; nobody wearing that costume; andnobody could have got in, since the door must have been fastened long after that!” And
these assertions the servants fully confirmed; added to which, I should observe, that thehouse, like foreign houses in general, consisted of a flat, or floor, shut in by a door, which
separated it entirely from the rest of the building, and, being high up from the street,
nobody could even have gained access by a window. The lady now beginning to getsomewhat puzzled, inquired if there were any second entrance into the room; but, to her
surprise, she heard there was not; and she then mentioned that she had locked the door on
going to bed, and had found it locked in the morning. The thing has ever remained utterly
inexplicable, and the family, who were much more amazed by it than she was, would
willingly believe it to have been a dream; but, whatever the interpretation of it may be, shefeels quite certain that that is not the true one.
I make no comments on the above case, though a very inexplicable one; and I scarcely
know whether to mention any of those well-established tales, which appear to be certainly
as satisfactorily attested as any circumstance which is usually taken simply on report. I
allude particularly to the stories of General Wynyard; Lord Tyrone and Lady Beresford; thecase which took place at Havant, in Hampshire, and which is related in a letter from Mr.
Caswell the mathematician to Dr. Bentley; that which occurred in Cornwall, as narrated by
the Rev. Mr. Ruddle, one of the prebendaries of Exeter, whose assistance and advice wereasked, and who himself had two interviews with the spirit; and many others, which are
already published in different works; especially in a little book entitled “Accredited GhostStories.” I may, however, mention that, with respect to those of Lady Beresford andGeneral Wynyard, the families of the parties have always maintained their entire belief inthe circumstances; as do the family of Lady Betty Cobb, who took the riband from Lady
Beresford’s arm, after she was dead—she having always worn it since her interview withthe apparition, in order to conceal the mark he had left by touching her.
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There have been many attempts to explain away the story of Lord Littleton’s warning,although the evidence for it certainly satisfied the family, as we learn from Dr. Johnson,
who said, in regard to it, that it was the most extraordinary thing that had happened in hisday, and that he heard it from the lips of Lord Westcote, the uncle of Lord Littleton.
There is a sequel, however, to this story, which is extremely well authenticated, thoughmuch less generally known. It appears that Mr. Miles Peter Andrews, the intimate friend of
Lord Littleton, was at his house, at Dartford, when Lord L. died at Pitt-place, Epsom, thirty
miles off. Mr. Andrews’ house was full of company, and he expected Lord Littleton, whom
he had left in his usual state of health, to join him the next day, which was Sunday.
Mr. Andrews himself feeling rather indisposed on the Saturday evening, retired early tobed, and requested Mrs. Pigou, one of his guests, to do the honors of his supper-table. He
admitted (for he is himself the authority for the story) that he fell into a feverish sleep on
going to bed, but was awakened between eleven and twelve by somebody opening his
curtains, which proved to be Lord Littleton, in a night-gown and cap, which Mr. Andrews
recognised. Lord Littleton spoke, saying that he was come to tell him all was over. It
appears that Lord Littleton was fond of practical joking, and as Mr. Andrews entertained no
doubt whatever of his visiter being Lord Littleton himself, in the body, he supposed that
this was one of his tricks; and, stretching his arm out of bed, he took hold of his slippers,
the nearest thing he could get at, and threw them at him, whereupon the figure retreated to a
dressing-room, which had no ingress or egress except through the bed-chamber. Upon this,Mr. Andrews jumped out of bed to follow him, intending to chastise him further, but hecould find nobody in either of the rooms, although the door was locked on the inside; so herang his bell, and inquired who had seen Lord Littleton. Nobody had seen him; but, though
how he had got in or out of the room remained an enigma, Mr. Andrews asserted that hewas certainly there; and, angry at the supposed trick, he ordered that they should give him
no bed, but let him go and sleep at the inn. Lord Littleton, however, appeared no more, and
Mr. Andrews went to sleep, not entertaining the slightest suspicion that he had seen an
apparition.
It happened that, on the following morning, Mrs. Pigou had occasion to go at an earlyhour to London, and great was her astonishment to learn that Lord Littleton had died on thepreceding night. She immediately despatched an express to Dartford with the news, upon
the receipt of which, Mr. Andrews, then quite well, and remembering perfectly all that had
happened, swooned away. He could not understand it, but it had a most serious effect upon
him, and, to use his own expression, he was not his own man again for three years.
There are various authorities for this story, the correctness of which is vouched for bysome members of Mrs. Pigou’s family, with whom I am acquainted, who have frequently
heard the circumstances detailed by herself, and who assure me it was always believed by
the family. I really, therefore, do not see what grounds we have for doubting either of thesefacts. Lord Westcote, on whose word Dr. Johnson founded his belief of Lord Littleton’s
warning, was a man of strong sense; and that the story was not looked upon lightly by thefamily, is proved by the fact that the dowager Lady Littleton had a picture—which wasseen by Sir Nathaniel Wraxhall in her house in Portugal street, as mentioned in his memoirs—wherein the event was commemorated. His lordship is in bed; the dove appears at thewindow; and a female figure stands at the foot of the couch, announcing to the unhappy
profligate his approaching dissolution. That he mentioned the warning to his valet, andsome other persons, and that he talked of jockeying the ghost by surviving the time named,is certain; as also that he died with his watch in his hand, precisely at the appointed period!
Mr. Andrews says that he was subject to fits of strangulation, from a swelling in the throat,
which might have killed him at any moment; but his decease having proceeded from anatural and obvious cause, does not interfere one way or the other with the validity of theprediction, which simply foretold his death at a particular period, not that there was to be
anything preternatural in the manner of it.
As I find so many people willing to believe in wraiths, who can not believe in ghosts—
that is, they are overpowered by the numerous examples, and the weight of evidence for the
first—it would be desirable if we could ascertain whether these wraiths are seen before thedeath occurs or after it; but, though the day is recorded, and seems always to be the one on
which the death took place, and the hour about the same, minutes are not sufficiently
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system of his distant friend, that the imagination of the latter projects the form, and sees it
as if objectively. By imagination I do not simply mean to convey the common notion
implied by that much-abused word, which is only fancy, but the constructive imagination,
which is a much higher function, and which, inasmuch as man is made in the likeness ofGod, bears a distant relation to that sublime power by which the Creator projects, creates,
and upholds, his universe; while the far-working of the departing spirit seems to consist in
the strong will to do, reinforced by the strong faith that it can be done. We have rarely thestrong will, and still more rarely the strong faith, without which the will remains
ineffective. In the following case, which is perfectly authentic, the apparition of Major
R⁠—— was seen several hours after his death had occurred.
In the year 1785, some cadets were ordered to proceed from Madras to join theirregiments up the country. A considerable part of the journey was to be made in a barge, andthey were under the conduct of a senior officer, Major R⁠——. In order to relieve themonotony of the voyage, this gentleman proposed, one day, that they should make ashooting excursion inland, and walk round to meet the boat at a point agreed on, which,owing to the windings of the river, it would not reach till evening. They accordingly took
their guns, and as they had to cross a swamp, Major R⁠——, who was well acquainted withthe country, put on a heavy pair of top-boots, which, together with an odd limp he had in
his gait, rendered him distinguishable from the rest of the party at a considerable distance.
When they reached the jungle, they found there was a wide ditch to leap, which all
succeeded in doing except the major, who being less young active, jumped short of therequisite distance; and although he scrambled up unhurt, he found his gun so crammed fullof wet sand that it would be useless till thoroughly cleansed. He therefore bade them walkon, saying he would follow; and taking off his hat, he sat down in the shade, where they left
him. When they had been beating about for game some time, they began to wonder why the
major did not come on, and they shouted to let him know whereabouts they were; but there
was no answer, and hour after hour passed without his appearance, till at length they began
to feel somewhat uneasy.
Thus the day wore away, and they found themselves approaching the rendezvous. The
boat was in sight, and they were walking down to it, wondering how their friend could havemissed them, when suddenly, to their great joy, they saw him before them, making toward
the barge. He was without his hat or gun, limping hastily along in his top-boots, and did notappear to observe them. They shouted after him, but as he did not look round, they began torun, in order to overtake him; and, indeed, fast as he went, they did gain considerably uponhim. Still he reached the boat first, crossing the plank which the boatmen had placed readyfor the gentlemen they saw approaching. He ran down the companion-stairs, and they after
him; but inexpressible was their surprise when they could not find him below! They
ascended again, and inquired of the boatmen what had become of him; but they declared hehad not come on board, and that nobody had crossed the plank till the young menthemselves had done so.
Confounded and amazed at what appeared so inexplicable, and doubly anxious about
their friend, they immediately resolved to retrace their steps in search of him; and,accompanied by some Indians who knew the jungle, they made their way back to the spot
where they had left him. Thence some footmarks enabled them to trace him, till, at a very
short distance from the ditch, they found his hat and his gun. Just then the Indians calledout to them to beware, for that there was a sunken well thereabouts, into which they might
fall. An apprehension naturally seized them that this might have been the fate of theirfriend; and on examining the edge, they saw a mark as of a heel slipping up. Upon this, oneof the Indians consented to go down, having a rope with which they had provided
themselves tied round his waist; for, aware of the existence of the wells, the natives
suspected what had actually occurred, namely, that the unfortunate gentleman had slipped
into one of these traps, which, being overgrown with brambles, were not discernible by theeye. With the assistance of the Indian, the body was brought up and carried back to theboat, amid the deep regrets of the party, with whom he had been a great favorite. They
proceeded with it to the next station, where an inquiry was instituted as to the manner of hisdeath, but of course there was nothing more to be elicited.
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I give this story as related by one of the parties present, and there is no doubt of its
perfect authenticity. He says he can in no way account for the mystery—he can only relate
the fact; and not one, but the whole five cadets, saw him as distinctly as they saw eachother. It was evident, from the spot where the body was found, which was not many
hundred yards from the well, that the accident must have occurred very shortly after theyleft him. When the young men reached the boat, Major R⁠—— must have been, for someseven or eight hours, a denizen of the other world, yet he kept the rendezvous!
There was a similar occurrence in Devonshire, some years back, which happened to thewell-known Dr. Hawker, who, one night in the street, observed an old woman pass him, towhom he was in the habit of giving a weekly charity. Immediately after she had passed, hefelt somebody pull his coat, and on looking round saw it was her, whereupon he put his
hand in his pocket to seek for a sixpence, but on turning to give it to her she was gone. He
thought nothing about it; but when he got home, he inquired if she had had her money thatweek,—when, to his amazement, he heard she was dead, but his family had forgotten tomention the circumstance. I have met with two curious cases, occurring in Edinburgh, oflate years; in one, a young man and his sister were in their kitchen, warming themselves
over the fire before they retired to bed, when, on raising their eyes, they both saw a female
figure, dressed in white, standing in the door-way and looking at them; she was leaning
against one of the door-posts. Miss E⁠——, the young lady, screamed; whereupon the figure
advanced, crossed the kitchen toward a closet, and disappeared. There was no egress at thecloset: and as they lived in a flat, and the door was closed for the night, a stranger could
neither have entered the house nor got out of it. In the other instance, there were two houses
on one flat, the doors opposite each other. In one of the houses there resided a person with
her two daughters, grown-up women: in the other lived a shoemaker and his wife. The
latter died, and it was said her husband had ill-treated her and worried her out of the world.
He was a drunken, dissipated man, and used to be out till a late hour most nights, while thispoor woman sat up for him, and when she heard a voice on the stairs, or a bell, she used
often to come out and look over to see if it were her husband returned. One night, when she
had been dead some weeks, the two young women were ascending the stairs to their own
door, when, to their amazement, they both saw her standing at the top, looking over as she
used to do in her lifetime. At the same moment their mother opened the door and saw thefigure also; the girls rushed past, overcome with terror, and one if not both fainted as soon
as they got into the door. The youngest fell on her face in the passage.
Another case, which occurred in this town, I mention—although I know it is liable to becalled a spectral illusion—because it bears a remarkable similarity to one which took placein America. A respectable woman lost her father, for whom she had a great affection; she
was of a serious turn, and much attached to the tenets of her church, in which particulars
she thought her father had been deficient. She was therefore very unhappy about him,
fearing that he had not died in a proper state of mind. A considerable time had elapsed
since his death, but her distrust of his condition was still causing her uneasiness; when one
day, while she was sitting at her work, she felt something touch her shoulder, and on
looking round she perceived her father, who bade her cease to grieve about him, as he was
not unhappy. From that moment she became perfectly resigned and cheerful. The Americancase—I have omitted to write down the name of the place, and forget it—was that of amother and son. She was also a highly respectable person, and was described to me as
perfectly trustworthy by one who knew her. She was a widow, and had one son, to whom
she was extremely attached. He however disappeared one day, and she never could learn
what had become of him; she always said that if she did but know his fate she should behappier. At length, when he had been dead a considerable time, her attention was one day,while reading, attracted by a slight noise, which induced her to look round, and she saw herson, dripping with water, and with a sad expression of countenance. The features, however,presently relaxed, and they assumed a more pleasing aspect before he disappeared. Fromthat time she ceased to grieve, and it was subsequently ascertained that the young man had
run away to sea; but no more was known of him. Certain it was, however, that she
attributed her recovered tranquillity to having seen her son as above narrated.
A lady with whom I am acquainted was one day, when a girl, standing at the top of thestairs, with two others, discussing their games, when they each suddenly exclaimed:“Who’s that?” There was a fourth among them—a girl in a checked pinafore; but she washttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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gone again. They had all seen her. One day a younger brother, in the same house, wasplaying with a whip, when he suddenly laughed at something, and cried “Take that;” anddescribed having seen the same girl. This led to some inquiry, and it was said that such agirl as they described had lived in that house, and had died from the bite of a mad dog; or,rather, had been smothered between two feather-beds: but whether that was actually done,or was only a report, I can not say. Supposing this to have been no illusion, and I really can
not see how it could be one, the memory of past sports and pleasures seems to have sosurvived as to have attracted the young soul, prematurely cut off, to the spot where thesame sports and pleasures were being enjoyed by the living.
A maid-servant in one of the midland counties of England, being up early one morning,heard her name called in a voice that seemed to be her brother’s, a sailor then at sea; andrunning up, she found him standing in the hall; he said he was come from afar, and wasgoing again, and mentioned some other things; when her mistress, hearing voices, called toknow who she was talking to: she said it was her brother from sea. After speaking to her forsome time, she suddenly lost sight of him, and found herself alone. Amazed and puzzled,
she told her mistress what had happened, who being led thus to suspect the kind of visiter it
was, looked out of the window to ascertain if there were any marks of footsteps, the groundbeing covered with snow. There were, however, none,—and it was therefore clear that
nobody could have entered the house. Intelligence afterward arrived of the young man’s
death.
This last is a case of wraith, but a more complicated one, from the circumstance ofspeech being superadded. But this is not by any means an isolated particular; there aremany such. The author of the book called “Accredited Ghost Stories”—whose name I at
this moment forget, and I have not the book at hand—gives, on his own authority, thefollowing circumstance, professing to be acquainted with the parties. A company werevisiting York cathedral, when a gentleman and lady, who had detached themselves from therest, observed an officer wearing a naval uniform approaching them; he walked quickly,
saying to the lady, as he passed, “There is another world.” The gentleman, seeing her
greatly agitated, pursued the stranger, but lost sight of him, and nobody had seen such aperson but themselves. On returning to his companion, she told him that it was her brother,
who was then abroad with his ship, and with whom she had frequently held discussions as
to whether there was or was not a future life. The news of the young man’s death shortly
reached the family. In this case the brother must have been dead; the spirit must havepassed out of this world into that other, the existence of which he came to certify. This is
one of those cases which—happening not long ago—leads one especially to regret the wantof moral courage which prevents people giving up their names and avowing theirexperience. The author of the abovementioned book, from which I borrow this story, saysthat the sheet had gone to the press with the real names of the parties attached, but that he
was requested to withdraw them, as it would be painful to the family. My view of this caseis so different, that, had it occurred to myself, I should have felt it my imperative duty tomake it known and give every satisfaction to inquirers.
Some years ago, during the war, when Sir Robert H. E⁠—— was in the Netherlands, hehappened to be quartered with two other officers, one of whom was despatched into
Holland on an expedition. One night, during his absence, Sir R. H. E⁠—— awoke, and, tohis great surprise, saw this absent friend sitting on the bed which he used to occupy, with awound in his breast. Sir Robert immediately awoke his companion, who saw the spectre
also. The latter then addressed them, saying that he had been that day killed in a skirmish,and that he had died in great anxiety about his family, wherefore he had come tocommunicate that there was a deed of much consequence to them deposited in the hands ofa certain lawyer in London, whose name and address he mentioned, adding that this man’s
honesty was not to be altogether relied on. He therefore requested that, on their return toEngland, they would go to his house and demand the deed, but that, if he denied thepossession of it, they were to seek it in a certain drawer in his office, which he described tothem. The circumstance impressed them very much at the time, but a long time had elapsed
ere they reached England, during which period they had gone through so many adventuresand seen so many friends fall around them, that this impression was considerably
weakened, insomuch that each went to his own home and his own pursuits without thinkingof fulfilling the commission they had undertaken. Some time afterward, however, it
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happened that they both met in London, and they then resolved to seek the street that had
been named to them, and ascertain if such a man lived there. They found him, requested aninterview, and demanded the deed, the possession of which he denied; but their eyes were
upon the drawer that had been described to them, where they asserted it to be, and being
there discovered, it was delivered into their hands. Here, also, the soul had parted from thebody, while the memory of the past and an anxiety for the worldly prosperity, of those left
behind, survived; and we thus see that the condition of mind in which this person had died,remained unchanged. He was not indifferent to the worldly prosperity of his relatives, andhe found his own state rendered unhappy by the fear that they might suffer from thedishonesty of his agent. It may here be naturally objected that hundreds of much-loved
widows and orphans have been ruined by dishonest trustees and agents, where no ghostcame back to instruct them in the means of obviating the misfortune. This is, no doubt, avery legitimate objection, and one which it is very difficult to answer. I must, however,repeat what I said before, nature is full of exceptional cases, while we know very little ofthe laws which regulate these exceptions; but we may see a very good reason for the factthat such communications are the exception, and not the rule; for if they were the latter, thewhole economy of this earthly life would be overturned, and its affairs must necessarily be
conducted in a totally different manner to that which prevails at present. What the effects ofsuch an arrangement of nature would be, had it pleased God to make it, he alone knows;
but certain it is, that man’s freedom, as a moral agent, would be in a great degree abrogated,were the barriers that impede our intercourse with the spiritual world removed.
It may be answered, that this is an argument which may be directed against the fact ofsuch appearances being permitted at all; but that is a fallacious objection. Earthquakes andhurricanes are occasionally permitted, which overthrow the work of man’s hands for
centuries; but if these convulsions of nature were of every-day occurrence, nobody would
think it worth their while to build a house or cultivate the earth, and the world would be a
wreck and a wilderness. The apparitions that do appear, are not without their use to those
who believe in them; while there is too great an uncertainty attending the subject, generally
to allow of its ever being taken into consideration in mundane affairs.
The old, so-called, superstition of the people, that a person’s “dying with something on
his mind” is one of the frequent causes of these revisitings, seems, like most other of theirsuperstitions, to be founded on experience. I meet with many cases in which someapparently trivial anxiety, or some frustrated communication, prevents the uneasy spirit
flinging off the bonds that bind it to the earth. I could quote many examples characterized
by this feature, but will confine myself to two or three.
Jung Stilling gives a very curious one, which occurred in the year 1746, and for theauthenticity of which he vouches. A gentleman of the name of Dorrien, of most excellent
character and amiable disposition, who was tutor in the Carolina Colleges, at Brunswick,died there in that year; and immediately previous to his death he sent to request aninterview with another tutor, of the name of Hofer, with whom he had lived on terms offriendship. Hofer obeyed the summons, but came too late, the dying man was already in thelast agonies. After a short time, rumors began to circulate that Herr Dorrien had been seen
by different persons about the college; but as it was with the pupils that these rumors
originated, they were supposed to be mere fancies, and no attention whatever was paid tothem. At length, however, in the month of October, three months after the decease of Herr
Dorrien, a circumstance occurred that excited considerable amazement among theprofessors. It formed part of the duty of Hofer to go through the college every night,
between the hours of eleven and twelve, for the purpose of ascertaining that all the scholars
were in bed, and that nothing irregular was going on among them. On the night in question,
on entering one of the ante-rooms in the execution of this duty, he saw, to his great
amazement, Herr Dorrien, seated, in the dressing-gown and white cap he was accustomed
to wear, and holding the latter with his right hand, in such a manner as to conceal the upper
part of the face; from the eyes to the chin, however, it was distinctly visible. This
unexpected sight naturally startled Hofer, but, summoning resolution, he advanced into theyoung men’s chamber, and, having ascertained that all was in order, closed the door; hethen turned his eyes again toward the spectre, and there it sat as before, whereupon he went
up to it, and stretched out his arm toward it; but he was now seized with such a feeling ofindescribable horror, that he could scarcely withdraw his hand, which became swollen to a
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degree that for some months he had no use of it. On the following day he related thiscircumstance to the professor of mathematics, Oeder, who of course treated the thing as aspectral illusion. He, however, consented to accompany Hofer on his rounds the ensuingnight, satisfied that he should be able either to convince him it was a mere phantasm, orelse a spectre of flesh and blood that was playing him a trick. They accordingly went at theusual hour, but no sooner had the professor set his foot in that same room, than heexclaimed, “By Heavens! it is Dorrien himself!” Hofer, in the meantime, proceeded into thechamber as before, in the pursuance of his duties, and, on his return, they bothcontemplated the figure for some time; neither of them had, however, the courage toaddress or approach it, and finally quitted the room, very much impressed, and perfectly
convinced that they had seen Dorrien.
This incident soon got spread abroad, and many people came in hopes of satisfying
their own eyes of the fact, but their pains were fruitless; and even Professor Oeder, who had
made up his mind to speak to the apparition, sought it repeatedly in the same place in vain.
At length, he gave it up, and ceased to think of it, saying, “I have sought the ghost longenough; if he has anything to say, he must now seek me.” About a fortnight after this, he
was suddenly awakened, between three and four o’clock in the morning, by something
moving in his chamber, and on opening his eyes, he beheld a shadowy form, having thesame appearance as the spectre, standing in front of a press which was not more than two
steps from his bed. He raised himself, and contemplated the figure, the features of which hesaw distinctly for some minutes, till it disappeared. On the following night he wasawakened in the same manner, and saw the figure as before, with the addition that there
was a sound proceeded from the door of the press, as if somebody was leaning against it.
The spectre also stayed longer this time, and Professor Oeder, no doubt frightened andangry, addressing it as an evil spirit, bade it begone, whereon it made gestures with its headand hands that alarmed him so much, that he adjured it in the name of God to leave him,
which it did. Eight days now elapsed without any further disturbance, but, after that period,
the visits of the spirit were resumed, and he was awakened by it repeatedly about three inthe morning, when it would advance from the press to the bed, and hang its head over him
in a manner so annoying, that he started up and struck at it, whereupon it would retire, but
presently advance again. Perceiving now, that the countenance was rather placid andfriendly than otherwise, the professor at length addressed it, and, having reason to believethat Dorrien had left some debts unpaid, he asked him if that were the case, upon which thespectre retreated some steps, and seemed to place itself in an attitude of attention. Oeder
reiterated the inquiry, whereupon the figure drew its hand across its mouth, in which theprofessor now observed a short pipe. “Is it to the barber you are in debt?” he inquired. The
spectre slowly shook its head. “Is it to the tobacconist, then?” asked he, the question being
suggested by the pipe. Hereupon the form retreated, and disappeared. On the following day,
Oeder narrated what had occurred to Councillor Erath, one of the curators of the college,
and also to the sister of the deceased, and arrangements were made for discharging thedebt. Professor Seidler, of the same college, now proposed to pass the night with Oeder, forthe purpose of observing if the ghost came again, which it did about five o’clock, andawoke Oeder as usual, who awoke his companion, but just then the form disappeared, andSeidler said he only saw something white. They then both disposed themselves to sleep, but
presently Seidler was aroused by Oeder’s starting up and striking out, while he cried, with avoice expressive of rage and horror, “Begone! You have tormented me long enough! If you
want anything of me, say what it is, or give me an intelligible sign, and come here no
more!”
Seidler heard all this, though he saw nothing; but as soon as Oeder was somewhat
appeased, he told him that the figure had returned, and not only approached the bed, but
stretched itself upon it. After this, Oeder burned a light, and had some one in the room
every night. He gained this advantage by the light, that he saw nothing; but about fouro’clock, he was generally awakened by noises in his room, and other symptoms thatsatisfied him the ghost was there. At length, however, this annoyance ceased also; andtrusting that his unwelcome guest had taken his leave, he dismissed his bedfellow, anddispensed with his light. Two nights passed quietly over; on the third, however, the spectre
returned; but very perceptibly darker. It now presented another sign, or symbol, which
seemed to represent a picture, with a hole in the middle, through which it thrust its head.
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Oeder was now so little alarmed, that he bade it express its wishes more clearly, or
approach nearer. To these requisitions the apparition shook its head, and then vanished.
This strange phenomenon recurred several times, and even in the presence of anothercurator of the college; but it was with considerable difficulty they discovered what thesymbol was meant to convey. They at length, however, found that Dorrien just before his
illness, had obtained, on trial, several pictures for a magic lantern, which had never beenreturned to their owner. This was now done, and from that time the apparition was neither
seen nor heard again. Professor Oeder made no secret of these circumstances; he related
them publicly in court and college; he wrote the account to several eminent persons, anddeclared himself ready to attest the facts upon his oath.
Stilling, who relates this story, has been called superstitious; he may be so; but his piety
and his honesty are above suspicion; he says the facts are well known, and that he canvouch for their authenticity; and as he must have been a contemporary of the parties
concerned, he had, doubtless, good opportunities of ascertaining what foundation there wasfor the story. It is certainly a very extraordinary one, and the demeanor of the spirit as little
like what we should have naturally apprehended as possible; but, as I have said before, wehave no right to pronounce any opinion on this subject, except from experience, and there
are two arguments to be advanced in favor of this narration; the one being, that I can not
imagine anybody setting about to invent a ghost-story, would have introduced
circumstances so apparently improbable and inappropriate; and the other consisting in thefact, that I have met with numerous relations, coming from very opposite quarters, which
seem to corroborate the one in question.
With respect to the cause of the spectre’s appearance, Jung Stilling, I think, reasonably
enough, suggests that the poor man had intended to commission Hofer to settle these little
affairs for him, but that delaying this duty too long, his mind had been oppressed by therecollection of them in his last moments—he had carried his care with him, and it boundhim to the earth. Wherefore, considering how many persons die with duties unperformed,
this anxiety to repair the neglect, is not more frequently manifested, we do not know; somereasons we have already suggested as possible; there may be others of which we can form
no idea, any more than we can solve the question, why in some cases communication andeven speech seems easy, while in this instance, the spirit was only able to convey its wishes
by gestures and symbols. Its addressing itself to Oeder instead of Hofer, probably arosefrom its finding communication with him less difficult; the swelling of Hofer’s arm
indicating that his physical nature was not adapted for this spiritual intercourse. With
respect to Oeder’s expedient of burning a light in his room, in order to prevent his seeing
this shadowy form, we can comprehend, that the figure would be discerned more easily on
the dark ground of comparative obscurity, and that clear light would render it invisible. Dr.
Kerner mentions, on one occasion, that while sitting in an adjoining room, with the door
open, he had seen a shadowy figure, to whom his patient was speaking, standing beside her
bed; and catching up a candle, he had rushed toward it; but as soon as he thus illuminatedthe chamber, he could no longer distinguish it.
The ineffective and awkward attempts of this apparition to make itself understood, arenot easily to be reconciled to our ideas of a spirit, while, at the same time, that which it
could do, and that which it could not—the powers it possessed and those it wanted—tend
to throw some light on its condition. As regards space, we may suppose that, in thisinstance, what St. Martin said of ghosts in general, may be applicable: “Je ne crois pas aux
revenants, mais je crois aux restants;” that is, he did not believe that spirits who had once
quitted the earth returned to it, but he believed that some did not quit it, and thus, as thesomnambule mentioned in a former chapter said to me, “Some are waiting and some aregone on before.”
Dorrien’s uneasiness and worldly care chained him to the earth, and he was a restant—but, being a spirit, he was inevitably inducted into some of the inherent properties of spirit;matter to him was no impediment, neither doors nor walls could keep him out; he had theintuitive perception of whom he could most easily communicate with, or he was brought
into rapport with Oeder by the latter’s seeking him; and he could either so act on Oeder’sconstructive imagination as to enable it to project his own figure, with the short pipe andthe pictures, or he could, by the magical power of his will, build up these images out of theconstituents of the atmosphere. The last seems the most probable, because, had the rapport
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him, it would have been also able to infuse into his mind the wishes it desired to convey,
even without speech, for speech, as a means of communication between spirits, must bequite unnecessary. Even in spite of these dense bodies of ours, we have great difficulty inconcealing our thoughts from each other; and the somnambule reads the thoughts of not
only his magnetizer, but of others with whom he is placed in rapport. In cases where speech
appears to be used by a spirit, it is frequently not audible speech, but only this transferenceof thought, which appears to be speech from the manner in which the thought is borne inand enters the mind of the receiver; but it is not through his ears, but through his universal
supplementary sense, that he receives it; and it is no more like what we mean by hearing,
than is the seeing of a clairvoyant, or a spirit, like our seeing by means of our bodily
organs. In those cases where the speech is audible to other persons, we must suppose thatthe magical will of the spirit can, by means of the atmosphere, simulate these sounds as it
can simulate others, of which I shall have to treat by-and-by. It is remarkable that, in someinstances, this magical power seems to extend so far as to represent to the eye of the seer aform apparently so real, solid, and lifelike, that it is not recognisable from the living man;
while in other cases the production of a shadowy figure seems to be the limit of its agency,
whether limited by its own faculty or the receptivity of its subject: but we must be quite
sure that the form is, in either instance, equally ethereal or immaterial. And it will not be
out of place here to refer to the standing joke of the skeptics, about ghosts appearing incoats and waistcoats. Bentham thought he had settled the question for ever by that
objection; and I have heard it since frequently advanced by very acute persons; but,properly considered, it has not the least validity.
Whether or not the soul on leaving its earthly tabernacle finds itself at once clothedwith that spiritual body which St. Paul refers to, is what we can not know, though it seems
highly probable; but if it be so, we must be sure that this body resembles in its nature thatfluent, subtle kind of matter, called by us imponderables, which are capable of penetrating
all substances; and unless there be no visible body at all, but only the will of a disembodied
spirit acting upon one yet in the flesh (in which case it were as easy to impress theimagination with a clothed figure as an unclothed one), we must conclude that this ethereal
flexible form, whether permanent or temporary, may be held together and retain its shapeby the volition of the spirit, as our bodies are held together by the principle of life that is inthem; and we see in various instances, where the spectator has been bold enough to try theexperiment, that though the shadowy body was pervious to any substance passed through it,
its integrity was only momentarily interrupted, and it immediately recovered its previous
shape.
Now, as a spirit—provided there be no especial law to the contrary, partial or universal,
absolute or otherwise, governing the spiritual world—must be where its thoughts andwishes are, just as we should be at the place we intently think of, or desire, if our solid
bodies did not impede us, so must a spirit appear as it is, or as it conceives of itself.
Morally, it can only conceive of itself as it is, good or bad, light or dark; but it may
conceive of itself clothed as well as unclothed; and if it can conceive of its former body, it
can equally conceive of its former habiliments, and so represent them by its power of willto the eye, or present them to the constructive imagination of the seer: and it will be able todo this with a degree of distinctness proportioned to the receptivity of the latter, or to theintensity of the rapport which exists between them. Now, considered in this way, theappearance of a spirit “in its habit as it lived” is no more extraordinary than the appearanceof a spirit at all, and it adds no complexity to the phenomenon. If it appears at all in arecognisable form, it must come naked or clothed: the former, to say the least of it, would
be much more frightful and shocking; and if it be clothed, I do not see what right we haveto expect it shall be in a fancy costume, conformable to our ideas (which are no ideas at all)of the other world; nor why, if it be endowed with the memory of the past, it should not be
natural to suppose it would assume the external aspect it wore during its earthly pilgrimage.
Certain it is, whether consistent with our notions or not, all tradition seems to show that thisis the appearance they assume; and the very fact that on the first view of the case, and until
the question is philosophically considered, the addition of a suit of clothes to thephenomenon not only renders its acceptance much more difficult, but throws an air ofabsurdity and improbability on the whole subject, furnishes a very strong argument in favor
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The idea of spirits appearing like angels, with wings, &c., seems to be drawn fromthese relations in the Bible, when messengers were sent from God to man; but thosedeparted spirits are not angels, though probably destined in the course of ages to become
so: in the meantime, their moral state continues as when they quitted the body, and theirmemories and affections are with the earth—and so, earthly they appear, more or less. We
meet with some instances in which bright spirits have been seen—protecting spirits, forexample, who have shaken off their earth entirely, clinging to it yet but by some holyaffection or mission of mercy—and these appear, not with wings, which whenever seen are
merely symbolical, for we can not imagine they are necessary to the motion of a spirit, butclothed in robes of light. Such appearances, however, seem much more rare than the others.
It will seem to many persons very inconsistent with their ideas of the dignity of a spiritthat they should appear and act in the manner I have described, and shall describe further;and I have heard it objected that we can not suppose God would permit the dead to return
merely to frighten the living, and that it is showing him little reverence to imagine hewould suffer them to come on such trifling errands, or demean themselves in so undignified
a fashion. But God permits men of all degrees of wickedness, and of every kind of
absurdity, to exist, and to harass and disturb the earth, while they expose themselves to its
obloquy or its ridicule.
Now, as I have observed in a former chapter, there is nothing more perplexing to us inregarding man as a responsible being, than the degree to which we have reason to believe
his moral nature is influenced by his physical organization; but leaving this difficult
question to be decided (if ever it can be decided in this world) by wiser heads than mine,
there is one thing of which we may rest perfectly assured, namely, that let the fault of an
impure, or vicious, or even merely sensuous life, lie where it will—whether it be thewicked spirit within, or the ill-organized body without, or a tertium quid of both combined—still the soul that has been a party to this earthly career, must be soiled and deteriorated
by its familiarity with evil; and there seems much reason to believe that the dissolution of
the connection between the soul and body produces far less change in the former than has
been commonly supposed. People generally think—if they think on the subject at all—that
as soon as they are dead, if they have lived tolerably virtuous lives, or indeed been freefrom any great crimes, they will immediately find themselves provided with wings, andstraightway fly up to some delightful place, which they call heaven, forgetting how unfit
they are for heavenly fellowship; and although I can not help thinking that the Almighty
has mercifully permitted occasional relaxations of the boundaries that separate the deadfrom the living, for the purpose of showing us our error, we are determined not to avail
ourselves of the advantage. I do not mean that these spirits—these revenants or restants—
are special messengers sent to warn us: I only mean that their occasionally “revisiting theglimpses of the moon” form the exceptional cases in a great general law of nature which
divides the spiritual from the material world; and that, in framing this law, these exceptions
may have been designed for our benefit.
There are several stories extant in the English, and a vast number in the German
records, which, supposing them to be well founded—and I repeat, that for many of them
we have just as good evidence as for anything else we believe as hearsay or tradition—
would go to confirm the fact that the spirits of the dead are sometimes disturbed by what
appear to us very trifling cares. I give the following case from Dr. Kerner, who says it was
related to him by a very respectable man, on whose word he can entirely rely:—“I was,” said Mr. St. S⁠——, of S⁠——, “the son of a man who had no fortune but his
business, in which he was ultimately successful. At first, however, his means being narrow,he was perhaps too anxious and inclined to parsimony; so that when my mother, careful
housewife as she was, asked him for money, the demand generally led to a quarrel. Thisoccasioned her great uneasiness, and having mentioned this characteristic of her husband toher father, the old man advised her to get a second key made to the money-chest, unknown
to her husband, considering this expedient allowable and even preferable to the destructionof their conjugal felicity, and feeling satisfied that she would make no ill use of the power
possessed. My mother followed his advice, very much to the advantage of all parties; andhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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nobody suspected the existence of this second key except myself, whom she had admitted
into her confidence.
“Two-and-twenty years my parents lived happily together, when I, being at the timeabout eighteen hours’ journey from home, received a letter from my father informing methat she was ill—that he hoped for her speedy amendment—but that if she grew worse hewould send a horse to fetch me home to see her. I was extremely busy at that time, andtherefore waited for further intelligence; and as several days elapsed without any reachingme, I trusted my mother was convalescent. One night, feeling myself unwell, I had lain
down on the bed with my clothes on to take a little rest. It was between 11 and 12 o’clock,and I had not been asleep, when some one knocked at the door, and my mother entered,dressed as she usually was. She saluted me, and said: ‘We shall see each other no more inthis world: but I have an injunction to give you. I have given that key to R⁠—— (naming aservant we then had), and she will remit it to you. Keep it carefully, or throw it into thewater, but never let your father see it—it would trouble him. Farewell, and walk virtuously
through life.’ And with these words she turned and quitted the room by the door, as she hadentered it. I immediately arose, called up my people, expressed my apprehension that mymother was dead, and, without further delay, started for home. As I approached the house,R⁠——, the maid, came out and informed me that my mother had expired between the hoursof 11 and 12 on the preceding night. As there was another person present at the moment,
she said nothing further to me, but she took an early opportunity of remitting me the key,saying that my mother had given it to her just before she expired, desiring her to place it in
my hands, with an injunction that I should keep it carefully, or fling it into the water, so thatmy father might never know anything about it. I took the key, kept it for some years, and at
length threw it into the Lahne.”
I am aware that it may be objected by those who believe in wraiths, but in no other kindof apparition, that this phenomenon occurred before the death of the lady, and that it was
produced by her energetic anxiety with regard to the key. It may be so, or it may not; but, at
all events, we see in this case how a comparatively trifling uneasiness may disturb a dying
person, and how, therefore—if memory remains to them—they may carry it with them, andseek, by such means as they have, to obtain relief from it.
A remarkable instance of anxiety for the welfare of those left behind, is exhibited in thefollowing story, which I received from a member of the family concerned: Mrs. R⁠——, alady very well connected, lost her husband when in the prime of life, and found herself
with fourteen children, unprovided for. The overwhelming nature of the calamity depressed
her energies to such a degree as to render her incapable of those exertions which could
alone redeem them from ruin. The flood of misfortune seemed too strong for her, and sheyielded to it without resistance. She had thus given way to despondency some time, when
one day, as she was sitting alone, the door opened, and her mother, who had been a
considerable time dead, entered the room and addressed her, reproving her for this weak
indulgence of useless sorrow, and bidding her exert herself for the sake of her children.
From that period she threw off the depression, set actively to work to promote the fortunesof her family, and succeeded so well that they ultimately emerged from all their difficulties.
I asked the gentleman who related this circumstance to me whether he believed it. He
answered, that he could only assure me that she herself affirmed the fact, and that she
avowedly attributed the sudden change in her character and conduct to this cause;—for his
own part, he did not know what to say, finding it difficult to believe in the possibility ofsuch a visit from the dead.
A somewhat similar instance is related by Dr. Kerner, which he says he received fromthe party himself, a man of sense and probity. This gentleman, Mr. F⁠——, at an early age
lost his mother. Two-and-twenty years afterward he formed an attachment to a young
person, whose hand he resolved to ask in marriage. Having one evening seated himself at
his desk, for the purpose of writing his proposal, he was amazed, on accidentally lifting hiseyes from the paper, to see his mother, looking exactly as if alive, seated opposite to him,
while she, raising her finger with a warning gesture, said: “Do not that thing!” Not the least
alarmed, Mr. F⁠—— started up to approach her, whereupon she disappeared. Being verymuch attached to the lady, however, he did not feel disposed to follow her counsel; but
having read the letter to his father, who highly approved of the match and laughed at theghost, he returned to his chamber to seal it; when, while he was adding the superscription,
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she again appeared as before and reiterated her injunction. But love conquered; the letter
was despatched, the marriage ensued, and, after ten years of strife and unhappiness, wasdissolved by a judicial process.
A remarkable circumstance occurred about forty years ago, in the family of Dr. Paulus,
at Stuttgard. The wife of the head of the family having died, they, with some of theirconnections, were sitting at table a few days afterward, in the room adjoining that in which
the corpse lay; suddenly the door of the latter apartment opened, and the figure of themother clad in white robes entered, and, saluting them as she passed, walked slowly andnoiselessly through the room, and then disappeared again through the door by which she
had entered. The whole company saw the apparition; but the father, who was at that timequite in health, died eight days afterward.
Madame R⁠—— had promised an old wood-cutter—who had a particular horror ofdying in the poor-house, because he knew his body would be given to the surgeons—that
she would take care to see him properly interred. The old man lived some years afterward,
and she had quite lost sight of him, and indeed forgotten the circumstance, when she was
one night awakened by the sound of some one cutting wood in her bed-chamber; and so
perfect was the imitation, that she heard, every log flung aside as separated. She started up,
exclaiming, “The old man must be dead!” and so it proved,—his last anxiety having beenthat Madame R⁠—— should remember her promise.
That our interest in whatever has much concerned us in this life accompanies us beyond
the grave, seems to be proved by many stories I meet with, and the following is ofundoubted authenticity: Some years ago, a music-master died at Erfert at the age ofseventy. He was a miser, and had never looked with very friendly eyes on Professor Rinck,
the composer, who he knew was likely to succeed to his classes. The old man had lived anddied in an apartment adjoining the class-room; and the first day that Rinck entered on his
office, while the scholars were singing Aus der tiefe ruf ich dich, which is a paraphrase of
the De profundis, he thought he saw, through a hole or bull’s eye in the door, something
moving about the inner chamber. As the room was void of every kind of furniture, andnobody could possibly be in it, Rinck looked more fixedly, when he distinctly saw ashadow, whose movements were accompanied by a strange rustling sound. Perplexed at thecircumstance, he told his pupils that on the following day he should require them to repeat
the same choral. They did so; and while they were singing, Rinck saw a person walking
backward and forward in the next room, who frequently approached the hole in the door.
Very much struck with so extraordinary a circumstance, Rinck had the choral repeated on
the ensuing day,—and this time his suspicions were fully confirmed; the old man, his
predecessor, approaching the door, and gazing steadfastly into the class-room. “His face,”
said Rinck—in relating the story to Dr. Mainzer, who has obligingly furnished it to me asentered in his journal at the time—“was of an ashy-gray. The apparition,” he added, “nevermore appeared to me, although I frequently had the choral repeated.”“I am no believer in ghost-stories,” he added, “nor in the least superstitious;
nevertheless, I can not help admitting that I have seen this: it is impossible for me ever to
doubt or to deny that which I know I saw.”

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CHAPTER X.

204

THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS US.

In all ages of the world, and in all parts of it, mankind have earnestly desired to learn
the fate that awaited them when they had “shuffled off this mortal coil;” and those
pretending to be their instructors have built up different systems which have stood in thestead of knowledge, and more or less satisfied the bulk of the people. The interest on thissubject is, at the present period, in the most highly civilized portions of the globe, less thanit has been at any preceding one. The great proportion of us live for this world alone, andthink very little of the next: we are in too great a hurry of pleasure or business to bestow
any time on a subject of which we have such vague notions—notions so vague, that, inshort, we can scarcely by any effort of the imagination bring the idea home to ourselves;
and when we are about to die, we are seldom in a situation to do more than resign ourselvesto what is inevitable, and blindly meet our fate; while, on the other hand, what is generally
called the religious world is so engrossed by its struggles for power and money, or by its
sectarian disputes and enmities, and so narrowed and circumscribed by dogmatic
orthodoxies, that it has neither inclination nor liberty to turn back or look around, andendeavor to gather up from past records and present observation such hints as are now andagain dropped in our path, to give us an intimation of what the truth may be. The
rationalistic age, too, out of which we are only just emerging, and which succeeded one ofgross superstition, having settled, beyond appeal, that there never was such a thing as aghost—that the dead never do come back to tell us the secrets of their prison-house, andthat nobody believes such idle tales but children and old women—seemed to have shut thedoor against the only channel through which any information could be sought. Revelation
tells us very little on this subject—reason can tell us nothing; and if Nature is equally silent,or if we are to be deterred from questioning her from the fear of ridicule, there is certainly
no resource left us but to rest contented in our ignorance, and each wait till the awful secretis disclosed to ourselves.
A great many things have been pronounced untrue and absurd, and even impossible, by
the highest authorities of the age in which they lived, which have afterward, and indeed
within a very short period, been found to be both possible and true. I confess myself, forone, to have no respect whatever for these dogmatic denials and affirmations, and I amquite of opinion that vulgar incredulity is a much more contemptible thing than vulgar
credulity. We know very little of what is, and still less of what may be; and till a thing has
been proved, by induction, logically impossible, we have no right whatever to pronounce
that it is so. As I have said before, a priori conclusions are perfectly worthless; and the sortof investigation that is bestowed upon subjects of the class of which I am treating,something worse—inasmuch as they deceive the timid and the ignorant, and that very
numerous class which pins its faith on authority and never ventures to think for itself, by anassumption of wisdom and knowledge, which, if examined and analyzed, would veryfrequently prove to be nothing more respectable than obstinate prejudice and rash assertion.
For my own part, I repeat, I insist upon nothing. The opinions I have formed, from theevidence collected, may be quite erroneous; if so, as I seek only the truth, I shall be glad tobe undeceived, and shall be quite ready to accept a better explanation of these facts,
whenever it is offered to me: but it is in vain to tell me that this explanation is to be foundin what is called imagination, or in a morbid state of the nerves, or an unusual excitementof the organs of color and form, or in imposture; or in all these together. The existence ofall such sources of error and delusion I am far from denying, but I find instances that it isquite impossible to reduce under any one of those categories, as we at present understandthem. The multiplicity of these instances, too—for, not to mention the large number that arenever made known or carefully concealed, if I were to avail myself liberally of cases
already recorded in various works, many of which I know, and many others I hear of as
existing, but which I can not conveniently get access to, I might fill volumes (German
literature abounds in them)—the number of the examples, I repeat, even on the supposition
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowethat they are not facts, would of itself form the subject of a very curious physiological or
psychological inquiry. If so many people in respectable situations of life, and in apparently
a normal state of health, are capable of either such gross impostures, or the subjects of such
extraordinary spectral illusions, it would certainly be extremely satisfactory to learnsomething of the conditions that induce these phenomena in such abundance; and all I
expect from my book at present is, to induce a suspicion that we are not quite so wise as we
think ourselves; and that it might be worth while to inquire a little seriously into reports,
which may perchance turn out to have a deeper interest for us than all those various
questions, public and private, put together, with which we are daily agitating ourselves.
I have alluded, in an earlier part of this work, to the belief entertained by the ancientsthat the souls of men, on being disengaged from the bodies, passed into a middle state,called Hades, in which their portions seemed to be neither that of complete happiness norof insupportable misery. They retained their personality, their human form, their memory of
the past, and their interest in those that had been dear to them on earth. Communications
were occasionally made by the dead to the living: they mourned over their duties neglected
and their errors committed; many of their mortal feelings, passions, and propensities,
seemed to survive; and they sometimes sought to repair, through the instrumentality of theliving, the injuries they had formerly inflicted. In short, death was merely a transition fromone condition of life to another; but in this latter state, although we do not see themcondemned to undergo any torments, we perceive that they are not happy. There are,indeed, compartments in this dark region: there is Tartarus for the wicked, and the Elysian
fields for the good, but they are comparatively thinly peopled. It is in the mid-region thatthese pale shades abound, consistently with the fact that here on earth, moral as well as
intellectual mediocrity is the rule, and extremes of good or evil the exceptions.
With regard to the opinion entertained of a future state by the Hebrews, the Old
Testament gives us very little information; but what glimpses we do obtain of it appear to
exhibit notions analogous to those of the heathen nations, inasmuch as that the personality
and the form seem to be retained, and the possibility of these departed spirits revisiting theearth and holding commune with the living is admitted. The request of the rich man, also,that Lazarus might be sent to warn his brethren, yet alive, of his own miserable condition,
testifies to the existence of these opinions; and it is worthy of remark that the favor isdenied, not because its performance is impossible, but because the mission would be
unavailing—a prediction which, it appears to me, time has singularly justified.
Altogether, the notion that in the state entered upon after we leave this world, thepersonality and form are retained, that these shades sometimes revisit the earth, and that the
memory of the past still survives, seems to be universal; for it is found to exist among all
people, savage and civilized: and if not founded on observation and experience, it becomesdifficult to account for such unanimity on a subject which I think, speculatively considered,would not have been productive of such results; and one proof of this is, that those who
reject such testimony and tradition as we have in regard to it, and rely only on their own
understandings, appear to be pretty uniformly led to form opposite conclusions. They can
not discern the mode of such a phenomenon; it is open to all sorts of scientific objections,and the cui bono sticks in their teeth.
This position being admitted, as I think it must be, we have but one resource left,
whereby to account for the universality of this persuasion—which is, that in all periods andplaces, both mankind and womankind, as well in health as in sickness, have been liable to aseries of spectral illusions of a most extraordinary and complicated nature, and bearing
such a remarkable similarity to each other in regard to the objects supposed to be seen orheard, that they have been universally led to the same erroneous interpretation of thephenomenon. It is manifestly not impossible that this may be the case; and if it be so, it
becomes the business of physiologists to inquire into the matter, and give us some accountof it. In the meantime, we may be permitted to take the other view of the question, andexamine what probabilities seem to be in its favor.
When the body is about to die, that which can not die, and which, to spare words, I willcall the soul, departs from it—whither? We do not know: but, in the first place, we haveno reason to believe that the space destined for its habitation is far removed from the earth,since, knowing nothing about it, we are equally entitled to suppose the contrary; and, in the
next, that which we call distance is a condition that merely regards material objects, and of
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which a spirit is quite independent, just as our thoughts are, which can travel from here to
China, and back again, in a second of time.
Well, then, supposing this being to exist somewhere—and it is not unreasonable tosuppose that the souls of the inhabitants of each planet continue to hover within the sphereof that planet, to which, for anything we can tell, they may be attached by a magnetic
attraction—supposing it to find itself in space, free of the body, endowed with the memoryof the past, and consequently with a consciousness of its own deserts, able to perceive thatwhich we do not ordinarily perceive, namely, those who have passed into a similar statewith itself—will it not naturally seek its place among those spirits which most resemble
itself, and with whom, therefore, it must have the most affinity? On earth, the good seek thegood, and the wicked the wicked: and the axiom that “like associates with like,” we can not
doubt will be as true hereafter as now. “In my Father’s house there are many mansions,”
and our intuitive sense of what is fit and just must needs assure us that this is so. There are
too many degrees of moral worth and of moral unworth among mankind, to permit of our
supposing that justice could be satisfied by an abrupt division into two opposite classes. On
the contrary, there must be infinite shades of desert; and, as we must consider that thatwhich a spirit enters into on leaving the body is not so much a place as a condition, so there
must be as many degrees of happiness or suffering as there are individuals, each carrying
with him his own heaven or hell. For it is a vulgar notion to imagine that heaven and hell
are places; they are states; and it is in ourselves we must look for both. When we leave thebody, we carry them with us: “As the tree falls, so it shall lie.” The soul which here has
wallowed in wickedness or been sunk in sensuality, will not be suddenly purified by thedeath of the body: its moral condition remains what its earthly sojourn has trained it to, but
its means of indulging its propensities are lost. If it has had no godly aspirations here, itwill not be drawn to God there; and if it has so bound itself to the body that it has known nohappiness but that to which the body ministered, it will be incapable of happiness when
deprived of that enjoyment. Here we see at once what a variety of conditions mustnecessarily ensue—how many comparatively negative states there must be between thoseof positive happiness or positive misery!
We may thus conceive how a soul, on entering upon this new condition, must find its
own place or state; if its thoughts and aspirations here have been heavenward, and its
pursuits noble, its conditions will be heavenly. The contemplation of God’s works, seen not
as by our mortal eyes, but in their beauty and their truth and ever-glowing sentiments oflove and gratitude—and, for aught we know, good offices to souls in need—would
constitute a suitable heaven or happiness for such a being; an incapacity for such pleasures,and the absence of all others, would constitute a negative state, in which the chief suffering
would consist in mournful regrets and a vague longing for something better, which theuntrained soul, that never lifted itself from the earth, knows not how to seek; whilemalignant passions and unquenchable desires would constitute the appropriate hell of thewicked; for we must remember, that although a spirit is independent of those physical laws
which are the conditions of matter, the moral law, which is indestructible, belongs
peculiarly to it—that is, to the spirit—and is inseparable from it.
We must next remember, that this earthly body we inhabit is more or less a mask, bymeans of which we conceal from each other those thoughts which, if constantly exposed,
would unfit us for living in community; but when we die, this mask falls away, and thetruth shows nakedly: there is no more disguise; we appear as we are—spirits of light, or
spirits of darkness;—and there can be no difficulty, I should think, in conceiving this, since
we know that even our present opaque and comparatively inflexible features, in spite of allefforts to the contrary, will be the index of the mind; and that the expression of the face isgradually moulded to the fashion of the thoughts. How much more must this be the casewith the fluent and diaphanous body which we expect is to succeed the fleshly one!
Thus, I think, we have arrived at forming some conception of the state that awaits us
hereafter: the indestructible moral law fixes our place or condition; affinity governs ourassociations; and the mask under which we conceal ourselves having fallen away, we
appear to each other as we are;—and I must here observe, that in this last circumstancemust be comprised one very important element of happiness or misery; for the love of thepure spirits for each other will be for ever excited, by simply beholding that beauty andbrightness which will be the inalienable expression of their goodness;—while the reverse
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will be the case with the spirits of darkness; for no one loves wickedness, in either
themselves or others, however we may practise it. We must also understand, that the words“dark” and “light”—which, in this world of appearance, we use metaphorically to express
good and evil—must be understood literally when speaking of that other world where
everything will be seen as it is. Goodness is truth, and truth is light—and wickedness isfalsehood, and falsehood is darkness; and so it will be seen to be. Those who have not thelight of truth to guide them, will wander darkly through this valley of the shadow of death;those in whom the light of goodness shines will dwell in the light, which is inherent inthemselves. The former will be in the kingdom of darkness—the latter in the kingdom oflight. All the records existing of the blessed spirits that have appeared, ancient or modern,exhibit them as robed in light, while their anger or sorrow is symbolized by their darkness.
Now, there appears to me nothing incomprehensible in this view of the future; on thecontrary, it is the only one which I ever found myself capable of conceiving or reconcilingwith the justice and mercy of our Creator. He does not punish us—we punish ourselves: wehave built up a heaven or a hell to our own liking, and we carry it with us. The fire that forever burns without consuming, is the fiery evil in which we have chosen our part; and theheaven in which we shall dwell, will be the heavenly peace which will dwell in us. We are
our own judges and our own chastisers. And here I must say a few words on the subject ofthat apparently (to us) preternatural memory which is developed under certain
circumstances, and to which I alluded in a former chapter. Every one will have heard that
persons who have been drowned and recovered, have had—in what would have been theirlast moments, if no means had been used to revive them—a strange vision of the past, inwhich their whole life seemed to float before them in review; and I have heard of the same
phenomenon taking place, in moments of impending death, in other forms. Now, as it is notduring the struggle for life, but immediately before insensibility ensues, that this visionoccurs, it must be the act of a moment; and this renders incomprehensible to us what is saidby the seeress of Prevorst, and other somnambules of the highest order, namely, that the
instant the soul is freed from the body, it sees its whole earthly career in a single sign: it
knows that it is good or evil, and pronounces its own sentence. The extraordinary memoryoccasionally exhibited in sickness, where the link between the soul and the body is
probably loosened, shows us an adumbration of this faculty.
But this self-pronounced sentence we are led to hope is not final; nor does it seemconsistent with the love and mercy of God that it should be so. There must be few, indeed,
who leave this earth fit for heaven; for, although the immediate frame of mind in which
dissolution takes place is probably very important, it is surely a pernicious error,
encouraged by jail chaplains and philanthropists, that a late repentance and a few parting
prayers can purify a soul sullied by years of wickedness. Would we at once receive such a
one into our intimate communion and love? Should we not require time for the stains ofvice to be washed away and habits of virtue to be formed? Assuredly we should! And how
can we imagine that the purity of heaven is to be sullied by that approximation which thepurity of earth would forbid? It would be cruel to say, and irrational to think, that this laterepentance is of no avail; it is doubtless so far of avail, that the straining upward and theheavenly aspirations of the parting soul are carried with it, so that when it is free, instead ofchoosing the darkness it will flee to as much light as is in itself, and be ready, through themercy of God and the ministering of brighter spirits, to receive more. But in this case, asalso in the innumerable instances of those who die in what may be called a negative state,
the advance must be progressive; though, wherever the desire exists, I must believe that
this advance is possible. If not, wherefore did Christ, after being “put to death in the flesh,”go and “preach to the spirits in prison”? It would have been a mockery to preach salvation
to those who had no hope; nor would they, having no hope, have listened to the preacher.
I think these views are at once cheering, encouraging, and beautiful; and I can not but
believe, that were they more generally entertained and more intimately conceived, theywould be very beneficial in their effects. As I have said before, the extremely vague notions
people have of a future life prevent the possibility of its exercising any great influence upon
the present. The picture, on one side, is too revolting and inconsistent with our ideas ofDivine goodness to be deliberately accepted; while, with regard to the other, our feelings
somewhat resemble those of a little girl I once knew, who, being told by her mother what
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was to be the reward of goodness if she were so happy as to reach heaven, put her finger in
her eye and began to cry, exclaiming, “Oh, mamma, how tired I shall be singing!”
The question which will now naturally arise, and which I am bound to answer, is, howhave these views been formed? and what is the authority for them? And the answer I haveto make will startle many minds when I say, that they have been gathered from twosources; first and chiefly from the state in which those spirits appear to be, and sometimes
avow themselves to be, who, after quitting the earth, return to it and make themselves
visible to the living; and, secondly, from the revelations of numerous somnambules of thehighest order, which entirely conform in all cases, not only with the revelations of the dead,but with each other. I do not mean to imply, when I say this, that I consider the question
finally settled as to whether somnambules are really clear-seers or only visionaries; nor that
I have by any means established the fact that the dead do sometimes actually return; but I
am obliged to beg the question for the moment, since, whether these sources be pure or
impure, it is from them the information has been collected. It is true that these views are
extremely conformable with those entertained by Plato and his school of philosophers, andalso with those of the mystics of a later age; but the latter certainly, and the former
probably, built up their systems on the same foundation; and I am very far from using theterm mystics in the opprobrious, or at least contemptuous, tone in which it has of late years
been uttered in this country; for, although abounding in errors, as regarded the concrete,
and although their want of an inductive methodology led them constantly astray in theregion of the real, they were sublime teachers in that of the ideal; and they seem to havebeen endowed with a wonderful insight into this veiled department of our nature.
It may be here objected, that we only admire their insight, because, being in entire
ignorance of the subject of it, we accept raving for revelation; and that no weight can be
attached to the conformity of later disclosures with theirs, since they have no doubt beenfounded upon them. As to the ignorance, it is admitted; and, simply looking at their views,
as they stand, they have nothing to support them but their sublimity and consistency; but, asregards the value of the evidence afforded by conformity, it rests on very different grounds;
for the reporters from whom we collect our intelligence are, with very few exceptions,those of whom we may safely predicate, that they were wholly unacquainted with thesystems promulgated by the Platonic philosophers, or the mystics either, nor, in most
instances, had ever heard of their names; for, as regards that peculiar somnambulic state
which is here referred to, the subjects of it appear to be generally very young people ofeither sex, and chiefly girls; and, as regards ghost-seeing, although this phenomenon seems
to have no connection with the age of the seer, yet it is not usually from the learned or thecultivated that we collect our cases, inasmuch as the apprehension of ridicule on the one
hand, and the fast hold the doctrine of spectral illusions has taken of them on the other,prevent their believing in their own senses, or producing any evidence they might have tofurnish.
And here will be offered another subtle objection, namely, that the testimony of such
witnesses as I have above described is perfectly worthless; but this I deny. The
somnambulic states I allude to, are such as have been developed, not artificially, butnaturally; and often, under very extraordinary nervous diseases, accompanied withcatalepsy, and various symptoms far beyond feigning. Such cases are rare, and, in thiscountry, seem to have been very little observed, for doubtless they must occur, and when
they do occur they are very carefully concealed by the families of the patient, and not
followed up or investigated as a psychological phenomenon by the physician; for it is to beobserved that, without questioning, no revelations are made; they are not, as far as I know,
ever spontaneous. I have heard of two such cases in this country, both occurring in thehigher classes, and both patients being young ladies; but, although surprising phenomena
were exhibited, interrogation was not permitted, and the particulars were never allowed totranspire.
No doubt there are examples of error and examples of imposture, so there are in
everything where room is to be found for them; and I am quite aware of the propensity ofhysterical patients to deceive, but it is for the judicious observers to examine thegenuineness of each particular instance; and it is perfectly certain and well established by
the German physiologists and psychologists, who have carefully studied the subject, that
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honestly delivered, and yet be utterly worthless—the mere ravings of a disordered brain;
and it is here that conformity becomes important, for I can not admit the objection that thesimple circumstance of the patients being diseased invalidates their evidence so entirely as
to annul even the value of their unanimity, because, although it is not logically impossiblethat a certain state of nervous derangement should occasion all somnambules, of the classin question, to make similar answers, when interrogated regarding a subject of which, intheir normal condition, they know nothing, and on which they have never reflected, andthat these answers should be not only consistent, but disclosing far more elevated views
than are evolved by minds of a very superior order which have reflected on it very deeply—I say, although this is not logically impossible, it will assuredly be found, by most
persons, an hypothesis of much more difficult acceptance than the one I propose; namely,that whatever be the cause of the effect, these patients are in a state of clear-seeing, wherein
they have “more than mortal knowledge;” that is, more knowledge than mortals possess intheir normal condition: and it must not be forgotten, that we have some facts confessed by
all experienced physicians and physiologists, even in this country, proving that there arestates of disease in which preternatural faculties have been developed, such as no theory
has yet satisfactorily accounted for.
But Dr. Passavent, who has written a very philosophical work on the subject of vital
magnetism and clear-seeing, asserts, that it is an error to imagine that the ecstatic condition
is merely the product of disease. He says, that it has sometimes exhibited itself in personsof very vigorous constitutions, instancing Joan of Arc, a woman, whom historians havelittle understood, and whose memory Voltaire’s detestable poem has ridiculed anddegraded, but who was, nevertheless, a great psychological phenomenon.
The circumstance, too, that phenomena of this kind are more frequently developed inwomen than in men, and that they are merely the consequence of her greater nervous
irritability, has been made another objection to them—an objection, however, which Dr.
Passavent considers founded on ignorance of the essential difference between the sexes,
which is not merely a physical but a psychological one. Man is more productive than
receptive. In a state of perfectibility, both attributes would be equally developed in him; but
in this terrestrial life, only imperfect phases of the entire sum of the soul’s faculties are so.
Mankind are but children, male or female, young or old; of man, in his totality, we have but
faint adumbrations, here and there.
Thus the ecstatic woman will be more frequently a seer, instinctive and intuitive; man, adoer and a worker; and as all genius is a degree of ecstasy or clear-seeing, we perceive thereason wherefore in man it is more productive than in woman, and that our greatest poets
and artists, in all kinds, are of the former sex, and even the most remarkable women
produce but little in science or art; while on the other hand, the feminine instinct, and tact,and intuitive seeing of truth, are frequently more sure than the ripe and deliberate judgmentof man; and it is hence that solitude and such conditions as develop the passive or receptiveat the expense of the active, tend to produce this state, and to assimilate the man more to
the nature of the woman; while in her they intensify these distinguishing characteristics;
and this is also the reason that simple and child-like people and races are the most frequent
subjects of these phenomena.
It is only necessary to read Mozart’s account of his own moments of inspiration, tocomprehend not only the similarity, but the positive identity, of the ecstatic state with thestate of genius in activity. “When all goes well with me,” he says—“when I am in acarriage, or walking, or when I can not sleep at night, the thoughts come streaming in uponme most fluently: whence, or how, is more than I can tell. What comes, I hum to myself as
it proceeds. Then follow the counterpoint and the clang of the different instruments; and, if
I am not disturbed, my soul is fixed, and the thing grows greater, and broader, and clearer;and I have it all in my head, even when the piece is a long one; and I see it like a beautiful
picture—not hearing the different parts in succession as they must be played, but the wholeat once. That is the delight! The composing and the making is like a beautiful and vivid
dream; but this hearing of it is the best of all.”What is this but clear-seeing, backward and forward, the past and the future? The one
faculty is not a whit more surprising and incomprehensible than the other, to those who
possess neither; only we see the material product of one, and therefore believe in it. But, as
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Passavent justly observes, these coruscations belong not to genius exclusively—they arelatent in all men. In the highly-gifted this divine spark becomes a flame to light the world
withal; but even in the coarsest and least-developed organizations, it may and does
momentarily break forth. The germ of the highest spiritual life is in the rudest, according to
its degree, as well as in the highest form of man we have yet seen;—he is but a moreimperfect type of the race, in whom this spiritual germ has not unfolded itself.
Then, with respect to our second source of information, I am quite aware that it isequally difficult to establish its validity; but there are a few arguments in our favor here,
too. In the first place, as Dr. Johnson says, though all reason is against us, all tradition is forus; and this conformity of tradition is surely of some weight, since I think it would be
difficult to find any parallel instance of a universal tradition that was entirely without afoundation in truth; for with respect to witchcraft, the belief in which is equally universal,
we now know that the phenomena were generally facts, although the interpretations put
upon them were fables. It may certainly be objected that this universal belief in ghosts only
arises from the universal prevalence of spectral illusions; but if so, as I have before
observed, these spectral illusions become a subject of very curious inquiry; for, in the firstplace, they frequently occur under circumstances the least likely to induce them, and topeople whom we should least expect to find the victims of them; and, in the second, there isa most remarkable conformity here, too, not only between the individual cases occurring
among all classes of persons, who had never exhibited the slightest tendency to nervous
derangement or somnambulism, but also between these and the revelations of thesomnambules. In short, it seems to me that life is reduced to a mere phantasmagoria, if
spectral illusions are so prevalent, so complicated in their nature, and so delusive as theymust be if all the instances of ghost-seeing that come before us are to be referred to thattheory. How numerous these are, I confess myself not to have had the least idea, till myattention was directed to the inquiry; and that these instances have been equally frequent inall periods and places we can not doubt, from the variety of persons that have given in theiradhesion, or at least that have admitted, as Addison did, that he could not refuse theuniversal testimony in favor of the reappearance of the dead, strengthened by that of many
credible persons with whom he was acquainted. Indeed, the testimony in favor of the facts
has been at all periods too strong to be wholly rejected; so that even the materialists, like
Lucretius and the elder Pliny, find themselves obliged to acknowledge them; while, on theother hand, the extravagant admissions that are demanded of us by those who endeavor to
explain them away, prove that their disbelief rests on no more solid foundation than theirown prejudices. I acknowledge all the difficulty of establishing the facts—such difficulties
as indeed encompass few other branches of inquiry; but I maintain that the position of the
opponents is still worse, although, by their high tone and contemptuous laugh, they assume
to have taken up one that, being fortified by reason, is quite impregnable, forgetting that thewisdom of man is pre-eminently “foolishness before God,” when it wanders into thisregion of unknown things;—forgetting, also, that they are just serving this branch ofinquiry, as their predecessors, whom they laughed at, did physiology; concocting theirsystems out of their own brains, instead of the responses of nature—and with still morerashness and presumption, this department of her kingdom being more inaccessible, moreincapable of demonstration, and more entirely beyond our control; for these spirits will not“come when we do call them;”—and I confess it often surprises me to hear the very
shallow nonsense that very clever men talk upon the subject, and the inefficient arguments
they use to disprove what they know nothing about. I am quite conscious that the facts I
shall adduce are open to controversy: I can bring forward no evidence that will satisfy ascientific mind; but neither are my opponents a whit better fortified. All I do hope toestablish is, not a proof, but a presumption; and the conviction I desire to awaken inpeople’s minds is, not that these things are so, but that they may be so, and that it is well
worth our while to inquire whether they are or not.
It will be seen that these views of a future state are extremely similar to those of Isaac
Taylor, as suggested in his physical theory of another life—at least, as far as he has entered
upon the subject;—and it is natural that they should be so, because he seems also to havebeen a convert to the opinion that “the dead do sometimes break through the boundaries
that hem in the ethereal crowds; and if so, as if by trespass, may in single instances infringe
upon the ground of common corporeal life.”
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Let us now fancy this dispossessed soul entering on its new career, amazed, and no
more able than when it was in the body to accommodate itself at once to conditions ofexistence for which it was unprepared. If its aspirations had previously been heavenward,these conditions would not be altogether new, and it would speedily find itself at home in a
sphere in which it had dwelt before; for, as I have formerly said, a spirit must be where its
thoughts and affections are, and the soul, whose thoughts and affections had been directed
to heaven, would only awaken after death into a more perfect and unclouded heaven. But
imagine the contrary of all this. Conceive what this awakening must be to an earth-boundspirit—to one altogether unprepared for its new home—carrying no light within it—
floating in the dim obscure—clinging to the earth, where all its affections were garneredup: for where its treasure is, there shall it be also. It will find its condition evil, more or
less, according to the degree of its moral light or darkness, and in proportion to the amountof the darkness will be its incapacity to seek for light. Now, there seems nothing offensive
to our notions of the Divine goodness in this conception of what awaits us when the bodydies. It appears to me, on the contrary, to offer a more comprehensible and coherent viewthan any other that has been presented to me; yet the state I have depicted is very much thehades of the Greeks and Romans. It is the middle state, on which all souls enter—a state inwhich there are many mansions; that is, there are innumerable states—probably not
permanent, but ever progressive or retrograde; for we can not conceive of any moral state
being permanent, since we know perfectly well that ours is never so; it is always advancing
or retroceding. When we are not improving, we are deteriorating; and so it must necessarily
be with us hereafter.
Now, if we admit the probability of this middle state, we have removed one of the great
objections which are made to the belief in the reappearance of the dead: namely, that theblest are too happy to return to the earth, and that the wicked have it not in their power todo so. This difficulty arises, however, very much from the material ideas entertained ofheaven and hell—the notion that they are places instead of states. I am told that the Greek
word hades is derived from æides, invisible; and that the Hebrew word scheôl, which has
the same signification, also implies a state, not a place, since it may be interpreted into
desiring, longing, asking, praying. These words in the Septuagint are translated grave,
death, and hell; but previously to the Reformation they seem to have borne their original
meaning—that is, the state into which the soul entered at the death of the body. It wasprobably to get rid of the purgatory of the Roman Church, which had doubtless become thesource of many absurd notions and corrupt practices, that the doctrine of a middle state orhades was set aside: besides which, the honest desire for reformation, in all reforming
churches, being alloyed by the odium theologicum, the purifying besom is apt to take too
discursive a sweep, exercising less modesty and discrimination than might be desirable,
and thus not uncommonly wiping away truth and falsehood together.
Dismissing the idea, therefore, that heaven and hell are places in which the soul isimprisoned, whether in bliss or woe, and supposing that, by a magnetic relation, it may
remain connected with the sphere to which it previously belonged, we may easily conceive
that, if it have the memory of the past, the more entirely sensuous its life in the body may
have been, the closer it will cling to the scene of its former joys; or even if its sojourn onearth were not a period of joy, but the contrary, still, if it have no heavenward aspirations, itwill find itself, if not in actual wo, yet aimless, objectless, and out of a congenial element.
It has no longer the organs whereby it perceived, communicated with, and enjoyed, thematerial world and its pleasures. The joys of heaven are not its joys; we might as well
expect a hardened prisoner in Newgate, associating with others as hardened as himself, tomelt into ecstatic delight at the idea of that which he can not apprehend! How helpless andinefficient such a condition seems! and how natural it is to us to imagine that, under suchcircumstances, there might be awakened a considerable desire to manifest itself to those yetliving in the flesh, if such a manifestation be possible! And what right have we, in directcontradiction to all tradition, to assert that it is not? We may raise up a variety of objections
from physical science, but we can not be sure that these are applicable to the case; and of
the laws of spirit we know very little, since we are only acquainted with it ascircumscribed, confined, and impeded, in its operations, by the body; and whenever suchabnormal states occur as enable it to act with any degree of independence, man, under thedominion of his all-sufficient reason, denies and disowns the facts.
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That the manifestation of a spirit to the living, whether seen or heard, is an exception,and not the rule, is evident; for, supposing the desire to exist at all, it must exist in millions
and millions of instances which never take effect. The circumstances must therefore no
doubt be very peculiar, as regards both parties in which such a manifestation is possible.
What these are, we have very little means of knowing; but, as far as we do know, we are
led to conclude that a certain magnetic rapport or polarity constitutes this condition, while,at the same time, as regards the seer, there must be what the prophet called the “opening of
the eye,” which may perhaps signify the seeing of the spirit without the aid of the bodily
organ—a condition which may temporarily occur to any one under we know not what
influence, but which seems, to a certain degree, hereditary in some families.
The following passage is quoted from Sir William Hamilton’s edition of Dr. Reid’s
works, published in 1846:—“No man can show it to be impossible to the Supreme Being to have given us the powerof perceiving external objects, without any such organs”—that is, our organs of sense. “Wehave reason to believe that when we put off these bodies, and all the organs belonging tothem, our perceptive powers shall rather be improved than destroyed or impaired. We havereason to believe that the Supreme Being perceives everything in a much more perfectmanner than we do, without bodily organs. We have reason to believe that there are othercreated beings endowed with powers of perception more perfect and more extensive thanours, without any such organs as we find necessary;” and Sir William Hamilton adds thefollowing note:—“However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all rational doubt that in certain
abnormal states of the nervous organism, perceptions are possible through other than theordinary channels of the sense.”
Of the existence of this faculty in nature, any one, who chooses, may satisfy himself by
a very moderate degree of trouble, provided he undertake the investigation honestly; andthis being granted, another objection, if not altogether removed, is considerably weakened.
I allude to the fact that, in numerous reported cases of ghost-seeing, the forms were visible
to only one person, even though others were present, which, of course, rendered them
undistinguishable from cases of spectral illusion, and indeed unless some additional
evidence be afforded, they must remain so still, only we have gained thus much, that thisobjection is no longer unanswerable; for whether the phenomenon is to be referred to amutual rapport, or to the opening of the spiritual eye, we comprehend how one may see
what others do not. But really, if the seeing depended upon ordinary vision, I can not
perceive that the difficulty is insurmountable; for we perfectly well know that some people
are endowed with an acuteness of sense, or power of perception, which is utterly
incomprehensible to others; for, without entering into the disputed region of clear-seeing,
everybody must have met with instances of those strange antipathies to certain objects,
accompanied by an extraordinary capacity for perceiving their presence, which remainutterly unexplained. Not to speak of cats and hares, where some electrical effects might beconceived, I lately heard of a gentleman who fainted if he were introduced into a room
where there was a raspberry tart; and that there have been persons endowed with a faculty
for discovering the proximity of water and metals, even without the aid of the divining rod—which latter marvel seems to be now clearly established as an electrical phenomenon—
will scarcely admit of further doubt.
A very eminent person, with whom I am acquainted, possessing extremely acuteolfactory powers, is the subject of one single exception. He is insensible to the odor of abeanfield, however potent: but it would surely be very absurd in him to deny that the
beanfield emits an odor, and the evidence of the majority against him is too strong to admitof his doing so.
Now, we have only the evidence of a minority with regard to the existence of certain
faculties not generally developed, but surely it argues great presumption to dispute their
possibility. We might, I think, with more appearance of reason, insist upon it that my friend
must be mistaken, and that he does smell the beanfield, for we have the majority against
him there most decidedly. The difference is, that nobody cares whether the odor of the
beanfield is perceptible or not: but if the same gentleman asserted that he had seen a ghost,beyond all doubt his word would be disputed.
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Though we do not know what the conditions are that develop the faculty of what St.
Paul calls the discerning of spirits, there is reason to believe that the approach of death isone. I have heard of too many instances of this kind, where the departing person has beenin the entire possession of his or her faculties, to doubt that in our last moments we are
frequently visited by those who have gone before us; and it being admitted by all
physiologists that preternatural faculties are sometimes exhibited at this period, we canhave no right to say that “the discerning of spirits” is not one of them.
There is an interesting story recorded by Beaumont, in his “World of Spirits,” andquoted by Dr. Hibbert with the remark that no reasonable doubt can be placed on theauthenticity of the narrative, as it was drawn up by the bishop of Gloucester from the recitalof the young lady’s father; and I mention it here, not for any singularity attending it, but
first, because its authenticity is admitted, and next, on account of the manner in which—somuch being granted—the fact is attempted to be explained away:—“Sir Charles Lee, by his first lady, had only one daughter, of which she died inchildbirth; and when she was dead, her sister, the Lady Everard, desired to have theeducation of the child, and she was very well educated till she was marriageable, and amatch was concluded for her with Sir W. Parkins, but was then prevented in an
extraordinary manner. Upon a Thursday night, she thinking she saw a light in her chamber
after she was in bed, knocked for her maid, who presently came to her, and she asked why
she left a candle burning in her room. The maid answered that she had left none, and that
there was none but what she had brought with her at that time. ‘Then,’ she said, ‘it must be
the fire;’ but that, her maid told her, was quite out, adding she believed it was only a dream,
whereupon Miss Lee answered that it might be so, and composed herself again to sleep.
But, about two of the clock, she was awakened again, and saw the apparition of a little
woman between her curtains and her pillow, who told her she was her mother, that she was
happy, and that, by twelve of the clock that day, she should be with her. Whereupon, sheknocked again for her maid, called for her clothes, and when she was dressed, went into her
closet, and came not out again till nine, and then brought out with her a letter, sealed, to herfather, carried it to her aunt, the Lady Everard, told her what had happened, and desired thatas soon as she was dead it might be sent to him. The lady thought she was suddenly fallen
mad, and therefore sent presently away to Chelmsford for a physician and surgeon, whoboth came immediately, but the physician could discern no indication of what the lady
imagined, or of any indisposition of her body; notwithstanding, the lady would needs have
her let blood, which was done accordingly; and when the young woman had patiently letthem do what they would with her, she desired that the chaplain might be called to readprayers; and when the prayers were ended, she took her guitar and psalm-book, and sat
down upon a chair without arms, and played and sung so melodiously and admirably, that
her music-master, who was then there, admired at it. And near the stroke of twelve, she roseand sat herself down in a great chair with arms, and presently fetching a strong breathing or
two, she immediately expired, and was so suddenly cold as was much wondered at by thephysician and surgeon. She died at Waltham, in Essex, three miles from Chelmsford, andthe letter was sent to Sir Charles, at his house in Warwickshire; but he was so afflicted at
the death of his daughter, that he came not till she was buried; but when he came, he caused
her to be taken up, and to be buried with her mother, at Edmonton, as she desired in her
letter.”This circumstance occurred in the year 1662, and is, as Dr. Hibbert observes, “one of
the most interesting ghost-stories on record;” yet he insists on placing it under the categoryof spectral illusions, upon the plea that, let the physician (whose skill he arraigns) say what
he would, her death within so short a period proves that she must have been indisposed at
the time she saw the vision, and that probably “the languishing female herself might haveunintentionally contributed to the more strict verification of the ghost’s prediction,”concluding with these words: “All that can be said of it is, that the coincidence was afortunate one; for, without it, the story would probably never have met with a recorder,”&c., &c.
Now, I ask if this is a fair way of treating any fact, transmitted to us on authority which
the objector himself admits to be perfectly satisfactory—more especially as the assistantson the occasion appear to have been quite as unwilling to believe in the supernaturalinterpretation of it as Dr. Hibbert could have been himself, had he been present; for what
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more could he have done than conclude the young lady to be mad, and bled her?—a line ofpractice which is precisely what would be followed at the present time, and which provesthat they were very well aware of the sensuous illusions produced by a disordered state of
the nervous system; and with respect to his conclusion that the “languishing female”
contributed to the verification of the prediction, we are entitled to ask, where is the proof
that she was languishing? A very clever watchmaker once told me that a watch may go
perfectly well for years, and at length stop suddenly, in consequence of an organic defect inits construction, which only becomes perceptible, even to the eye of a watchmaker, when
this effect takes place; and we do know that many persons have suddenly fallen dead
immediately after declaring themselves in the best possible health: and we have therefore
no right to dispute what the narrator implies, namely, that there were no sensible
indications of the impending catastrophe.
There was either some organic defect or derangement in this lady’s physical economy,
which rendered her death inevitable at the hour of noon, on that particular Thursday, or
there was not. If there was, and her certain death was impending at that hour, how came she
acquainted with the fact? Surely it is a monstrous assumption to say that it was “a fortunate
coincidence,” when no reason whatever is given us for concluding that she felt otherwise
than perfectly well! If, on the contrary, we are to take refuge in the supposition that there
was no death impending, and that she only died of the fright, how came she—feelingperfectly well, and, in this case, we have a right to conclude being perfectly well—to be thesubject of such an extraordinary spectral illusion? And if such spectral illusions can occur
to people in a good normal state of health, does it not become very desirable to give us
some clearer theory of them than we have at present?
But there is a third presumption to which the skeptical may have recourse, in order to
get rid of this well-established, and therefore very troublesome fact, namely, that Miss Lee
was ill, although unconscious of it herself, and indicating no symptoms that could guide her
physician to an enlightened diagnosis; and that the proof of this is to be found in theoccurrence of the spectral illusion; and that this spectral illusion so impressed her that it
occasioned the precise fulfilment of the imaginary prediction—an hypothesis whichappears to me to be pressing very hard on the spectral illusion; for it is first called upon toestablish the fact of an existing indisposition of no slight character, of which neither patientnor physician was aware, and it is next required to kill the lady with unerring certainty, atthe hour appointed, she being, according to the only authority we have for the story, in aperfectly calm and composed state of mind! for there is nothing to be discerned in thedescription of her demeanor but an entire and willing submission to the announced decree,accompanied by that pleasing exaltation, which appears to me perfectly natural under thecircumstances; and I do not think that anything we know of human vitality can justify us inbelieving that life can be so easily extinguished. But to such straits people are reduced, whowrite with a predetermination to place their facts on a Procrustean bed till they have fitted
them into their own cherished theory.
In the above-recorded case of Miss Lee, the motive for the visit is a sufficient one; but
one of the commonest objections to such narrations, is the insignificance of the motive
when any communication is made, or there being apparently no motive at all, when none ismade. Where any previous attachment has subsisted, we need seek no further for an
impelling cause; but in other cases this impelling cause must probably be sought in theearthly rapport still subsisting and the urgent desire of the spirit to manifest itself andestablish a communication where its thoughts and affections still reside; and we must
consider that, provided there be no law of God prohibiting its revisiting the earth, which
law would of course supersede all other laws, then, as I have before observed, where its
thoughts and affections are it must be also. What is it but our heavy material bodies thatprevents us from being where our thoughts are? But the being near us, and the manifesting
itself to us, are two very different things, the latter evidently depending on conditions we
do not yet understand.
As I am not writing a book on vital magnetism, and there are so many alreadyaccessible to everybody who chooses to be informed on it, I shall not here enter into thesubject of magnetic rapport, it being, I believe, now generally admitted, except by the mostobstinate skeptics, that such a relation can be established between two human beings. In
what this relation consists, is a more difficult question, but the most rational view appears
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to be that of a magnetic polarity, which is attempted to be explained by two theories—thedynamical and the ethereal, the one viewing the phenomena as simply the result of thetransmission of forces, the other hypothetizing an ether which pervades all space andpenetrates all substance, maintaining the connection between body and soul, and between
matter and spirit. To most minds this latter hypothesis will be the most comprehensible; onwhich account, since the result would be the same in either case, we may adopt for the
moment; and there will then be less difficulty in conceiving that the influence or ether ofevery being or thing, animate or inanimate, must extend beyond the periphery of its own
terminations: and that this must be eminently the case where there is animal life, the nerves
forming the readiest conductors for this supposed imponderable. The proofs of theexistence of this ether are said to be manifold, and more especially to be found in thecircumstances that every created thing sheds an atmosphere around it, after its kind; thisatmosphere becoming, under certain conditions, perceptible or even visible, as in the
instances of electric fish, &c., the fascinations of serpents, the influence of human beings
upon plants, and vice versa; and finally, the phenomena of animal magnetism, and theundoubted fact, to which I myself can bear witness, that the most ignorant girls, when in astate of somnambulism, have been known to declare that they saw their magnetiser
surrounded by a halo of light; and it is doubtless this halo of light, that, from their being
strongly magnetic men, has frequently been observed to surround the heads of saints andeminently holy persons: the temperament that produced the internal fervor, causing thevisible manifestation of it. By means of this ether, or force, a never-ceasing motion and aninter-communication are sustained between all created things, and between created things
and their Creator, who sustains them and creates them ever anew, by the constant exertionof his Divine will, of which this is the messenger and the agent as it is between our will andour own bodies; and without this sustaining will, so exerted, the whole would fall away,
dissolve, and die; for it is the life of the universe. That all inanimate objects emit an
influence, greater or less, extending beyond their own peripheries, is established by theireffects on various susceptible individuals, as well as on somnambules; and thus there exist
a universal polarity and rapport, which are however stronger between certain organisms;
and every being stands in a varying relation of positive and negative to every other.
With regard to these theories, however, where there is so much obscurity even in thelanguage, I do not wish to insist; more especially as I am fully aware that this subject may
be discussed in a manner much more congruous with the dynamical spirit of the philosophyof this century: but, in the meanwhile, as either of the causes alluded to is capable ofproducing the effects, we adopt the hypothesis of an all-pervading ether as the one mosteasily conceived.
Admitting this, then, to be the case, we begin to have some notion of the modus
operandi by which a spirit may manifest itself to us, whether to our internal universal
sense, or even to our sensuous organs; and we also find one stumbling-block removed out
of our way, namely, that it shall be visible or even audible to one person and not to another,or at one time and not at another; for by means of this ether, or force, we are incommunication with all spirit, as well as with all matter; and since it is the vehicle of will, astrong exertion of will may reinforce its influence to a degree far beyond our ordinary
conceptions: but man is not acquainted with his own power, and has, consequently, no faithin his own will: nor is it probably the design of Providence, in ordinary cases, that heshould. He can not therefore exert it; if he could, he “might remove mountains.” Even as itis, we know something of the power of will in its effect on other organisms, as exhibited bycertain strong-willed individuals; also in popular movements; and more manifestly in theinfluence and far-working of the magnetizer on his patient. The power of will, like theseeing of the spirit, is latent in our nature, to be developed in God’s own time; but
meanwhile, slight examples are found, shooting up here and there, to keep alive in man the
consciousness that he is a spirit, and give evidence of his Divine origin.
What especial laws may appertain to this supersensuous domain of nature, of course we
can not know, and it is therefore impossible for us to pronounce how far a spirit is free, or
not free, at all times to manifest itself; and we can, therefore, at present, advance no reason
for these manifestations not being the rule instead of the exception. The law which restrains
more frequent intercourse may, for anything we know to the contrary, have its relaxations
and its limitations, founded in nature; and a rapport with, or the power of acting on,
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particular individuals, may arise from causes of which we are equally ignorant.
Undoubtedly, the receptivity of the corporeal being is one of the necessary conditions,while, on the part of the incorporeal, the will is at once the cause and the agent that
produces the effect; while attachment, whether to individuals or to the lost joys of thisworld, is the motive. The happy spirits in whom this latter impulse is weak, and who would
float away into the glorious light of the pure moral law, would have little temptation to
return, and at least would only be brought back by their holy affections, or desire to serve
mankind. The less happy, clinging to their dear corporeal life, would hover nearer to theearth; and I do question much whether the often-ridiculed idea of the mystics, that there is a
moral weight, as well as a moral darkness, be not founded in truth. We know very well thateven these substantial bodies of ours are, to our own sensations (and, very possibly, if thething could be tested, would prove to be in fact), lighter or heavier, according to thelightness or heaviness of the spirit—terms used figuratively, but perhaps capable of a literalinterpretation; and thus the common idea of up and down, as applied to heaven or hell, isfounded in truth, though not mathematically correct, we familiarly using the words up anddown to express farther or nearer, as regards the planet on which we live.
Experience seems to justify this view of the case; for, supposing the phenomena I am
treating of to be facts, and not spectral illusions, all tradition shows that the spirits mostfrequently manifested to man have been evidently not in a state of bliss; while, when brightones appeared it has been to serve him; and hence the old persuasion, that they were chiefly
the wicked that haunted the earth, and hence, also, the foundation for the belief that not
only the murderer but the murdered returned to vex the living, and the just view, that intaking away life the injury is not confined to the body, but extends to the surprised andangry soul, which is—“Cut off, even in the blossom of its sin,
Unhouselled, disappointed, unaneled;
No reckoning made, but sent to its accountWith all its imperfections on its head.”

It seems also to be gathered from experience, that those whose lives have been renderedwretched, “rest not in their graves;” at least, several accounts I have met with, as well as
tradition, countenance this view; and this may originate in the fact that cruelty and ill-usage
frequently produce very pernicious effects on the mind of the sufferer, in many instances
inspiring, not resignation or a pious desire for death, but resentment, and an eager longing
for a fair share of earthly enjoyment. Supposing, also, the feelings and prejudices of theearthly life to accompany this dispossessed soul—for, though the liberation from the bodyinducts it into certain privileges inherent in spirit, its moral qualities remain as they were(“as the tree falls, so it shall lie”)—supposing, therefore, that these feelings, and prejudices,and recollections, of its past life, are carried with it, we see at once why the discontented
spirits of the heathen world could not rest till their bodies had obtained sepulture, why theburied money should torment the soul of the miser, and why the religious opinions,whatever they may have been, believed in the flesh, seem to survive with the spirit. There
are two remarkable exceptions, however, and these are precisely such as might be expected.
Those who, during their corporeal life, have not believed in a future state, return to warn
their friends against the same error. “There is another world!” said the brother of the young
lady who appeared to her in the cathedral of York, on the day he was drowned; and there
are several similar instances recorded. The belief that this life “is the be-all and the end-all
here,” is a mistake that death must instantly rectify. The other exception I allude to is, thatthat toleration, of which, unfortunately, we see much less than is desirable in this world,
seems happily to prevail in the next; for, among the numerous narrations I meet with, inwhich the dead have returned to ask the prayers or the services of the living, they do not
seem, as will be seen by-and-by, to apply by any means exclusively to members of theirown church. The attrait which seems to guide their selection of individuals is evidently notof a polemical nature. The pure worship of God, and the inexorable moral law, are what
seem to prevail in the other world, and not the dogmatic theology which makes so much of
the misery of this.
There is a fundamental truth in all religions: the real end of all is morality, however themeans may be mistaken, and however corrupt, selfish, ambitious, and sectarian, the mass of
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their teachers may and generally do become; while the effect of prayer—in whatever form,or to whatever ideal of the Deity it may be offered, provided that offering be honestly andearnestly made—is precisely the same to the supplicant and in its results.
I have reserved the following story, which is not a fiction, but the relation of an
undoubted and well-attested fact, till the present chapter, as being particularly applicable tothis branch of my subject:—
Some ninety years ago, there flourished in Glasgow a club of young men, which, fromthe extreme profligacy of its members, and the licentiousness of their orgies, wascommonly called the “Hell-Club!” Besides their nightly or weekly meetings, they held one
grand annual saturnalia, in which each tried to excel the other in drunkenness andblasphemy; and on these occasions there was no star among them whose lurid light wasmore conspicuous than that of young Mr. Archibald B⁠——, who, endowed with brilliant
talents and a handsome person, had held out great promise in his boyhood, and raised
hopes, which had been completely frustrated by his subsequent reckless dissipations.
One morning, after returning from this annual festival, Mr. Archibald B⁠—— having
retired to bed, dreamed the following dream:—
He fancied that he himself was mounted on a favorite black horse, that he always rode,and that he was proceeding toward his own house—then a country-seat embowered bytrees, and situated upon a hill, now entirely built over, and forming part of the city—when astranger, whom the darkness of night prevented his distinctly discerning, suddenly seizedhis horse’s rein, saying, “You must go with me!”“And who are you?” exclaimed the young man, with a volley of oaths, while hestruggled to free himself.
“That you will see by-and-by!” returned the other, in a tone that excited unaccountableterror in the youth, who, plunging his spurs into his horse, attempted to fly. But in vain:
however fast the animal flew, the stranger was still beside him, till at length, in his
desperate efforts to escape, the rider was thrown; but instead of being dashed to the earth,as he expected, he found himself falling—falling—falling still, as if sinking into the bowelsof the earth.
At length, a period being put to this mysterious descent, he found breath to inquire of
his companion, who was still beside him, whither they were going: “Where am I? where
are you taking me?” he exclaimed.
“To hell!” replied the stranger, and immediately interminable echoes repeated thefearful sound, “To hell!—to hell!—to hell!”At length a light appeared, which soon increased to a blaze; but, instead of the cries,
and groans, and lamentings, which the terrified traveller expected, nothing met his ear but
sounds of music, mirth, and jollity; and he found himself at the entrance of a superb
building, far exceeding any he had seen constructed by human hands. Within, too, what ascene! No amusement, employment, or pursuit of man on earth, but was here being carriedon with a vehemence that excited his unutterable amazement. “There the young and lovely
still swam through the mazes of the giddy dance! There the panting steed still bore his
brutal rider through the excitements of the goaded race! There, over the midnight bowl, theintemperate still drawled out the wanton song or maudlin blasphemy! The gambler plied
for ever his endless game, and the slaves of Mammon toiled through eternity their bitter
task; while all the magnificence of earth paled before that which now met his view!”
He soon perceived that he was among old acquaintances, whom he knew to be dead,and each he observed was pursuing the object, whatever it was, that had formerly
engrossed him; when, finding himself relieved of the presence of his unwelcome conductor,
he ventured to address his former friend Mrs. D⁠——, whom he saw sitting, as had been her
wont on earth, absorbed at loo, requesting her to rest from the game, and introduce him to
the pleasures of the place, which appeared to him to be very unlike what he had expected,
and, indeed, an extremely agreeable one. But, with a cry of agony, she answered that there
was no rest in hell; that they must ever toil on at those very pleasures: and innumerable
voices echoed through the interminable vaults, “There is no rest in hell!”—while, throwing
open their vests, each disclosed in his bosom an ever-burning flame! These, they said, were
the pleasures of hell: their choice on earth was now their inevitable doom! In the midst of
the horror this scene inspired, his conductor returned, and at his earnest entreaty, restoredhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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him again to earth; but, as he quitted him, he said, “Remember!—in a year and a day wemeet again!”At this crisis of his dream, the sleeper awoke, feverish and ill; and, whether from theeffect of his dream, or of his preceding orgies, he was so unwell as to be obliged to keep his
bed for several days, during which period he had time for many serious reflections, which
terminated in a resolution to abandon the club and his licentious companions altogether.
He was no sooner well, however, than they flocked around him, bent on recovering sovaluable a member of their society; and having wrung from him a confession of the causeof his defection, which, as may be supposed, appeared to them eminently ridiculous, theysoon contrived to make him ashamed of his good resolutions. He joined them again,
resumed his former course of life, and when the annual saturnalia came round, he foundhimself with his glass in his hand at the table—when the president, rising to make theaccustomed speech, began with saying, “Gentlemen, this being leap-year, it is a year and a
day since our last anniversary,” &c., &c. The words struck upon the young man’s ear like aknell; but, ashamed to expose his weakness to the jeers of his companions, he sat out the
feast, plying himself with wine even more liberally than usual, in order to drown his
intrusive thoughts; till, in the gloom of a winter’s morning, he mounted his horse to ridehome. Some hours afterward, the horse was found, with his saddle and bridle on, quietly
grazing by the roadside, about half way between the city and Mr. B⁠——’s house; while, afew yards off, lay the corpse of his master!
Now, as I have said in introducing this story, it is no fiction: the circumstance happened
as here related. An account of it was published at the time, but the copies were bought upby the family. Two or three, however, were preserved, and the narrative has been reprinted.
The dream is evidently of a symbolical character, and accords in a very remarkable
degree with the conclusions to be drawn from the sources I have above indicated. Theinterpretation seems to be, that the evil passions and criminal pursuits which have been
indulged in here, become our curse hereafter. I do not mean to imply that the ordinary
amusements of life are criminal—far from it. There is no harm in dancing, nor in playing at
loo either; but if people make these things the whole business of their lives, and think ofnothing else, cultivating no higher tastes, nor forming no higher aspirations, what sort ofpreparation are they making for another world? I can hardly imagine that anybody would
wish to be doing these things to all eternity, the more especially that it is most frequently
ennui that drives their votaries into excesses, even here; but if they have allowed theirminds to be entirely absorbed in such frivolities and trivialities, surely they can not expectthat God will, by a miracle, suddenly obliterate these tastes and inclinations, and inspirethem with others better suited to their new condition! It was their business to do that forthemselves, while here; and such a process of preparation is not in the slightest degreeinconsistent with the enjoyment of all manner of harmless pleasures; on the contrary, it
gives the greatest zest to them; for a life, in which there is nothing serious—in which all isplay and diversion—is, beyond doubt, next to a life of active, persevering wickedness, thesaddest thing under the sun! But let everybody remember that we see in nature no violent
transitions; everything advances by almost insensible steps—at least everything that is toendure: and therefore to expect that because they have quitted their fleshly bodies, which
they always knew were but a temporary appurtenance, doomed to perish and decay, they
themselves are to undergo a sudden and miraculous conversion and purification, which is
to elevate them into fit companions for the angels of heaven, and the blessed that havepassed away, is surely one of the most inconsistent, unreasonable, and pernicious errors,that mankind ever indulged in!

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CHAPTER XI.

238

THE POWER OF WILL.

The power, be it what it may, whether of dressing up an ethereal visible form, or of
acting on the constructive imagination of the seer, which would enable a spirit to appear “inhis habit as he lived,” would also enable him to present any other object to the eye of theseer, or himself in any shape, or fulfilling any function he willed; and we thus find invarious instances, especially those recorded in the Seeress of Prevorst, that this is the case.
We not only see changes of dress, but we see books, pens, writing materials, &c., in theirhands; and we find a great variety of sounds imitated—which sounds are frequently heard,
not only by those who have the faculty of “discerning of spirits,” as St. Paul says, but also
by every other person on the spot, for the hearing these sounds does not seem to depend on
any particular faculty on the part of the auditor, except it be in the case of speech. The
hearing the speech of a spirit, on the contrary, appears in most instances to be dependent on
the same conditions as the seeing it, which may possibly arise from there being, in fact, no
audible voice at all, but the same sort of spiritual communication which exists between amagnetizer and his patient, wherein the sense is conveyed without words.
This imitating of sounds I shall give several instances of in a future chapter. It is one
way in which a death is frequently indicated. I could quote a number of examples of thisdescription, but shall confine myself to two or three.
Mrs. D⁠——, being one night in her kitchen, preparing to go to bed, after the house wasshut up and the rest of the family retired, was startled by hearing a foot coming along thepassage, which she recognised distinctly to be that of her father, who she was quite certain
was not in the house. It advanced to the kitchen-door, and she waited with alarm to see if
the door was to open; but it did not, and she heard nothing more. On the following day, shefound that her father had died at that time; and it was from her niece I heard thecircumstance.
A Mr. J⁠—— S⁠——, belonging to a highly respectable family, with whom I am
acquainted, having been for some time in declining health, was sent abroad for change ofair. During his absence, one of his sisters, having been lately confined, an old servant of thefamily was sitting half asleep in an arm-chair, in a room adjoining that in which the lady
slept, when she was startled by hearing the foot of Mr. J⁠—— S⁠—— ascending the stairs. It
was easily recognisable, for, owing to his constant confinement to the house, inconsequence of his infirm health, his shoes were always so dry that their creaking washeard from one end of the house to the other. So far surprised out of her recollection as toforget he was not in the country, the good woman started up, and, rushing out with hercandle in her hand, to light him, she followed the steps up to Mr. J⁠—— S⁠——’s own bedchamber, never discovering that he was not preceding her till she reached the door. She
then returned, quite amazed, and having mentioned the occurrence to her mistress, they
noted the date; and it was afterward ascertained that the young man had died at Lisbon onthat night.
Mrs. F⁠—— tells me that, being one morning, at eleven o’clock, engaged in her bedroom, she suddenly heard a strange, indescribable, sweet, but unearthly sound, whichapparently proceeded from a large open box which stood near her. She was seized with an
awe and a horror which there seemed nothing to justify, and fled up stairs to mention thecircumstance, which she could not banish from her mind. At that precise day and hour,
eleven o’clock, her brother was drowned. The news reached her two days afterward.
Instances of this kind are so well known that it is unnecessary to multiply them further.
With respect to the mode of producing these sounds, however, I should be glad to saysomething more definite if I could; but, from the circumstance of their being heard not only
by one person, who might be supposed to be en rapport, or whose constructive imagination
might be acted upon, but by any one who happens to be within hearing, we are led toconclude that the sounds are really reverberating through the atmosphere. In the strange
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certain persons, the sounds they made were audible to all; and the seeress says they are
produced by means of the nerve-spirit, which I conclude is the spiritual body of St. Pauland the atmosphere, as we produce sound by means of our material body and theatmosphere.
In this plastic power of the spirit to present to the eye of the seer whatever object itwills, we find the explanation of such stories as the famous one of Ficinus and Mercatus,
related by Baronius in his annals. These two illustrious friends, Michael Mercatus andMarcellinus Ficinus, after a long discourse on the nature of the soul, had agreed that, if
possible, whichever died first should return to visit the other. Some time afterward, while
Mercatus was engaged in study at an early hour in the morning, he suddenly heard thenoise of a horse galloping in the street, which presently stopped at his door, and the voiceof his friend Ficinus exclaimed: “Oh, Michael! oh, Michael! vera sunt illa!—those things
are true!” Whereupon Mercatus hastily opened his window and espied his friend Ficinus ona white steed. He called after him, but he galloped away out of his sight. On sending toFlorence to inquire for Ficinus, he learned that he had died about that hour he called to him.
From this period to that of his death, Mercatus abandoned all profane studies, and addicted
himself wholly to divinity. Baronius lived in the sixteenth century; and even Dr. Ferrier andthe spectral illusionists admit that the authenticity of this story can not be disputed,
although they still claim it for their own.
Not very many years ago, Mr. C⁠——, a staid citizen of Edinburgh—whose son told me
the story—was one day riding gently up Corstorphine hill, in the neighborhood of the city,when he observed an intimate friend of his own, on horseback also, immediately behind
him; so he slackened his pace to give him an opportunity of joining company. Finding he
did not come up so quickly as he should, he looked round again, and was astonished at nolonger seeing him, since there was no side road into which he could have disappeared. He
returned home, perplexed at the oddness of the circumstance, when the first thing helearned was that during his absence this friend had been killed, by his horse falling, in
Candlemaker’s row.
I have heard of another circumstance, which occurred some years ago in Yorkshire,
where, I think, a farmer’s wife was seen to ride into a farm-yard on horseback, but could
not be afterward found, or the thing accounted for, till it was ascertained that she had diedat that period.
There are very extraordinary stories extant in all countries, of persons being annoyed byappearances in the shape of different animals, which one would certainly be much disposed
to give over altogether to the illusionists; though, at the same time, it is very difficult to
reduce some of the circumstances under that theory—especially one mentioned page 307 of
my “Translation of the Seeress of Prevorst.” If they are not illusions, they are phenomena,
to be attributed either to this plastic power, or to that magico-magnetic influence in which
the belief in lycanthropy and other strange transformations have originated. The multitudes
of unaccountable stories of this description recorded in the witch-trials, have long furnisheda subject of perplexity to everybody who was sufficiently just to human nature to conclude,that there must have been some strange mystery at the bottom of an infatuation thatprevailed so universally, and in which so many sensible, honest, and well-meaning persons
were involved. Till of late years, when some of the arcana of animal or vital magnetism
have been disclosed to us, it was impossible for us to conceive by what means such strange
conceptions could prevail; but since we now know, and many of us have witnessed, that all
the senses of a patient are frequently in such subjection to his magnetiser, that they may bemade to convey any impressions to the brain that magnetiser wills, we can without muchdifficulty conceive how this belief in the power of transformation took its rise; and we also
know how a magician could render himself visible or invisible at pleasure. I have seen thesight or hearing of a patient taken away, and restored by Mr. Spencer Hall in a manner that
could leave no doubt on the mind of the beholder—the evident paralysis of the eye of thepatient testifying to the fact. Monsieur Eusèbe Salverte, the most determined of rationalistic
skeptics, admits that we have numerous testimonies to the existence of an art, which heconfesses himself at some loss to explain, although the opposite quarters from which theaccounts of it reach us, render it difficult to imagine that the historians have copied eachother. The various transformations of the gods into eagles, bulls, &c., have been set down
as mere mythological fables; but they appear to have been founded on an art, known in all
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quarters of the world, which enabled the magician to take on a form that was not his own,
so as to deceive his nearest and dearest friends. In the history of Gengis Khan, there ismention of a city which he conquered—“in which dwelt,” says Suidas, “certain men, whopossessed the secret of surrounding themselves with deceptive appearances, insomuch thatthey were able to represent themselves to the eyes of people quite different to what they
really were.” Saxo Grammaticus, in speaking of the traditions connected with the religionof Odin, says that “the magi were very expert in the art of deceiving the eyes, being able toassume, and even to enable others to assume, the forms of various objects, and to conceal
their real aspects under the most attractive appearances.”John of Salisbury, who seems to have drawn his information from sources now lost,
says that Mercury, the most expert of magicians, had the art of fascinating the eyes of men
to such a degree as to render people invisible, or make them appear in forms quite different
to what they really bore. We also learn from an eye-witness that Simon, the magician,possessed the secret of making another person resemble him so perfectly that every eye
was deceived. Pomponius Mela affirms that the druidesses of the island of Sena could
transform themselves into any animal they chose, and Proteus has become a proverb by his
numerous metamorphoses.
Then, to turn to another age and another hemisphere, we find Joseph Acosta, who
resided a long time in Peru, assuring us that there existed at that period magicians who had
the power of assuming any form they chose. He relates that the predecessor of Montezuma,
having sent to arrest a certain chief, the latter successively transformed himself into an
eagle, a tiger, and an immense serpent; and so eluded the envoys, till, having consented toobey the king’s mandate, he was carried to court and instantly executed.
The same perplexing exploits are confidently attributed to the magicians of the West
Indies; and there were two men eminent among the natives, the one called Gomez and theother Gonzalez, who possessed this art in an eminent degree; but both fell victims to thepractice of it, being shot during the period of their apparent transformations.
It is also recorded that Nanuk, the founder of the Sikhs—who are not properly a nation,
but a religious sect—was violently opposed by the Hindoo zealots; and at one period of his
career, when he visited Vatala, the Yogiswaras—who were recluses, that, by means ofcorporeal mortifications, were supposed to have acquired command over the powers ofnature—were so enraged against him, that they strove to terrify him by their enchantments,
assuming the shapes of tigers and serpents. But they could not succeed, for Nanuk appears
to have been a real philosopher, who taught a pure theism, and inculcated universal peace
and toleration. His tenets, like the tenets of the founders of all religions, have been sincecorrupted by his followers. We can scarcely avoid concluding that the power by whichthese feats were performed is of the same nature as that by which a magnetiser persuades
his patient that the water he drinks is beer, or the beer wine; and the analogy between it andthat by which I have supposed a spirit to present himself, with such accompaniments as hedesires, to the eye of a spectator, is evident. In those instances where female figures areseen with children in their arm, the appearance of the child we must suppose to be
produced in this manner.
Spirits of darkness, however, can not, as I have before observed, appear as spirits oflight; the moral nature can not be disguised. On one occasion, when Frederica Hauffe askeda spirit if he could appear in what form he pleased, he answered “No”—that if he had lived
as a brute, he should appear as a brute: “as our dispositions are, so we appear to you.”This plastic power is exhibited in those instances I have related, where the figure
appeared dripping with water, indicating the kind of death that had been suffered; and also
in such cases as that of Sir Robert H. E⁠——, where the apparition showed a wound in his
breast. There are a vast number of similar ones on record in all countries;—but I will here
mention one which I received from the lips of a member of the family concerned, wherein
one of the trivial actions of life was curiously represented.
Miss L⁠—— lived in the country with her three brothers, to whom she was much
attached, as they were to her. These young men, who amused themselves all the morningwith their out-door pursuits, were in the habit of coming to her apartment most days before
dinner, and conversing with her till they were summoned to the dining-room. One day,when two of them had joined her as usual, and they were chatting cheerfully over the fire,the door opened, and the third came in, crossed the room, entered an adjoining one, took off
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his boots, and then, instead of sitting down beside them as usual, passed again through theroom, went out, leaving the door open, and they saw him ascend the stairs toward his own
chamber, whither they concluded he was gone to change his dress. These proceedings had
been observed by the whole party: they saw him enter—saw him take off his boots—saw
him ascend the stairs,—continuing the conversation, without the slightest suspicion ofanything extraordinary. Presently afterward the dinner was announced; and as this young
man did not make his appearance, the servant was desired to let him know they were
waiting for him. The servant answered that he had not come in yet; but, being told that hewould find him in his bed-room, he went up stairs to call him. He was, however, not there
nor in the house; nor were his boots to be found where he had been seen to take them off.
While they were yet wondering what could have become of him, a neighbor arrived tobreak the news to the family that their beloved brother had been killed while hunting, andthat the only wish he expressed was that he could live to see his sister once more.
I observed in a former chapter, while speaking of wraiths, now very desirable it would
be to ascertain whether the phenomenon takes place before or after the dissolution of thebond between soul and body: I have since received the most entire satisfaction on that
head, so far as the establishing the fact that it does sometimes occur after the dissolution.
Three cases have been presented to me, from the most undoubted authority, in which thewraith was seen at intervals varying from one to three days after the decease of the person
whose image it was; very much complicating the difficulty of that theory which considers
these phenomena the result of an interaction, wherein the vital principle of one person isable to influence another within its sphere, and thus make the organs of that other the
subjects of its will—a magical power, by the way, which far exceeds that which we possessover our own organs. There is here, however, where death has taken place, no livingorganism to produce the effect, and the phenomenon becomes, therefore, purely subjective—a mere spectral illusion, attended by a coincidence, or else the influence is that of thedisembodied spirit; and those who will take the trouble of investigating this subject willfind that the number of these coincidences would violate any theory of probabilities, to adegree that precludes the acceptance of that explanation. I do not see, therefore, on what weare to fall back, except it be the willing agency of the released spirit, unless we suppose thatthe operation of the will of the dying person travelled so slowly, that it did not take effecttill a day or two after it was exerted—an hypothesis too extravagant to be admitted.
Dr. Passavent, whose very philosophical work on this occult department of nature iswell worth attention, considers the fact of these appearances far too well established to be
disputed; and he enters into some curious disquisitions with regard to what the Germans
call far-working, or the power of acting on bodies at a distance without any sensible
conductor, instancing the case of a gymnotus, which was kept alive for four months in
Stockholm, and which, when urged by hunger, could kill fish at a distance without contact,adding that it rarely miscalculated the amount of the shock necessary to its purpose. Theseand all such effects are attributed by this school of physiologists to the supposed
imponderable—the nervous ether I have elsewhere mentioned—which Dr. Passavent
conceives, in cases of somnambulism, certain sicknesses, and the approach of death, to beless closely united to its material conductors, the nerves, and therefore capable of being
more or less detached, and acting at a distance, especially on those with whom relationship,friendship, or love, establishes a rapport, or polarity; and he observes that intervening
substances or distance can no more impede this agency than they do the agency of mineralmagnetism. And he considers that we must here seek for the explanation of those curious
so-called coincidences of pictures falling, and clocks and watches stopping, at the momentof a death, which we frequently find recorded.
With respect to the wraiths, he observes that the more the ether is freed, as by trance or
the immediate approach of death, the more easily the soul sets itself in rapport with distantpersons; and that thus it either acts magically, so that the seer perceives the real actual bodyof the person that is acting upon him, or else that he sees the ethereal body, which presents
the perfect form of the fleshly one, and which, while the organic life proceeds, can be
momentarily detached and appear elsewhere; and this ethereal body he holds to be thefundamental form, of which the external body is only the copy, or husk.
I confess, I much prefer this theory of Dr. Passavent’s, which seems to me to go verymuch to the root of the matter. We have here the “spiritual body” of St. Paul, and thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“nerve-spirit” of the somnambulists, and their magical effects are scarcely more
extraordinary, if properly considered, than their agency on our own material bodies. It is
this ethereal body which obeys the intelligent spirit within, and which is the intermediate
agent between the spirit and the fleshly body. We here find the explanation of wraiths,
while persons are in trance, or deep sleep, or comatose, this ethereal body can be detached
and appear elsewhere; and I think there can be no great difficulty for those who can follow
us so far, to go a little further, and admit that this ethereal body must be indestructible, andsurvive the death of the material one; and that it may, therefore, not only become visible tous under given circumstances, but that it may, also, produce effects bearing some similarity
to those it was formerly capable of, since, in acting on our bodies during life, it is alreadyacting on a material substance in a manner so incomprehensible to us, that we might wellapply the word magical when speaking of it, were it not that custom has familiarized us tothe marvel.
It is to be observed, that this idea of a spiritual body is one that pervaded all
Christendom in the earlier and purer ages of Christianity, before priestcraft—and by
priestcraft I mean the priestcraft of all denominations—had overshadowed and obscured,by its various sectarian heresies, the pure teaching of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Ennemoser mentions a curious instance of this actio in distans, or far-working. It
appears that Van Helmont having asserted that it was possible for a man to extinguish thelife of an animal by the eye alone (oculis intentis), Rousseau, the naturalist, repeated theexperiment, when in the East, and in this manner killed several toads; but on a subsequentoccasion, while trying the same experiment at Lyons, the animal, on finding it could not
escape, fixed its eyes immovably on him, so that he fell into a fainting fit, and was thought
to be dead. He was restored by means of theriacum and viper powder—a truly homeopathic
remedy! However, we here probably see the origin of the universal popular persuasion, that
there is some mysterious property in the eye of a toad; and also of the so called,
superstition of the evil eye.
A very remarkable circumstance occurred some years ago, at Kirkaldy, when a person,
for whose truth and respectability I can vouch, was living in the family of a ColonelM⁠——, at that place. The house they inhabited was at one extremity of the town, and stoodin a sort of paddock. One evening when Colonel M⁠—— had dined out, and there was
nobody at home but Mrs. M⁠——, her son (a boy about twelve years old), and Ann the maid
(my informant), Mrs. M⁠—— called the latter, and directed her attention to a soldier, who
was walking backward and forward in the drying ground, behind the house, where somelinen was hanging on the lines. She said she wondered what he could be doing there, andbade Ann fetch in the linen, lest he should purloin any of it. The girl, fearing he might besome ill-disposed person, felt afraid; Mrs. M⁠——, however, promising to watch from thewindow, that nothing happened to her, she went; but still apprehensive of the man’s
intentions, she turned her back toward him, and hastily pulling down the linen, she carried
it into the house; he continuing his walk the while, as before, taking no notice of her
whatever. Ere long the colonel returned, and Mrs. M⁠—— lost no time in taking him to thewindow to look at the man, saying she could not conceive what he could mean by walking
backward and forward there all that time; whereupon Ann added, jestingly, “I think it’s aghost, for my part!” Colonel M⁠—— said “he would soon see that,” and calling a large dogthat was lying in the room, and accompanied by the little boy, who begged to be permitted
to go also, he stepped out and approached the stranger; when, to his surprise, the dog,
which was an animal of high courage, instantly flew back, and sprung through the glassdoor, which the colonel had closed behind him, shivering the panes all around.
The colonel, meantime, advanced and challenged the man, repeatedly, withoutobtaining any answer or notice whatever, till, at length, getting irritated, he raised a weapon
with which he had armed himself, telling him he “must speak or take the consequences,”
when, just as he was preparing to strike, lo! there was nobody there! The soldier had
disappeared, and the child sunk senseless to the ground. Colonel M⁠—— lifted the boy in
his arms, and as he brought him into the house, he said to the girl, “You are right, Ann; it
was a ghost!” He was exceedingly impressed with this circumstance, and much regretted
his own behavior, and also the having taken the child with him, which he thought hadprobably prevented some communication that was intended. In order to repair, if possible,
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apparition would return. At length he said that he had seen and conversed with it; but the
purport of the conversation he would never communicate to any human being, not even to
his wife. The effect of this occurrence on his own character was perceptible to everybody
that knew him. He became grave and thoughtful, and appeared like one who had passed
through some strange experience. The above-named Ann H⁠——, from whom I have theaccount, is now a middle-aged woman. When the circumstance occurred, she was about
twenty years of age. She belongs to a highly-respectable family, and is, and always has
been, a person of unimpeachable character and veracity.
In this instance, as in several others I meet with, the animal had a consciousness of thenature of the appearance, while the persons around him had no suspicion of anything
unusual. In the following singular case we must conclude that attachment counteracted thisinstinctive apprehension. A farmer in Argyleshire lost his wife, and a few weeks after her
decease, as he and his son were crossing a moor, they saw her sitting on a stone, with theirhouse-dog lying at her feet, exactly as he used to do when she was alive. As they
approached the spot the woman vanished, and supposing the dog must be equally visionary,
they expected to see him vanish, also; when, to their surprise, he rose and joined them, andthey found it was actually the very animal of flesh and blood. As the place was at least
three miles from any house, they could not conceive what could have taken him there. It
was, probably, the influence of her will.
The power of will is a phenomenon that has been observed in all ages of the world,though of late years much less than at an earlier period; and, as it was then more frequently
exerted for evil than good, it was looked upon as a branch of the art of black magic, while
the philosophy of it being unknown, the devil was supposed to be the real agent, and thewitch, or wizard, only his instrument. The profound belief in the existence of this art is
testified by the twelve tables of Rome, as well as by the books of Moses, and those of
Plato, &c. It is extremely absurd to suppose that all these statutes were enacted to suppressa crime which never existed: and, with regard to these witches and wizards, we must
remember, as Dr. Ennemoser justly remarks, that the force of will has no relation to thestrength or weakness of the body: witness the extraordinary feats occasionally performedby feeble persons under excitement, &c.; and, although these witches and wizards were
frequently weak, decrepit people, they either believed in their own arts, or else that they
had a friend or coadjutor in the devil, who was able and willing to aid them. They,
therefore, did not doubt their own power, and they had the one great requisite, faith. To will
and to believe, was the explanation given by the Marquis de Puységur of the cures heperformed; and this unconsciously becomes the recipe of all such men as Greatrix, theShepherd of Dresden, and many other wonder-workers, and hence we see why it is usually
the humble, the simple and the child-like, the solitary, the recluse, nay, the ignorant, who
exhibit traces of these occult faculties; for he who can not believe can not will, and theskepticism of the intellect disables the magician; and hence we say, also, wherefore, incertain parts of the world and in certain periods of its history, these powers and practices
have prevailed. They were believed in because they existed; and they existed because they
were believed in. There was a continued interaction of cause and effect—of faith andworks. People who look superficially at these things, delight in saying that the more thewitches were persecuted the more they abounded; and that when the persecution ceased weheard no more of them. Naturally, the more they were persecuted the more they believed inwitchcraft and in themselves; when persecution ceased, and men in authority declared that
there was no such thing as witchcraft or witches, they lost their faith, and with it that little
sovereignty over nature that that faith had conquered.
Here we also see an explanation of the power attributed to blessings and curses. The
Word of God is creative, and man is the child of God, made in his image; who neveroutgrows his childhood, and is often most a child when he thinks himself the wisest, for“the wisdom of this world,” we can not too often repeat, “is foolishness before God”—andbeing a child, his faculties are feeble in proportion; but though limited in amount, they are
divine in kind, and are latent in all of us; still shooting up here and there, to amaze andperplex the wise, and make merry the foolish, who have nearly all alike forgotten their
origin, and disowned their birthright.

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CHAPTER XII.

252

TROUBLED SPIRITS.

A very curious circumstance, illustrative of the power of will, was lately narrated to me
by a Greek gentleman, to whose uncle it occurred. His uncle, Mr. M⁠——, was some years
ago travelling in Magnesia with a friend, when they arrived one evening at a caravanserai,
where they found themselves unprovided with anything to eat. It was therefore agreed thatone should go forth and endeavor to procure food; and the friend offering to undertake theoffice, Mr. M⁠—— stretched himself on the floor to repose. Some time had elapsed, and his
friend had not yet returned, when his attention was attracted by a whispering in the room.
He looked up, but saw nobody, though still the whispering continued, seeming to go roundby the wall. At length it approached him; but though he felt a burning sensation on his
cheek, and heard the whispering distinctly, he could not catch the words. Presently he heard
the footsteps of his friend, and thought he was returning; but though they appeared to comequite close to him, and it was perfectly light, he still saw nobody. Then he felt a strange
sensation—an irresistible impulse to rise: he felt himself drawn up, across the room, out ofthe door, down the stairs—he must go, he could not help it—to the gate of the caravanserai,
a little farther; and there he found the dead body of his friend, who had been suddenly
assailed and cut down by robbers, unhappily too plenty in the neighborhood at that period.
We here see the desire of the spirit to communicate his fate to the survivor; theimperfection of the rapport, or the receptivity, which prevented a more direct intercourse;
and the exertion of a magnetic influence, which Mr. M⁠—— could not resist, precisely
similar to that of a living magnetizer over his patient.
There is a story extant in various English collections, the circumstances of which aresaid to have occurred about the middle of the last century, and which I shall here mention,on account of its similarity to the one that follows it.
Dr. Bretton, who was, late in life, appointed rector of Ludgate, lived previously in
Herefordshire, where he married the daughter of Dr. Santer, a woman of great piety andvirtue. This lady died; and one day, as a former servant of hers—to whom she had been
attached, and who had since married—was nursing her child in her own cottage, the door
opened, and a lady entered so exactly resembling the late Mrs. Bretton in dress andappearance, that she exclaimed: “If my mistress were not dead, I should think you wereshe!” Whereupon the apparition told her that she was, and requested her to go with her, as
she had business of importance to communicate. Alice objected, being very muchfrightened, and entreated her to address herself rather to Dr. Bretton; but Mrs. B. answeredthat she had endeavored to do so, and had been several times in his room for that purpose,but he was still asleep, and she had no power to do more toward awakening him than once
uncover his feet. Alice then pleaded that she had nobody to leave with her child; but Mrs.
B. promising that the child should sleep till her return, she at length obeyed the summons;and having accompanied the apparition into a large field, the latter bade her observe howmuch she measured off with her feet, and, having taken a considerable compass, she badeher go and tell her brother that all that portion had been wrongfully taken from the poor by
their father, and that he must restore it to them, adding that she was the more concerned
about it, since her name had been used in the transaction. Alice then asking how she should
satisfy the gentleman of the truth of her mission, Mrs. B. mentioned to her somecircumstance known only to herself and this brother; she then entered into much discoursewith the woman, and gave her a great deal of good advice, remaining till, hearing the soundof horse-bells, she said: “Alice, I must be seen by none but yourself,” and then disappeared.
Whereupon Alice proceeded to Dr. Bretton, who admitted that he had actually heard some
one walking about his room, in a way he could not account for. On mentioning the thing to
the brother, he laughed heartily, till Alice communicated the secret which constituted her
credentials, upon which he changed his tone, and declared himself ready to make therequired restitution.
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Dr. Bretton seems to have made no secret of this story, but to have related it to various
persons; and I think it is somewhat in its favor, that it exhibits a remarkable instance of thevarious degrees of receptivity of different individuals, where there was no suspicion of thecause, nor any attempt made to explain why Mrs. Bretton could not communicate her
wishes to her husband as easily as to Alice. The promising that the child should sleep, waspromising no more than many a magnetiser could fulfil. There are several curious stories
extant, of lame and suffering persons suddenly recovering, who attributed their restoration
to the visit of an apparition which had stroked their limbs, &c.; and these are the morecurious from the fact that they occurred before Mesmer’s time, when people in generalknew nothing of vital magnetism. Dr. Binns quotes the case of a person named Jacob
Olaffson, a resident in some small island subject to Denmark, who, after lying very ill for a
fortnight, was found quite well, which he accounted for by saying that a person in shining
clothes had come to him in the night and stroked him with his hand, whereupon he waspresently healed. But the stroking is not always necessary, since we know that the eye andthe will can produce the same effect.
The other case to which I alluded, as similar to that of Mrs. Bretton, occurred inGermany, and is related by Dr. Kerner.
The late Mr. L⁠—— St. ——, he says, quitted this world with an excellent reputation,
being at the time superintendent of an institution for the relief of the poor in B⁠——. His
son inherited his property, and, in acknowledgment of the faithful services of his father’s
old housekeeper, he took her into his family and established her in a country-house, a few
miles from B⁠——, which formed part of his inheritance. She had been settled there but ashort time, when she was awakened in the night, she knew not how, and saw a tall,
haggard-looking man in her room, who was rendered visible to her by a light that seemed
to issue from himself. She drew the bed-clothes over her head; but, as this apparition
appeared to her repeatedly, she became so much alarmed that she mentioned it to hermaster, begging permission to resign her situation. He however laughed at her—told her it
must be all imagination—and promised to sleep in the adjoining apartment, in order that
she might call him whenever this terror seized her. He did so; but, when the spectre
returned, she was so much oppressed with horror that she found it impossible to raise hervoice. Her master then advised her to inquire the motive of its visits. This she did:whereupon, it beckoned her to follow, which, after some struggles, she summoned
resolution to do. It then led the way down some steps to a passage, where it pointed out toher a concealed closet, which it signified to her, by signs, she should open. She represented
that she had no key: whereupon, it described to her, in sufficiently articulate words, where
she would find one. She procured the key, and, on opening the closet, found a small parcel,
which the spirit desired her to remit to the governor of the institution for the poor, at
B⁠——, with the injunction that the contents should be applied to the benefit of the inmates,—this restitution being the only means whereby he could obtain rest and peace in the otherworld. Having mentioned these circumstances to her master, who bade her do what she had
been desired, she took the parcel to the governor and delivered it, without communicatingby what means it had come into her hands. Her name was entered in their books and she
was dismissed; but, after she was gone, they discovered to their surprise that the packet
contained an order for thirty thousand florins, of which the late Mr. St. —— had defrauded
the institution and converted to his own use.
Mr. St. ——, jr., was now called upon to pay the money, which he refusing to do, theaffair was at length referred to the authorities; and the housekeeper being arrested, he andshe were confronted in the court, where she detailed the circumstances by which the parcel
had come into her possession. Mr. St. —— denied the possibility of the thing, declaring thewhole must be, for some purpose or other, an invention of her own. Suddenly, while
making this defence, he felt a blow upon his shoulder, which caused him to start and lookround, and at the same moment the housekeeper exclaimed: “See! there he stands, now—there is the ghost!” None perceived the figure excepting the woman herself and Mr. St.
——; but everybody present heard the following words: “My son, repair the injustice I
have committed, that I may be at peace!” The money was paid; and Mr. St. —— was somuch affected by this painful event, that he was seized with a severe illness, from which hewith difficulty recovered.
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Dr. Kerner says that these circumstances occurred in the year 1816, and created aconsiderable sensation at the time, though, at the earnest request of the family of Mr. St.
——, there was an attempt made to hush them up; adding, that in the month of October,
1819, he was himself assured by a very respectable citizen of B⁠——, that it was universallyknown in the town that the ghost of the late superintendent had appeared to thehousekeeper, and pointed out to her where she would find the packet; that she had
consulted the minister of her parish, who bade her deliver it as directed; that she had beensubsequently arrested, and the affair brought before the authorities, where, while making
his defence, Mr. St. —— had received a blow from an invisible hand; and that Mr. St. ——was so much affected by these circumstances, which got abroad in spite of the efforts tosuppress them, that he did not long survive the event.
Grose, the antiquary, makes himself very merry with the observation that ghosts do not
go about their business like other people; and that in cases of murder, instead of going to
the nearest justice of peace, or to the nearest relation of the deceased, a ghost addresses
itself to somebody who had nothing to do with the matter, or hovers about the grave whereits body is deposited. “The same circuitous mode is pursued,” he says, “with respect toredressing injured orphans or widows; where it seems as if the shortest and most certain
way would be to go and haunt the person guilty of the injustice, till he were terrified into
restitution.” We find the same sort of strictures made on the story of the ghost of Sir George
Villiers, which—instead of going directly to his son, the duke of Buckingham, to warn him
of his danger—addressed himself to an inferior person; while the warning was, after all,inefficacious, as the duke would not take counsel;—but surely such strictures are as absurd
as the conduct of the ghost: at least I think there can be nothing more absurd thanpretending to prescribe laws to nature, and judging of what we know so little about.
The proceedings of the ghost in the following case will doubtless be equally displeasing
to the critics. The account is extracted verbatim from a work published by the Bannatyne
Club, and is entitled, “Authentic Account of the Appearance of a Ghost in Queen Ann’s
County, Maryland, United States of North America, proved in the following remarkable
trial, from attested notes taken in court at the time by one of the counsel.”
It appears that Thomas Harris had made some alteration in the disposal of his property,
immediately previous to his death; and that the family disputed the will and raised up
difficulties likely to be injurious to his children.
“William Brigs said, that he was forty-three years of age; that Thomas Harris died in
September, in the year 1790. In the March following he was riding near the place where
Thomas Harris was buried, on a horse formerly belonging to Thomas Harris. After crossing
a small branch, his horse began to walk on very fast. It was between the hours of eight andnine o’clock in the morning. He was alone: it was a clear day. He entered a lane adjoining
to the field where Thomas Harris was buried. His horse suddenly wheeled in a panel of thefence, looked over the fence into the field where Thomas Harris was buried, and neighedvery loud. Witness then saw Thomas Harris coming toward him, in the same apparel he hadlast seen him in in his lifetime; he had on a sky-blue coat. Just before he came to the fence,he varied to the right and vanished; his horse immediately took the road. Thomas Harriscame within two panels of the fence to him; he did not see his features, nor speak to him.
He was acquainted with Thomas Harris when a boy, and there had always been a great
intimacy between them. He thinks the horse knew Thomas Harris, because of his neighing,pricking up his ears, and looking over the fence.
“About the first of June following, he was ploughing in his own field, about three miles
from where Thomas Harris was buried. About dusk Thomas Harris came alongside of him,
and walked with him about two hundred yards. He was dressed as when first seen. He
made a halt about two steps from him. J. Bailey who was ploughing along with him, camedriving up, and he lost sight of the ghost. He was much alarmed: not a word was spoken.
The young man Bailey did not see him; he did not tell Bailey of it. There was no motion of
any particular part: he vanished. It preyed upon his mind so as to affect his health. He waswith Thomas Harris when he died, but had no particular conversation with him. Some timeafter, he was lying in bed, about eleven and twelve o’clock at night, when he heard Thomas
Harris groan; it was like the groan he gave a few minutes before he expired: Mrs. Brigs, hiswife, heard the groan. She got up and searched the house: he did not, because he knew thegroan to be from Thomas Harris. Some time after, when in bed, and a great fire-light in thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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room, he saw a shadow on the wall, and at the same time he felt a great weight upon him.
Some time after, when in bed and asleep, he felt a stroke between his eyes, which
blackened them both: his wife was in bed with him, and two young men were in the room.
The blow awaked him, and all in the room were asleep; is certain no one in the room struck
him: the blow swelled his nose. About the middle of August he was alone, coming from
Hickey Collins’s, after dark, about one hour in the night, when Thomas Harris appeared,
dressed as he had seen him when going down to the meeting-house branch, three miles anda half from the graveyard of Thomas Harris. It was starlight. He extended his arms over hisshoulders. Does not know how long he remained in this situation. He was much alarmed.
Thomas Harris disappeared. Nothing was said. He felt no weight on his shoulders. He went
back to Collins’s, and got a young man to go with him. After he got home he mentioned it
to the young man. He had, before this, told James Harris he had seen his brother’s ghost.
“In October, about twilight in the morning, he saw Thomas Harris about one hundred
yards from the house of the witness; his head was leaned to one side; same apparel as
before; his face was toward him; he walked fast and disappeared: there was nothing
between them to obstruct the view; he was about fifty yards from him, and alone; he had noconception why Thomas Harris appeared to him. On the same day, about eight o’clock inthe morning, he was handing up blades to John Bailey, who was stacking them; he saw
Thomas Harris come along the garden fence, dressed as before; he vanished, and always tothe east; was within fifteen feet of him; Bailey did not see him. An hour and a half
afterward, in the same place, he again appeared, coming as before; came up to the fence;leaned on it within ten feet of the witness, who called to Bailey to look there (pointing
toward Thomas Harris). Bailey asked what was there. Don’t you see Harris? Does notrecollect what Bailey said. Witness advanced toward Harris. One or the other spoke aswitness got over the fence on the same panel that Thomas Harris was leaning on. They
walked off together about five hundred yards; a conversation took place as they walked; hehas not the conversation on his memory. He could not understand Thomas Harris, his voice
was so low. He asked Thomas Harris a question, and he forbid him. Witness then asked,‘Why not go to your brother, instead of me?’ Thomas Harris said, ‘Ask me no questions.’
Witness told him his will was doubted. Thomas Harris told him to ask his brother if he did
not remember the conversation which passed between them on the east side of the wheatstacks, the day he was taken with his death-sickness; that he then declared that he wishedall his property kept together by James Harris, until his children arrived at age, then thewhole should be sold and divided among his children; and, should it be immediately sold,as expressed in his will, that the property would be most wanting to his children while
minors, therefore he had changed his will, and said that witness should see him again. He
then told witness to turn, and disappeared. He did not speak to him with the same voice asin his lifetime. He was not daunted while with Thomas Harris, but much afterward. Witness
then went to James Harris and told him that he had seen his brother three times that day.
Related the conversation he had with him. Asked James Harris if he remembered theconversation between him and his brother, at the wheat-stack; he said he did; then told him
what had passed. Said he would fulfil his brother’s will. He was satisfied that witness had
seen his brother, for that no other person knew the conversation. On the same evening,
returning home about an hour before sunset, Thomas Harris appeared to him, and camealongside of him. Witness told him that his brother said he would fulfil his will. No moreconversation on this subject. He disappeared. He had further conversation with Thomas
Harris, but not on this subject. He was always dressed in the same manner. He had neverrelated to any person the last conversation, and never would.
“Bailey, who was sworn in the cause, declared that as he and Brigs were stacking
blades, as related by Brigs, he called to witness and said, ‘Look there! Do you not see
Thomas Harris?’ Witness said, ‘No.’ Brigs got over the fence, and walked some distance—
appeared by his action to be in deep conversation with some person. Witness saw no one.
“The counsel was extremely anxious to hear from Mr. Brigs the whole of theconversation of the ghost, and on his cross-examination took every means, without effect,
to obtain it. They represented to him, as a religious man, he was bound to disclose thewhole truth. He appeared agitated when applied to, declaring nothing short of life shouldmake him reveal the whole conversation, and, claiming the protection of the court, that hehad declared all he knew relative to the case.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“The court overruled the question of the counsel. Hon. James Tilgman, judge.
“His excellency Robert Wright, late governor of Maryland, and the Hon. Joseph H.
Nicholson, afterward judge of one of the courts in Maryland, were the counsel for theplaintiff.
“John Scott and Richard T. Earl, Esqs., were counsel for the defendant.”
Here, as in the case of Col. M⁠——, mentioned in a former chapter, and some others I
have met with, we find disclosures made that were held sacred.
Dr. Kerner relates the following singular story, which he declares himself to havereceived from the most satisfactory authority. Agnes B⁠——, being at the time eighteen
years of age, was living as servant in a small inn at Undenheim, her native place. The hostand hostess were quiet old people, who generally went to bed about eight o’clock, while
she and the boy, the only other servant, were expected to sit up till ten, when they had toshut up the house and retire to bed also. One evening, as the host was sitting on a bench
before the door, there came a beggar, requesting a night’s lodging. The host, however,refused, and bade him seek what he wanted in the village; whereon the man went away.
At the usual hour the old people went to bed; and the two servants, having closed the
shutters, and indulged in a little gossip with the watchman, were about to follow their
example, when the beggar came round the corner of the neighboring street, and earnestly
entreated them to give him a lodging for the night, since he could find nobody that would
take him in. At first the young people refused, saying they dared not, without their master’s
leave; but at length the entreaties of the man prevailed, and they consented to let him sleepin the barn, on condition that, when they called him in the morning, he would immediately
depart. At three o’clock they rose, and when the boy entered the barn, to his dismay, hefound that the old man had expired in the night. They were now much perplexed with theapprehension of their master’s displeasure; so, after some consultation, they agreed that thelad should convey the body out of the barn, and lay it in a dry ditch that was near at hand,where it would be found by the laborers, and excite no question, as they would naturally
conclude he had laid himself down there to die.
This was done, the man was discovered and buried, and they thought themselves wellrid of the whole affair; but, on the following night, the girl was awakened by the beggar,
whom she saw standing at her bedside. He looked at her, and then quitted the room by thedoor. “Glad was I,” she says, “when the day broke; but I was scarcely out of my room when
the boy came to me, trembling and pale, and, before I could say a word to him of what I
had seen, he told me that the beggar had been to his room in the night, had looked at him,
and then gone away. He said he was dressed as when we had seen him alive, only helooked blacker, which I also had observed.”
Still afraid of incurring blame, they told nobody, although the apparition returned tothem every night; and although they found removing to the other bed-chambers did not
relieve them from his visits. But the effects of this persecution became so visible on both,that much curiosity was awakened in the village with respect to the cause of the alteration
observed in them; and at length the boy’s mother went to the minister, requesting him tointerrogate her son, and endeavor to discover what was preying on his mind. To him theboy disclosed their secret; and this minister, who was a protestant, having listened withattention to the story, advised him, when next he went to Mayence, to market, to call on
Father Joseph, of the Franciscan convent, and relate the circumstance to him. This advice
was followed; and Father Joseph, assuring the lad that the ghost could do him no harm,
recommended him to ask him, in the name of God, what he desired. The boy did so;whereupon the apparition answered, “Ye are children of mercy, but I am a child of evil; inthe barn, under the straw, you will find my money. Take it; it is yours.” In the morning, theboy found the money accordingly, in an old stocking hid under the straw; but having anatural horror of it, they took it to their minister, who advised them to divide it into threeparts, giving one to the Franciscan convent at Mayence, another to the reformed church inthe village, and the other third to that to which they themselves belonged, which was of the
Lutheran persuasion. This they did, and were no more troubled with the beggar. With
respect to the minister who gave them this good advice, I can only say, all honor be to him!
I wish there were many more such! The circumstance occurred in the year 1750, and isrelated by the daughter of Agnes B⁠——, who declared that she had frequently heard it fromher mother.
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The circumstance of this apparition looking darker than the man had done when alive,
is significant of his condition, and confirms what I have said above, namely, that the moral
state of the disembodied soul can no longer be concealed as it was in the flesh, but that as
he is, he must necessarily appear.
There is an old saying, that we should never lie down to rest at enmity with any humanbeing; and the story of the ghost of the Princess Anna of Saxony, who appeared to Duke
Christian of Saxe-Eisenburg, is strongly confirmatory of the wisdom of this axiom.
Duke Christian was sitting one morning in his study, when he was surprised by a knockat his door—an unusual circumstance, since the guards as well as the people in waiting
were always in the ante-room. He, however, cried, “Come in!” when there entered, to his
amazement, a lady in an ancient costume, who, in answer to his inquiries, told him that she
was no evil spirit, and would do him no harm; but that she was one of his ancestors, andhad been the wife of Duke John Casimer, of Saxe-Coburg. She then related that she and herhusband had not been on good terms at the period of their deaths, and that, although she
had sought a reconciliation, he had been inexorable; pursuing her with unmitigated hatred,
and injuring her by unjust suspicions; and that, consequently, although she was happy, he
was still wandering in cold and darkness, between time and eternity. She had, however,long known that one of their descendants was destined to effect this reconciliation for them,and they were rejoiced to find the time for it had at length arrived. She then gave the duke
eight days to consider if he were willing to perform this good office, and disappeared;
whereupon he consulted a clergyman, in whom he had great confidence, who, after finding
the ghost’s communication verified, by a reference to the annals of the family, advised him
to comply with her request.
As the duke had yet some difficulty in believing it was really a ghost he had seen, hetook care to have his door well watched; she, however, entered at the appointed time,unseen by the attendants, and, having received the duke’s promise, she told him she would
return with her husband on the following night; for that, though she could come by day, he
could not; that then, having heard the circumstances, the duke must arbitrate between them,and then unite their hands, and bless them. The door was still watched, but nevertheless theapparitions both came, the Duke Casimer in full royal costume, but of a livid paleness; andwhen the wife had told her story, he told his. Duke Christian decided for the lady, in which
judgment Duke Casimer fully acquiesced. Christian then took the ice-cold hand of Casimer
and laid it in that of his wife, which felt of a natural heat. They then prayed and sang
together, and the apparitions disappeared, having foretold that Duke Christian would ere
long be with them. The family records showed that these people had lived about one
hundred years before Duke Christian’s time, who himself died in 1707, two years after
these visits of his ancestors. He desired to be buried in quicklime—it is supposed from an
idea that it might prevent his ghost walking the earth.
The costume in which they appeared was precisely that they had worn when alive, as
was ascertained by a reference to their portraits.
The expression that her husband was wandering in cold and darkness, between timeand eternity, is here very worthy of observation, as are the circumstances that his hand was
cold, while hers was warm; and also, the greater privilege she seemed to enjoy. The handsof the unhappy spirits appear, I think, invariably to communicate a sensation of cold.
I have heard of three instances of persons now alive, who declare that they holdcontinual intercourse with their deceased partners. One of these is a naval officer, whom
the author of a book lately published, called “The Unseen World,” appears to be acquainted
with. The second is a professor in a college in America, a man of eminence and learning,
and full of activity and energy—yet he assured a friend of mine that he receives constantvisits from his departed wife, which afford him great satisfaction. The third example is alady in this country. She is united to a second husband, has been extremely happy in bothmarriages, and declares that she receives frequent visits from her first. Oberlin, the good
pastor of Ban de la Roche, asserted the same thing of himself. His wife came to him
frequently after her death; was seen by the rest of his household, as well as himself; andwarned him beforehand of many events that occurred.
Mrs. Mathews relates in the memoirs of her husband, that he was one night in bed andunable to sleep, from the excitement that continues some time after acting, when, hearing arustling by the side of the bed, he looked out, and saw his first wife, who was then dead,https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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standing by the bedside, dressed as when alive. She smiled, and bent forward as if to takehis hand; but in his alarm he threw himself out on the floor to avoid the contact, and wasfound by the landlord in a fit. On the same night, and at the same hour, the present Mrs.
Mathews, who was far away from him, received a similar visit from her predecessor, whom
she had known when alive. She was quite awake, and in her terror seized the bell-rope tosummon assistance, which gave way, and she fell with it in her hand to the ground.
Professor Barthe, who visited Oberlin in 1824, says, that while he spoke of his
intercourse with the spiritual world as familiarly as of the daily visits of his parishioners, he
was at the same time perfectly free from fanaticism, and eagerly alive to all the concerns of
this earthly existence. He asserted, what I find many somnambules and deceased persons
also assert, that everything on earth is but a copy, of which the antitype is to be found in theother.
He said to his visiter, that he might as well attempt to persuade him that that was not atable before them, as that he did not hold communication with the other world. “I give you
credit for being honest when you assure me that you never saw anything of the kind,” saidhe; “give me the same credit when I assure you that I do.”With respect to the faculty of ghost-seeing, he said, it depends on several
circumstances, external and internal. People who live in the bustle and glare of the world
seldom see them, while those who live in still, solitary, thinly-inhabited places, like themountainous districts of various countries, do. So if I go into the forest by night, I see thephosphoric light of a piece of rotten wood; but if I go by day I can not see it; yet it is still
there. Again, there must be a rapport. A tender mother is awakened by the faintest cry ofher infant, while the maid slumbers on and never hears it; and if I thrust a needle among aparcel of wood-shavings, and hold a magnet over them, the needle is stirred while theshavings are quite unmoved. There must be a particular aptitude; what it consists in I do not
know; for of my people, many of whom are ghost-seers, some are weak and sickly, others
vigorous and strong. Here are several pieces of flint: I can see no difference in them; yetsome have so much iron in them that they easily become magnetic; others have little ornone. So it is with the faculty of ghost-seeing. People may laugh as they will, but the thing
is a fact, nevertheless.
The visits of his wife continued for nine years after her death, and then ceased.
At length she sent him a message, through another deceased person, to say that she wasnow elevated to a higher state, and could therefore no longer revisit the earth.
Never was there a purer spirit, nor a more beloved human being, than Oberlin. When
first he was appointed to the curé of Ban de la Roche, and found his people talking sofamiliarly of the reappearance of the dead, he reproved them and preached against thesuperstition; nor was he convinced, till after the death of his wife. She had, however,previously received a visit from her deceased sister, the wife of Professor Oberlin, ofStrasburg, who had warned her of her approaching death, for which she immediately set
about preparing, making extra clothing for her children, and even laying in provision for
the funeral feast. She then took leave of her husband and family, and went quietly to bed.
On the following morning she died; and Oberlin never heard of the warning she hadreceived, till she disclosed it to him in her spectral visitations.
In narrating the following story, I am not permitted to give the names of the place orparties, nor the number of the regiment, with all of which, however, I am acquainted. The
account was taken down by one of the officers, with whose family I am also acquainted;
and the circumstance occurred within the last ten years.
“About the month of August,” says Captain E⁠——, “my attention was requested by theschoolmaster-sergeant, a man of considerable worth, and highly esteemed by the wholecorps, to an event which had occurred in the garrison hospital. Having heard his recital,
which, from the serious earnestness with which he made it, challenged attention, I resolved
to investigate the matter; and, having communicated the circumstances to a friend, we both
repaired to the hospital for the purpose of inquiry.
“There were two patients to be examined—both men of good character, and neither ofthem suffering from any disorder affecting the brain; the one was under treatment for
consumptive symptoms, and the other for an ulcerated leg: and they were both in the primeof life.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“Having received a confirmation of the schoolmaster’s statement from the hospitalsergeant, also a very respectable and trustworthy man, I sent for the patient principallyconcerned, and desired him to state what he had seen and heard, warning him, at the sametime, that it was my intention to take down his deposition, and that it behooved him to bevery careful, as possibly serious steps might be taken for the purpose of discovering
whether an imposition had been practised in the wards of the hospital—a crime for which,he was well aware, a very severe penalty would be inflicted. He then proceeded to relate
the circumstances, which I took down in the presence of Mr. B⁠—— and the hospitalsergeant, as follows:—“ ‘It was last Tuesday night, somewhere between eleven and twelve, when all of us
were in bed, and all lights out except the rush-light that was allowed for the man with thefever, when I was awoke by feeling a weight upon my feet, and at the same moment, as I
was drawing up my legs, Private W⁠——, who lies in the cot opposite mine, called out, “I
say, Q⁠——, there’s somebody sitting upon your legs!”—and as I looked to the bottom of
my bed, I saw some one get up from it, and then come round and stand over me, in thepassage between my cot and the next. I felt somewhat alarmed, for the last few nights theward had been disturbed by sounds as of a heavy foot walking up and down; and as nobody
could be seen, it was beginning to be supposed among us that it was haunted, and fancying
this that came up to my bed’s head might be the ghost, I called out, “Who are you, andwhat do you want?”“ ‘The figure then, leaning with one hand on the wall, over my head, and stooping
down, said, in my ear, “I am Mrs. M⁠——;” and I could then distinguish that she wasdressed in a flannel gown, edged with black riband, exactly similar to a set of grave-clothes
in which I had assisted to clothe her corpse, when her death took place a year previously.
“ ‘The voice, however, was not like Mrs. M⁠——’s, nor like anybody else’s, yet it wasvery distinct, and seemed somehow to sing through my head. I could see nothing of a facebeyond a darkish color about the head, and it appeared to me that I could see through her
body against the window-glasses.
“ ‘Although I felt very uncomfortable, I asked her what she wanted. She replied, “I am
Mrs. M⁠——, and I wish you to write to him that was my husband, and tell him.....”“ ‘I am not, sir,’ said Corporal Q⁠——, ‘at liberty to mention to anybody what she toldme, except to her husband. He is at the dépôt in Ireland, and I have written and told him.
She made me promise not to tell any one else. After I had promised secrecy, she told me
something of a matter that convinced me I was talking to a spirit, for it related to what only
I and Mrs. M⁠—— knew, and no one living could know anything whatever of the matter;and if I was now speaking my last words on earth, I say solemnly that it was Mrs. M⁠——’sspirit that spoke to me then, and no one else. After promising that if I complied with her
request, she would not trouble me or the ward again, she went from my bed toward thefireplace, and with her hands she kept feeling about the wall over the mantel-piece. After awhile, she came toward me again; and while my eyes were upon her, she somehow
disappeared from my sight altogether, and I was left alone.
“ ‘It was then that I felt faint-like, and a cold sweat broke out over me; but I did not
faint, and after a time I got better, and gradually I went off to sleep.
“ ‘The men in the ward said, next day, that Mrs. M⁠—— had come to speak to me about
purgatory, because she had been a Roman catholic, and we had often had arguments on
religion: but what she told me had no reference to such subjects, but to a matter only she
and I knew of.’“After closely cross-questioning Corporal Q⁠——, and endeavoring without success toreason him out of his belief in the ghostly character of his visiter, I read over to him what I
had written, and then, dismissing him, sent for the other patient.
“After cautioning him, as I had done the first, I proceeded to take down his statement,
which was made with every appearance of good faith and sincerity:—“ ‘I was lying awake,’ said he, ‘last Tuesday night, when I saw some one sitting on
Corporal Q⁠——’s bed. There was so little light in the ward, that I could not make out who
it was, and the figure looked so strange that I got alarmed, and felt quite sick. I called out toCorporal Q⁠—— that there was somebody sitting upon his bed, and then the figure got up;
and as I did not know but it might be coming to me, I got so much alarmed, that being but
weakly’ (this was the consumptive man), ‘I fell back, and I believe I fainted away. When I
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got round again, I saw the figure standing and apparently talking to the corporal, placing
one hand against the wall and stooping down. I could not, however, hear any voice; andbeing still much alarmed, I put my head under the clothes for a considerable time. When I
looked up again I could only see Corporal Q⁠——, sitting up in bed alone, and he said he
had seen a ghost; and I told him I had also seen it. After a time he got up and gave me adrink of water, for I was very faint. Some of the other patients being disturbed by our
talking, they bade us be quiet, and after some time I got to sleep. The ward has not been
disturbed since.’“The man was then cross-questioned; but his testimony remaining quite unshaken, he
was dismissed, and the hospital-sergeant was interrogated with regard to the possibility of atrick having been practised. He asserted, however, that this was impossible; and, certainly,
from my own knowledge of the hospital regulations, and the habits of the patients, I should
say that a practical joke of this nature was too serious a thing to have been attempted byanybody, especially as there were patients in the ward very ill at the time, and one very nearhis end. The punishment would have been extremely severe, and discovery almost certain,
since everybody would have been adverse to the delinquent.
“The investigation that ensued was a very brief one, it being found that there wasnothing more to be elicited; and the affair terminated with the supposition that the two men
had been dreaming. Nevertheless, six months afterward, on being interrogated, theirevidence and their conviction were as clear as at first, and they declared themselves readyat any time to repeat their statement upon oath.”
Supposing this case to be as the men believed it, there are several things worthy ofobservation. In the first place, the ghost is guilty of that inconsistency so offensive toFrancis Grose and many others. Instead of telling her secret to her husband, shecommissions the corporal to tell it him, and it is not till a year after her departure from thislife that she does even that; and she is heard in the ward two or three nights before she isvisible. We are therefore constrained to suppose that, like Mrs. Bretton, she could notcommunicate with her husband, and that, till that Tuesday night, the necessary conditions
for attaining her object, as regarded the corporal, were wanting. It is also remarkable that,
although the latter heard her speak distinctly, and spoke to her, the other man heard novoice, which renders it probable that she had at length been able to produce that impression
upon him which a magnetizer does on his somnambule, enabling each to understand theother by a transference of thought, which was undistinguishable to the corporal fromspeech, as it is frequently to the somnambule. The imitating the actions of life by leaning
against the wall and feeling about the mantel-piece, are very unlike what a person would
have done who was endeavoring to impose on the man; and equally unlike what they would
have reported, had the thing been an invention of their own.
Among the established jests on the subject of ghosts, their sudden vanishing is a very
fruitful one; but, I think, if we examine this question, we shall find that there is nothing
comical in the matter except the ignorance or want of reflection of the jesters.
In the first place, as I have before observed, a spirit must be where its thoughts andaffections are, for they are itself; our spirits are where our thoughts and affections are,although our solid bodies remain stationary: and no one will suppose that walls or doors, ormaterial obstacles of any kind, could exclude a spirit any more than they can exclude ourthoughts.
But, then, there is the visible body of the spirit—what is that, and how does it retain its
shape?—for we know that there is a law (discovered by Dalton) that two masses of gaseous
matter can not remain in contact, but they will immediately proceed to diffuse themselves
into one another; and accordingly, it may be advanced that a gaseous corporeity in theatmosphere is an impossibility, because it could not retain its form, but would inevitably bedissolved away, and blend with the surrounding air. But precisely the same objection might
be made by a chemist to the possibility of our fleshly bodies retaining their integrity andcompactness: for the human body, taken as a whole, is known to be an impossible chemicalcompound, except for the vitality which upholds it; and no sooner is life withdrawn from it,than it crumbles into putrescence; and it is undeniable that the aeriform body would be an
impossible mechanical phenomenon, but for the vitality which, we are entitled to suppose,
may uphold it. But, just as the state or condition of organization protects the fleshly bodyfrom the natural reactions which would destroy it, so may an analogous condition of
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organization protect a spiritual ethereal body from the destructive influence of the mutualinterdiffusion of gases.
Thus, supposing this aeriform body to be a permanent appurtenance of the spirit, we see
how it may subsist and retain its integrity; and it would be as reasonable to hope to exclude
the electric fluid by walls or doors as to exclude by them this subtle, fluent form. If, on thecontrary, the shape be only one constructed out of the atmosphere by an act of will, thesame act of will, which is a vital force, will preserve it entire, until, the will being
withdrawn, it dissolves away. In either case, the moment the will or thought of the spirit iselsewhere, it is gone—it has vanished.
For those who prefer the other hypothesis—namely, that there is no outstanding shapeat all, but that the will of the spirit, acting on the constructive imagination of the seer,
enables him to conceive the form, as the spirit itself conceives of it—there can be no
difficulty in understanding that the becoming invisible will depend merely on a similar actof will.

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CHAPTER XIII.

273

HAUNTED HOUSES.

Everybody has heard of haunted houses; and there is no country, and scarcely any
place, in which something of the sort is not known or talked of; and I suppose there is no
one who, in the course of their travels, has not seen very respectable, good-looking houses
shut up and uninhabited, because they had this evil reputation assigned to them. I have seen
several such, for my own part; and it is remarkable that this mala fama does not always, by
any means, attach itself to buildings one would imagine most obnoxious to such a
suspicion. For example, I never heard of a ghost being seen or heard in Haddon hall, themost ghostly of houses; nor in many other antique, mysterious-looking buildings, where
one might expect them, while sometimes a house of a very prosaic aspect remains
uninhabited, and is ultimately allowed to fall to ruin, for no other reason, we are told, thanthat nobody can live in it. I remember, in my childhood, such a house in Kent—I think it
was on the road between Maidstone and Tunbridge—which had this reputation. There wasnothing dismal about it: it was neither large nor old, and it stood on the borders of a wellfrequented road; yet I was assured it had stood empty for years; and as long as I lived inthat part of the country it never had an inhabitant, and I believe was finally pulled down—
and all for no other reason than that it was haunted, and nobody could live in it. I havefrequently heard of people, while travelling on the continent, getting into houses at a rent so
low as to surprise them, and I have, moreover, frequently heard of very strange things
occurring while they were there. I remember, for instance, a family of the name of S⁠——
S⁠——, who obtained a very handsome house at a most agreeably cheap rate, somewhere on
the coast of Italy—I think it was at Mola de Gaeta. They lived very comfortably in it till
one day, while Mrs. S⁠—— S⁠—— was sitting in the drawing-room, which opened into abalcony overhanging the sea, she saw a lady dressed in white pass along before thewindows, which were all closed. Concluding it was one of her daughters, who had been
accidentally shut out, she arose and opened the window, to allow her to enter; but onlooking out, to her amazement there was nobody there, although there was no possible
escape from the balcony unless by jumping into the sea! On mentioning this circumstanceto somebody in the neighborhood, they were told that “that was the reason they had thehouse so cheap: nobody liked to live in it.”I have heard of several houses, even in populous cities, to which some strange
circumstance of this sort is attached—some in London even, and some in this city andneighborhood; and, what is more, unaccountable things actually do happen to those who
inhabit them. Doors are strangely opened and shut, a rustling of silk, and sometimes awhispering, and frequently footsteps, are heard. There is a house in Ayrshire to which thissort of thing has been attached for years, insomuch that it was finally abandoned to an old
man and woman, who said that they were so used to it that they did not mind it. A
distinguished authoress told me that some time ago she passed a night at the house of an
acquaintance, in one of the midland counties of England. She and her sister occupied thesame room, and in the night they heard some one ascending the stairs. The foot came
distinctly to the door, then turned away, ascended the next flight, and they heard it
overhead. In the morning, on being asked if they had slept well, they mentioned thiscircumstance. “That is what everybody hears who sleeps in that room,” said the lady of thehouse. “Many a time I have, when sleeping there, drawn up the night-bolt, persuaded thatthe nurse was bringing the baby to me; but there was nobody to be seen. We have taken
every pains to ascertain what it is, but in vain; and are now so used to it, that we haveceased to care about the matter.”
I know of two or three other houses in this city, and one in the neighborhood, in which
circumstances of this nature are transpiring, or have transpired very lately; but people hushthem up, from the fear of being laughed at, and also from an apprehension of injuring thecharacter of a house; on which account, I do not dwell on the particulars. But there was,some time since, a fama of this kind attached to a house in St. J⁠—— street, some of thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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details of which became very public. It had stood empty a long time, in consequence of theannoyances to which the inhabitants had been subjected. There was one room, particularly,
which nobody could occupy without disturbance. On one occasion, a youth who had been
abroad a considerable time, either in the army or navy, was put there to sleep on his arrival,
since, knowing nothing of these reports, it was hoped his rest might not be interrupted. In
the morning, however, he complained of the dreadful time he had had, with people looking
in at him between the curtains of his bed all night—avowing his resolution to terminate his
visit that same day, as he would not sleep there any more. After this period, the house stood
empty again for a considerable time, but was at length taken and workmen sent in to repair
it. One day, when the men were away at dinner, the master tradesman took the key andwent to inspect progress, and, having examined the lower rooms, he was ascending thestairs, when he heard a man’s foot behind him. He looked round, but there was nobody
there, and he moved on again; still there was somebody following, and he stopped andlooked over the rails; but there was no one to be seen. So, although feeling rather queer, headvanced into the drawing-room, where a fire had been lighted; and, wishing to combat theuncomfortable sensation that was creeping over him, he took hold of a chair, and drawing it
resolutely along the floor, he slammed it down upon the hearth with some force and seatedhimself in it; when, to his amazement, the action, in all its particulars of sound, wasimmediately repeated by his unseen companion, who seemed to seat himself beside him ona chair as invisible as himself. Horror-struck, the worthy builder started up and rushed outof the house.
There is a house in S⁠—— street, in London, which, having stood empty a good while,
was at length taken by Lord B⁠——. The family were annoyed by several unpleasantoccurrences, and by the sound of footsteps, which were often audible, especially in Lady
B⁠——’s bed-room—who, though she could not see the form, was occasionally consciousof its immediate proximity.
Some time since, a gentleman having established himself in a lodging in London, felt,
the first night he slept there, that the clothes were being dragged off his bed. He fancied hehad done it himself in his sleep, and pulled them on again;—but it happens repeatedly: hegets out of bed each time—can find nobody, no string, no possible explanation—nor canobtain any from the people of the house, who only seem distressed and annoyed. On
mentioning it to some one in the neighborhood, he is informed that the same thing has
occurred to several preceding occupants of the lodging, which, of course, he left.
The circumstances that happened at New House, in Hampshire—as detailed by Mr.
Barham in the third volume of the “Ingoldsby Legends”—are known to be perfectly
authentic; as are the following, the account of which I have received from a highly
respectable servant, residing in a family with whom I am well acquainted: she informs methat she was, not very long since, living with a Colonel and Mrs. W⁠——, who, being at
Carlisle, engaged a furnished house, which they obtained at an exceedingly cheap rate,
because nobody liked to live in it. This family, however, met with no annoyance, andattached no importance to the rumor which had kept the house empty. There were,
however, two rooms in it wholly unfurnished; and as the house was large, they weredispensed with till the recurrence of the race week, when, expecting company, these tworooms were temporarily fitted up for the use of the nurses and children. There were heavy
Venetian blinds to the windows; and, in the middle of the night, the person who related thecircumstance to me, was awakened by the distinct sound of these blinds being pulled up
and down with violence, perhaps as many as twenty times. The fire had fallen low, and she
could not see whether they were actually moved or not, but lay trembling in indescribableterror. Presently feet were heard in the room, and a stamping as if several men were moving
about without stockings. While lying in this state of agony, she was comforted by hearing
the voice of a nurse, who slept in another bed in the same chamber, exclaiming: “The Lord
have mercy upon us!” This second woman then asked the first if she had courage to get outof bed and stir up the fire, so that they might be able to see; which by a great effort she did,the chimney being near her bed. There was, however, nothing to be discovered, everything
being precisely as when they went to bed. On another occasion, when they were sitting in
the evening at work, they distinctly heard some one counting money, and the chink of thepieces as they were laid down. The sound proceeded from the inner room of the two, but
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there was nobody there. This family left the house, and though a large and commodious
one, she understood it remained unoccupied, as before.
A respectable citizen of Edinburgh, not long ago, went to America to visit his son, who
had married and settled there. The morning after his arrival, he declared his determination
to return immediately to Philadelphia, from which the house was at a considerable distance;
and, on being interrogated as to the cause of this sudden departure, he said that in theprevious night he had heard a man walking about his room, who had approached the bed,
drawn back the curtains, and bent over him. Thinking it was somebody who had concealed
himself there with ill intentions, he had struck out violently at the figure, when, to hishorror, his arm passed unimpeded through it.
Other extraordinary things happened in that house, which had the reputation of being
haunted, although the son had not believed it, and had therefore not mentioned the report tothe father. One day the children said they had been running after “such a queer thing in thecellar; it was like a goat, and not like a goat; but it seemed to be like a shadow.”
A few years ago, some friends of mine were taking a house in this city, when theservants of the people who were leaving advised them not to have anything to do with it,
for that there was a ghost in it that screamed dreadfully, and that they never could keep a
stitch of clothes on them at night—the bed-coverings were always pulled off. My friends
laughed heartily and took the house; but the cries and groans all over it were so frequent,that they at length got quite used to them. It is to be observed that the house was a flat, or
floor, shut in; so that there could be no draughts of air nor access for tricks. Besides, it wasa woman’s voice, sometimes close to their ears, sometimes in a closet, sometimes behind
their beds—in short, in all directions. Everybody heard it that went to the house.
The tenant that succeeded them, however, has never been troubled with it.
The story of the Brown Lady at the Marquis of T⁠——’s, in Norfolk, is known to many.
The Hon. H. W⁠—— told me that a friend of his, while staying there, had often seen her,and had one day inquired of his host, “Who was the lady in brown that he had met
frequently on the stairs?” Two gentlemen, whose names were mentioned to me, resolved towatch for her and intercept her. They at length saw her but she eluded them by turning
down a staircase, and when they looked over she had disappeared. Many persons have seen
her.
There is a Scotch family of distinction, who, I am told, are accompanied by an unseen
attendant, whom they call “Spinning Jenny.” She is heard spinning in their house in the
country, and when they come into town she spins here; servants and all hear the sound ofher wheel. I believe she accompanies them no further than to their own residences, not tothose of other people. Jenny is supposed to be a former housemaid of the family, who was agreat spinner, and they are so accustomed to her presence as to feel it no annoyance.
The following very singular circumstance was related to me by the daughter of thecelebrated Mrs. S⁠——: Mrs. S⁠—— and her husband were travelling into Wales, and had
occasion to stop on their way, some days, at Oswestry. There they established themselves ina lodging, to reach the door of which they had to go down a sort of close, or passage. The
only inhabitants of the house were the mistress, a very handsome woman, and two maids.
Mr. and Mrs. S⁠——, however, very soon had occasion to complain of the neglected state of
the rooms, which were apparently never cleaned or dusted; though, strange to say, to judge
by their own ears, the servants were doing nothing else all night, their sleep being
constantly disturbed by the noise of rubbing, sweeping, and the moving of furniture. Whenthey complained to these servants of the noise in the night, and the dirt of the rooms, theyanswered that the noise was not made by them, and that it was impossible for them to dotheir work, exhausted as they were by sitting up all night with their mistress, who could not
bear to be alone when she was in bed. Mr. and Mrs. S⁠—— afterward discovered that she
had her room lighted up every night; and one day, as they were returning from a walk, andshe happened to be going down the close before them, they heard her saying, as she turned
her head sharply from side to side, “Are you there again? What, the devil! Go away, I tellyou!” &c., &c. On applying to the neighbors for an explanation of these mysteries, thegood people only shook their heads, and gave mysterious answers. Mr. and Mrs. S⁠——
afterward learned that she was believed to have murdered a girl who formerly lived in her
service.
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There is nothing in the conduct of this unhappy woman which may not be perfectly
well accounted for, by the supposition of a guilty conscience; but the noises heard by Mr.
and Mrs. S⁠—— at night, are curiously in accordance with a variety of similar stories,
wherein this strange visionary repetition of the trivial actions of daily life, or of someparticular incident, has been observed. The affair of Lord St. Vincent’s was of this nature;and there is somewhere extant, an account of the ghost of Peter the Great, of Russia, having
appeared to Doctor Doppelio, complaining to him of the sufferings he endured from having
to act over again his former cruelties; a circumstance which exhibits a remarkablecoincidence with the Glasgow dream, mentioned in a preceding chapter. We must, ofcourse, attach a symbolical meaning to these phenomena, and conclude that these reactings
are somewhat of the nature of our dreams. Certainly, there would need no stronger motive
to induce us to spend the period allotted to us on earth, in those pure and innocent pleasuresand occupations, which never weary or sicken the soul, than the belief that such a future
awaits us!
A family in one of the English counties, was a few years ago terribly troubled by an
unseen inmate who chiefly seemed to inhabit a large cellar, into which there was no
entrance except the door which was kept locked. Here there would be a loud knocking—sometimes a voice crying—heavy feet walking, &c., &c. At first, the old trustworthy butler
would summon his accolytes, and descend, armed with sword and blunderbuss; but no one
was to be seen. They could often hear the feet following them up stairs from this cellar; andonce, when the family had determined to watch, they found themselves accompanied up
stairs not only by the sound of the feet, but by a visible shadowy companion! They rushed
up, flew to their chamber, and shut the door, when instantly they felt and saw the handle
turned in their hand by a hand outside. Windows and doors were opened in spite of locks
and keys; but notwithstanding the most persevering investigations, the only clew to themystery was the appearance of that spectral figure.
The knockings and sounds of people at work, asserted to be heard in mines, is a fact
maintained by many very sensible men, overseers, and superintendents, &c., as well as by
the workmen themselves; and there is a strong persuasion, I know, among the miners ofCornwall, and those of Mendip, that these visionary workmen are sometimes heard among
them; on which occasions the horses evince their apprehensions by trembling and sweating;but as I have no means of verifying these reports, I do not dwell upon them further.
When the mother of George Canning, then Mrs. Hunn, was an actress in the provinces,
she went, among other places, to Plymouth, having previously requested her friend, Mr.
Bernard, of the theatre, to procure her a lodging. On her arrival Mr. B. told her that if she
was not afraid of a ghost, she might have a comfortable residence at a very low rate, “Forthere is,” said he, “a house belonging to our carpenter, that is reported to be haunted, andnobody will live in it. If you like to have it, you may, and for nothing, I believe, for he is so
anxious to get a tenant; only you must not let it be known that you do not pay rent for it.”
Mrs. Hunn, alluding to the theatrical apparitions, said it would not be the first time she
had had to do with a ghost, and that she was very willing to encounter this one; so she had
her luggage taken to the house in question, and the bed prepared. At her usual hour, shesent her maid and her children to bed, and, curious to see if there was any foundation for
the rumor she had heard, she seated herself, with a couple of candles and a book, to watch
the event. Beneath the room she occupied was the carpenter’s workshop, which had two
doors. The one which opened into the street was barred and bolted within; the other, asmaller one, opening into the passage, was only on the latch; and the house was, of course,
closed for the night. She had read something more than half an hour, when she perceived anoise issuing from this lower apartment, which sounded very much like the sawing ofwood. Presently other such noises as usually proceed from a carpenter’s workshop wereadded, till by-and-by, there was a regular concert of knocking and hammering, and sawing
and planing, &c.; the whole sounding like half a dozen busy men in full employment.
Being a woman of considerable courage, Mrs. Hunn resolved, if possible, to penetrate themystery; so taking off her shoes, that her approach might not be heard, with her candle inher hand, she very softly opened her door and descended the stairs, the noise continuing as
loud as ever, and evidently proceeding from the workshop, till she opened the door, when
instantly all was silent—all was still—not a mouse was stirring; and the tools and thewood, and everything else, lay as they had been left by the workmen when they went away.
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Having examined every part of the place, and satisfied herself that there was nobody there,
and that nobody could get into it, Mrs. Hunn ascended to her room again, beginning almost
to doubt her own senses, and question with herself whether she had really heard the noiseor not, when it recommenced and continued, without intermission, for about half an hour.
She however went to bed, and the next day told nobody what had occurred, having
determined to watch another night before mentioning the affair to any one. As, however,this strange scene was acted over again, without her being able to discover the cause of it,
she now mentioned the circumstance to the owner of the house and to her friend Bernard;
and the former, who would not believe it, agreed to watch with her, which he did. The noise
began as before, and he was so horror-struck that, instead of entering the workshop as she
wished him to do, he rushed into the street. Mrs. Hunn continued to inhabit the house thewhole summer; and, when referring afterward to the adventure, she observed that use wassecond nature, and that she was sure if any night these ghostly carpenters had not pursued
their visionary labors, she should have been quite frightened, lest they should pay her avisit up stairs.
From many recorded cases, I find the vulgar belief, that buried money is frequently thecause of these disturbances, is strongly borne out by facts. This certainly does seem to us
very strange, and can only be explained by the hypothesis suggested, that the soul awakes
in the other world in exactly the same state in which it quitted this.
In the abovementioned instances, of what are called haunted houses, there is generally
nothing seen; but those are equally abundant where the ghostly visiter is visible.
Two young ladies were passing the night in a house in the north, when the youngest,then a child, awoke and saw an old man, in a Kilmarnock nightcap, walking about their
bed-room. She said, when telling the story in after-life, that she was not the least frightened—she was only surprised! but she found that her sister, who was several years older thanherself, was in a state of great terror. He continued some time moving about, and at lastwent to a chest of drawers, where there lay a parcel of buttons, belonging to a travelling
tailor who had been at work in the house. Whether the old man threw them down or not,she could not say; but, just then, they all fell rattling off the drawers to the floor, whereupon
he disappeared. The next morning, when they mentioned the circumstance, she observedthat the family looked at each other in a significant manner; but it was not till she was older
she learned that the house was said to be haunted by this old man. “It never occurred tome,” she said, “that it was a ghost. Who could have thought of a ghost in a Kilmarnocknightcap!”
At the Leipsic fair, lodgings are often very scarce, and on one occasion a stranger, who
had arrived late in the evening, had some difficulty in finding a bed. At length he found avacant chamber in the house of a citizen. It was one they made no use of, but they said he
was welcome to it; and, weary and sleepy, he gladly accepted the offer. Fatigued as he was,however, he was disturbed by some unaccountable noises, of which he complained to his
hosts in the morning. They pacified him by some excuses; but the next night, not long after
he had gone to bed, he came down stairs in great haste, with his portmanteau on hisshoulder, declaring he would not stay there another hour for the world; for that a lady, in a
strange old-fashioned dress, had come into the room with a dagger in her hand, and madethreatening gestures at him. He accordingly went away, and the room was shut up again;
but some time afterward, a servant-girl in the family of this citizen, being taken ill, they
were obliged to put her into that room, in order to separate her from the rest of the family.
Here she recovered her health rapidly; and as she had never complained of any annoyance,
she was asked, when she was quite well, whether anything particular had happened while
she inhabited that chamber. “Oh, yes,” she answered; “every night there came a strange
lady into the room, who sat herself on the bed and stroked me with her hand, and I believe
it is to her I owe my speedy recovery; but I could never get her to speak to me—she only
sighs and weeps.”
Not very long since, a gentleman set out, one fine midsummer’s evening, when it islight all night in Scotland, to walk from Montrose to Brechin. As he approached a placecalled Dunn, he observed a lady walking on before, which, from the lateness of the hour,
somewhat surprised him. Sometime afterward, he was found by the early laborers lying on
the ground, near the churchyard, in a state of insensibility. All he could tell them was, that
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seized with horror, he had fainted. “Oh,” said they, “you have seen the lady of Dunn.” Whatis the legend attached to this lady of Dunn, I do not know.
Monsieur De S. had been violently in love with Hippolyte Clairon, the celebrated
French actress, but she rejected his suit, in so peremptory a manner, that even when he wasat the point of death, she refused his earnest entreaties, that she would visit him. Indignant
at her cruelty, he declared that he would haunt her, and he certainly kept his word. I believe
she never saw his ghost, but he appears to have been always near her; at least, on several
occasions when other people doubted the fact, he signalized his presence at her bidding, byvarious sounds, and this, wherever she happened to be at the moment. Sometimes it was acry, at others, a shot, and at others, a clapping of hands or music. She seems to have beenslow to believe in the extra-natural character of these noises; and even when she wasultimately convinced, to have been divided between horror on the one hand, and diversion,at the oddness of the circumstance, on the other. The sounds were heard by everybody inher vicinity; and I am informed by Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, that the margrave ofAnspach, who was subsequently her lover, and Mr. Keppel Craven, were perfectly wellacquainted with the circumstances of this haunting, and entertained no doubt of the facts
above alluded to.
The ghost known by the designation of “the White Lady,” which is frequently seen indifferent castles or palaces belonging to the royal family of Prussia, has been mentioned inanother publication, I think. She was long supposed to be a Countess Agnes, of Orlamunde;but a picture of a princess called Bertha, or Perchta von Rosenberg, discovered some timesince, was thought so exceedingly to resemble the apparition, that it is now a disputed point
which of the two ladies it is, or whether it is or is not the same apparition that is seen at
different places. Neither of these ladies appears to have been very happy in their lives: but
the opinion of its being the Princess Bertha, who lived in the fifteenth century, wassomewhat countenanced by the circumstance, that at a period when, in consequence of thewar, an annual benefit which she had bequeathed to the poor was neglected, the apparition
seemed to be unusually disturbed, and was seen more frequently. She is often observed
before a death; and one of the Fredericks said, shortly before his decease, that he should“not live long, for he had met the White Lady.” She wears a widow’s band and veil, but it issufficiently transparent to show her features, which do not express happiness, but placidity.
She has only been twice heard to speak. In December, 1628, she appeared in the palace at
Berlin, and was heard to say, “Veni, judica vivos et mortuos! Judicium mihi adhucsuperest.”—“Come, judge the quick and the dead! I wait for judgment.” On the otheroccasion, which is more recent, one of the princesses at the castle of Neuhaus, in Bohemia,
was standing before a mirror, trying on a new head-dress, when, on asking her waitingmaid what the hour was, the white lady suddenly stepped from behind a screen and said:“Zehn uhr ist es ihr liebden!”—“It is ten o’clock, your love!” which is the mode in which
the sovereign princes address each other, instead of “your highness.” The princess wasmuch alarmed, soon fell sick, and died in a few weeks. She has frequently evinceddispleasure at the exhibition of impiety or vice; and there are many records of her different
appearances to be found in the works of Balbinus and of Erasmus Francisci; and in a
publication called “The Iris,” published in Frankfort in 1819, the editor, George Doring,
who is said to have been a man of great integrity, gives the following account of one of herlater appearances, which he declares he received just as he gives it, from the lips of his own
mother, on whose word and judgment he could perfectly rely; and shortly before his death,an inquiry being addressed to him with regard to the correctness of the narration, hevouched for its authenticity.
It seems that the elder sister of his mother was companion to one of the ladies of thecourt, and that the younger ones were in the habit of visiting her frequently. Two of these(Doring’s mother and another), aged fourteen and fifteen, were once spending a week withher, when she being out and they alone with their needlework, chattering about the court
diversions, they suddenly heard the sound of a stringed instrument, like a harp, which
seemed to proceed from behind a large stove that occupied one corner of the room. Half infear and half in fun, one of the girls took a yard measure that lay beside them, and struck
the spot, whereupon the music ceased, but the stick was wrested from her hand. She
became alarmed; but the other, named Christina, laughed and said she must have fancied it,
adding that the music doubtless proceeded from the street, though they could not descry
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any musicians. To get over her fright, of which she was half ashamed, the former now ran
out of the room to visit a neighbor for a few minutes; but when she returned, she found
Christina lying on the floor in a swoon, who, on being revived with the aid of the attendants
who had heard a scream, related, that no sooner had her sister left her than the sound was
repeated, close to the stove, and a white figure had appeared and advanced toward her,
whereupon she had screamed and fainted.
The lady who owned the apartments flattered herself that this apparition betokened thata treasure was hidden under the stove, and, imposing silence on the girls, she sent for acarpenter and had the planks lifted. The floor was found to be double, and below was avault, from which issued a very unwholesome vapor, but no treasure was found, nor
anything but a quantity of quicklime. The circumstance being now made known to theking, he expressed no surprise; he said that the apparition was doubtless that of a countessof Orlamunde, who had been buried alive in that vault. She was the mistress of a margraveof Brandenburg, by whom she had two sons. When the prince became a widower, she
expected he would marry her; but he urged as an objection that he feared, in that case, hersons might hereafter dispute the succession with the lawful heirs. In order to remove thisobstacle out of her way, she poisoned the children; and the margrave, disgusted andalarmed, had her walled up in that vault for her pains. He added that she was usually seen
every seven years, and was preceded by the sound of a harp, on which instrument she had
been a proficient; and also that she more frequently appeared to children than to adults,—as
if the love she had denied her own offspring in life was now her torment, and that shesought a reconciliation with childhood in general. I know from the best authority that thefact of these appearances is not doubted by those who have the fullest opportunities ofinquiry and investigation; and I remember seeing in the English papers, a few years since, aparagraph copied from the foreign journals, to the effect that the White Lady had been seen
again, I think at Berlin.
The following very curious relation I have received from the gentleman to whom thecircumstance occurred, who is a professional man residing in London:—“I was brought up by a grandfather and four aunts, all ghost-seers and believers insupernatural appearances. The former had been a sailor, and was one of the crew that sailed
round the world with Lord Anson. I remember, when I was about eight years old, that I wasawakened by the screams of one of these ladies, with whom I was sleeping, whichsummoned all the family about her to inquire the cause of the disturbance. She said that she
had ‘seen Nancy by the side of the bed, and that she was slipping into it.’ We had scarcely
got down stairs in the morning, before intelligence arrived that that lady had died, precisely
at the moment my aunt said she saw her. Nancy was her brother’s wife. Another of myaunts, who was married and had a large family, foretold my grandfather’s death, at a timethat we had no reason to apprehend it. He, also, had appeared at her bedside; he was thenalive and well, but he died a fortnight afterward. But it would be tedious were I toenumerate half the instances I could recall of a similar description; and I will therefore
proceed to the relation of what happened to myself.
“I was, some few years since, invited to pass a day and night at the house of a friend in
Hertfordshire, with whom I was intimately acquainted. His name was B⁠——, and he hadformerly been in business as a saddler, in Oxford street, where he realized a handsome
fortune, and had now retired to enjoy his otium cum dignitate, in the rural and beautiful
village of Sarratt.
“It was a gloomy Sunday, in the month of November, when I mounted my horse for thejourney, and there was so much appearance of rain, that I should certainly have selected
some other mode of conveyance, had I not been desirous of leaving the animal in Mr.
E⁠——’s straw-yard for the winter. Before I got as far as St. John’s wood, the threatening
clouds broke, and by the time I reached Watford I was completely soaked. However, I
proceeded, and arrived at Sarratt before my friend and his wife had returned from church.
The moment they did so, they furnished me with dry clothes, and I was informed that wewere to dine at the house of Mr. D⁠——, a very agreeable neighbor. I felt some little
hesitation about presenting myself in such a costume, for I was decked out in a full suit of
Mr. B⁠——’s, who was a stout man, of six feet in height, while I am rather of the diminutive
order; but my objections were overruled; we went, and my appearance added not a little tohttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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the hilarity of the party. At ten o’clock we separated, and I returned with Mr. and Mrs.
B⁠—— to their house, where I was shortly afterward conducted to a very comfortable bedroom.
“Fatigued with my day’s ride, I was soon in bed, and soon asleep, but I do not think I
could have slept long before I was awakened by the violent barking of dogs. I found thatthe noise had disturbed others as well as myself, for I heard Mr. B⁠——, who was lodged in
the adjoining room, open his window and call to them to be quiet. They were obedient to
his voice, and as soon as quietness ensued I dropped asleep again; but I was again
awakened by an extraordinary pressure upon my feet; that I was perfectly awake, I declare;
the light that stood in the chimney-corner shone strongly across the foot of the bed, and I
saw the figure of a well-dressed man in the act of stooping, and supporting himself in sodoing by the bed-clothes. He had on a blue coat, with bright gilt buttons, but I saw no head;the curtains at the foot of the bed, which were partly looped back, just hung so as toconceal that part of his person. At first I thought it was my host, and as I had dropped myclothes, as is my habit, on the floor at the foot of the bed, I supposed he was come to lookafter them, which rather surprised me: but, just as I had raised myself upright in bed, andwas about to inquire into the occasion of his visit, the figure passed on. I then recollectedthat I had locked the door; and, becoming somewhat puzzled, I jumped out of bed; but I
could see nobody; and on examining the room I found no means of ingress but the door
through which I had entered, and one other; both of which were locked on the inside.
Amazed and puzzled I got into bed again, and sat some time ruminating on theextraordinary circumstance, when it occurred to me that I had not looked under the bed; so
I got out again, fully expecting to find my visiter, whoever he was, there; but I wasdisappointed. So, after looking at my watch, and ascertaining that it was ten minutes pasttwo, I stepped into bed again, hoping now to get some rest. But, alas! sleep was banished
for that night; and after turning from side to side, and making vain endeavors atforgetfulness, I gave up the point, and lay till the clocks struck seven, perplexing my brain
with the question of who my midnight visiter could be, and also how he had got in and how
he had got out of my room. About eight o’clock I met my host and his wife at the
breakfast-table, when, in answer to their hospitable inquiries of how I had passed the night,
I mentioned, first, that I had been awaked by the barking of some dogs, and that I had heard
Mr. B⁠—— open his window and call to them. He answered that two strange dogs had got
into the yard and had disturbed the others. I then mentioned my midnight visiter, expectingthat they would either explain the circumstance, or else laugh at me and declare I must havedreamed it. But, to my surprise, my story was listened to with grave attention, and they
related to me the tradition with which this spectre, for such I found they deemed it to be,
was supposed to be connected. This was to the effect, that many years ago a gentleman so
attired had been murdered there, under some frightful circumstances, and that his head had
been cut off. On perceiving that I was very unwilling to accept this explanation of themystery, for, in spite of my family peculiarity, I had always been an entire disbeliever insupernatural appearances, they begged me to prolong my visit for a day or two, when theywould introduce me to the rector of the parish, who could furnish me with such evidencewith regard to circumstances of a similar nature, as would leave no doubt on my mind as tothe possibility of their occurrence. But I had made an engagement to dine at Watford, on
my way back, and I confess, moreover, that after what I had heard I did not feel disposed toencounter the chance of another visit from the mysterious stranger; so I declined theproffered hospitality, and took my leave.
“Some time after this, I happened to be dining at C⁠—— street, in company with someladies resident in the same county, when, chancing to allude to my visit to Sarratt, I added,that I had met with a very extraordinary adventure there, which I had never been able toaccount for, when one of these ladies immediately said that she hoped I had not had a visit
from the headless gentleman, in a blue coat and gilt buttons, who was said to have been
seen by many people in that house.
“Such is the conclusion of this marvellous tale as regards myself; and I can only assure
you that I have related facts as they occurred, and that I had never heard a word about thisapparition in my life, till Mr. B⁠—— related to me the tradition above alluded to. Still, as I
am no believer, in supernatural appearances, I am constrained to suppose that the whole
affair was the product of my imagination.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“I must add, that Mr. B⁠—— mentioned some strange circumstances connected withanother house in the county, inhabited by a Mr. M⁠——, which were corroborated by theladies above alluded to. Both parties agreed that, from the unaccountable noises, &c., &c.,
which were heard there, that gentleman had the greatest difficulty in persuading any
servants to remain with him.
“A⁠—— W⁠—— M⁠——.
“C⁠—— street, 5th September, 1846.”
This is one of those curious instances of determined skepticism that fully justify the
patriarch’s prediction.
The following interesting letter, written by a member of a very distinguished English
family, will furnish its own explanation:—“As you express a wish to know what degree of credit is to be attached to a garbled talewhich has been sent forth, after a lapse of between thirty and forty years, as an ‘accredited
ghost-story,’ I will state the facts as they were recalled to my mind last year by a daughterof Sir William A. C⁠——, who sent the book to me, requesting me to tell her if there wasany foundation for the story, which she could scarcely believe, since she had never heard
my mother allude to it. I read the narrative with surprise, it being evidently not furnished byany of the family, nor indeed by any one who was with us at the time! yet, though full of
mistakes in names, &c., &c., some particulars come so near the truth as to puzzle me. The
facts are as follows:—“Sir James, my mother, with myself and my brother Charles, went abroad toward theend of the year 1786. After trying several different places, we determined to settle at Lille,
where we found the masters particularly good, and where we had also letters of
introduction to several of the best French families. There Sir James left us, and, after
passing a few days in an uncomfortable lodging, we engaged a nice, large family house,
which we liked very much, and which we obtained at a very low rent, even for that part of
the world.
“About three weeks after we were established in our new residence, I walked one daywith my mother to the bankers, for the purpose of delivering our letter of credit from Sir
Robert Herries, and drawing some money, which, being paid in heavy five-franc pieces, wefound we could not carry, and therefore requested the banker to send, saying, ‘We live in
the Place du Lion D’or.’ Whereupon he looked surprised, and observed that he knew of nohouse there fit for us, ‘except, indeed,’ he added, ‘the one that has been long uninhabited,on account of the revenant that walks about it.’ He said this quite seriously, and in a natural
tone of voice, in spite of which we laughed, and were quite entertained at the idea of aghost; but at the same time we begged him not to mention the thing to our servants, lest
they should take any fancies into their heads; and my mother and I resolved to say nothing
about the matter to any one. ‘I suppose it is the ghost,’ said my mother, laughing, ‘thatwakes us so often by walking over our heads.’ We had, in fact, been awakened several
nights by a heavy foot, which we supposed to be that of one of the men-servants, of whom
we had three English and four French; of women-servants we had five English, and all therest were French. The English ones, men and women, every one of them, returned
ultimately to England with us.
“A night or two afterward, being again awakened by the step, my mother asked
Creswell, ‘Who slept in the room above us?’ ‘No one, my lady,’ she replied—‘it is a large,
empty garret.’“About a week or ten days after this, Creswell came to my mother, one morning, andtold her that all the French servants talked of going away, because there was a revenant in
the house; adding that there seemed to be a strange story attached to the place, which was
said, together with some other property, to have belonged to a young man, whose guardian,
who was also his uncle, had treated him cruelly and confined him in an iron cage; and as hehad subsequently disappeared, it was conjectured he had been murdered. This uncle, after
inheriting the property, had suddenly quitted the house and sold it to the father of the manof whom we had hired it. Since that period, though it had been several times let, nobody
had ever stayed in it above a week or two, and for a considerable time past it had had notenant at all.
“ ‘And do you really believe all this nonsense, Creswell?’ said my mother.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“ ‘Well, I don’t know, my lady,’ answered she; ‘but there’s the iron cage in the garretover your bed-room, where you may see it, if you please.’“Of course we rose to go; and as just at that moment an old officer, with his Croix de
St. Louis, called on us, we invited him to accompany us and we ascended together. We
found, as Creswell had said, a large empty garret with bare brick walls; and in the further
corner of it stood an iron cage, such as wild beasts are kept in, only higher; it was aboutfour feet square, and eight in height, and there was an iron ring in the wall at the back, towhich was attached an old rusty chain with a collar fixed to the end of it. I confess it mademy blood creep when I thought of the possibility of any human being having inhabited it!
And our old friend expressed as much horror as ourselves, assuring us that it must certainly
have been constructed for some such dreadful purpose. As, however, we were no believersin ghosts, we all agreed that the noises must proceed from somebody who had an interest in
keeping the house empty; and since it was very disagreeable to imagine that there weresecret means of entering it at night, we resolved, as soon as possible, to look out for anotherresidence, and in the meantime to say nothing about the matter to anybody. About ten days
after this determination, my mother, observing one morning that Creswell, when she cameto dress her, looked exceedingly pale and ill, inquired if anything was the matter with her.
‘Indeed, my lady,’ she answered, ‘we have been frightened to death, and neither I nor Mrs.
Marsh can sleep again in the room we are now in.’“ ‘Well,’ returned my mother, ‘you shall both come and sleep in the little spare roomnext us; but what has alarmed you?’“ ‘Some one, my lady, went through our room in the night; we both saw the figure, but
we covered our heads with the bed-clothes, and lay in a dreadful fright till morning.’“On hearing this, I could not help laughing, upon which Creswell burst into tears; andseeing how nervous she was, we comforted her by saying we had heard of a good house,
and that we should very soon abandon our present habitation.
“A few nights afterward, my mother requested me and Charles to go to her bed-roomand fetch her frame, that she might prepare her work for the next day. It was after supper,
and we were ascending the stairs by the light of a lamp which was always kept burning,when we saw going up before us a tall, thin figure, with hair flowing down his back, andwearing a loose powdering gown. We both at once concluded it was my sister Hannah, andcalled out: ‘It won’t do, Hannah—you can not frighten us!’ Upon which the figure turned
into a recess in the wall; but, as there was nobody there when we passed, we concluded thatHannah had contrived, somehow or other, to slip away and make her escape by the backstairs. On telling this to my mother, she said: ‘It is very odd, for Hannah went to bed with aheadache before you came in from your walk;’ and sure enough, on going to her room,
there we found her fast asleep; and Alice, who was at work there, assured us that she had
been so for more than an hour. On mentioning this circumstance to Creswell, she turned
quite pale and exclaimed that that was precisely the figure she and Marsh had seen in their
bed-room.
“About this time, my brother Harry came to spend a few days with us, and we gave him
a room up another pair of stairs, at the opposite end of the house. A morning or two after
his arrival, when he came down to breakfast, he asked my mother angrily whether she
thought he went to bed drunk and could not put out his own candle, that she sent those
French rascals to watch him. My mother assured him that she never thought of doing such athing; but he persisted in the accusation, adding: ‘Last night I jumped up and opened thedoor, and, by the light of the moon through the skylight, I saw the fellow in his loose gown
at the bottom of the stairs. If I had not been in my shirt, I would have gone after him andmade him remember coming to watch me.’
“We were now preparing to quit the house, having secured another, belonging to a
gentleman who was going to spend some time in Italy; but, a few days before our removal,
it happened that Mr. and Mrs. Atkyns, some English friends of ours, called, to whom wementioned these circumstances, observing how extremely unpleasant it was to live in ahouse that somebody found means of getting into, though how they contrived it we could
not discover, nor what their motive could be except it was to frighten us; adding, that
nobody could sleep in the room Marsh and Creswell had been obliged to give up. Upon thisMrs. Atkyns laughed heartily, and said she should like, of all things, to sleep there, if mymother would allow her, adding, that with her little terrier she should not be afraid of any
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ghost that ever appeared. As my mother had, of course, no objection to this fancy of hers,
she requested Mrs. Atkyns to ride home with the groom, in order that the latter might bringher night-things before the gates of the town would be shut, as they were then residing alittle way in the country. Mr. Atkyns smiled and said she was very bold; but he made nodifficulties, and sent the things,—and his wife retired with her dog to her room when weretired to ours, apparently without the least apprehension.
“When she came down in the morning, we were immediately struck at seeing her lookvery ill; and on inquiring if she too had been frightened, she said she had been awakened in
the night by something moving in her room, and that, by the light of the night-lamp, she
saw most distinctly a figure, and that the dog, which was spirited and flew at everything,never stirred, although she had endeavored to make him. We saw clearly that she had beenvery much alarmed; and when Mr. Atkyns came, and endeavored to dissipate the feeling bypersuading her that she might have dreamed it, she got quite angry. We could not help
thinking that she had actually seen something; and my mother said, after she was gone, thatthough she could not bring herself to believe it was really a ghost, still she earnestly hopedthat she might get out of the house without seeing this figure, which frightened people somuch.
“We were now within three days of the one fixed for our removal. I had been taking along ride, and, being tired, had fallen asleep the moment I lay down; but, in the middle ofthe night, I was suddenly awakened—I can not tell by what, for the steps over our heads we
had become so used to that it no longer disturbed us. Well, I awoke. I had been lying withmy face toward my mother, who was asleep beside me, and, as one usually does onawaking, I turned to the other side, where, the weather being warm, the curtain of the bed
was undrawn, as it was, also, at the foot; and I saw standing by a chest of drawers, whichwere betwixt me and the window, a thin, tall figure, in a loose powdering gown, one arm
resting on the drawers, and the face turned toward me. I saw it quite distinctly by the nightlight, which burned clearly. It was a long, thin, pale, young face, with, oh, such amelancholy expression as can never be effaced from my memory! I was, certainly, verymuch frightened; but my great horror was, lest my mother should awake and see the figure.
I turned my head gently toward her, and heard her breathing high in a sound sleep. Just
then the clock on the stairs struck four. I dare say it was nearly an hour before I ventured tolook again, and when I did take courage to turn my eyes toward the drawers, there wasnothing; yet I had not heard the slightest sound, though I had been listening with thegreatest intensity.
“As you may suppose, I never closed my eyes again; and glad I was when Creswellknocked at the door, as she did every morning, for we always locked it, and it was mybusiness to get out of bed and let her in; but on this occasion, instead of doing so, I called
out, ‘Come in; the door is not fastened;’ upon which she answered that it was, and I was
obliged to get out of bed and admit her as usual.
“When I told my mother what had happened, she was very grateful to me for not
waking her, and commended me much for my resolution; but as she was always my firstobject, that was not to be wondered at. She however resolved not to risk another night in
the house; and we got out of it that very day, after instituting, with the aid of the servants, athorough search, with a view to ascertain if there was any possible means of getting into therooms except by the usual modes of ingress; but our search was vain—none could be
discovered.
“I think, from the errors in the names, &c., that the publisher of the ‘Accredited GhostStories’ must have obtained his account from the inhabitants of Lille.”
Considering the number of people that were in the house, the fearlessness of the family,
and their disinclination to believe in what is called the supernatural, together with the greatinterest the owner of this large and handsome residence must have had in discovering thetrick, if there had been one, I think it is difficult to find any other explanation of thisstrange story, than that the sad and disappointed spirit of this poor, injured, and probably
murdered boy, had never been disengaged from its earthly relations, to which regret for its
frustrated hopes and violated rights still held it attached.
There is a story told by Pliny the younger, of a house at Athens, in which nobody could
live, from its being haunted. At length the philosopher Athenadorus took it; and the firstnight he was there, he seems to have comported himself very much as the courageous Mrs.
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Canning did, on a similar occasion, at Plymouth. He sent his servants to bed, and set
himself seriously to work with his writing materials, determined that fancy should not beleft free to play him false. For some time all was still, and his mind was wholly engaged in
his labors, when he heard a sound like the rattling of chains—which was the sound that had
frightened everybody out of the house; but Athenadorus closed his ears, kept his thoughts
collected, and wrote on, without lifting up his eyes. The noise, however, increased; itapproached the door; it entered the room; then he looked round, and beheld the figure of anold man, lean, haggard, and dirty, with dishevelled hair, and a long beard, who held up his
finger and beckoned him. Athenadorus made a gesture with his own hand in return,signifying that he should wait, and went on with his writing. Then the figure advanced andshook his chains over the philosopher’s head, who, on looking up, saw him beckoning as
before; whereupon he arose and followed him. The apparition walked slowly, as if
obstructed by his chains; and having conducted him to a certain spot in the court, which
separated the two divisions of an ancient Greek house, he suddenly disappeared.
Athenadorus gathered together some grass and leaves, in order to mark the place; and thenext day he recommended the authorities to dig there, which they did, and found theskeleton of a human being encircled with chains. It being taken up, and the rights ofsepulture duly performed, the house was no longer disturbed.
This was, probably, some poor prisoner also; and in his desire to direct notice to his
body, we see the prejudices of his age and country surviving dissolution. Grose, theantiquary, who is, as I have before observed, very facetious on the subject of ghosts,
remarks that “Dragging chains is not the custom of English ghosts, chains and blackvestments being chiefly the accoutrements of foreign spectres, seen in arbitrary
governments.” Now, this is a very striking observation. Grose’s studies had, doubtless,introduced him to many histories of this description; and the different characteristics ofthese apparitions, under different governments, is a circumstance in remarkable conformity
with the views of those who have been led to take a much more serious view of the subject.
They appear as they lived, and as they conceive of themselves; and when rapport or
receptivity enable them to see, and to render themselves visible to those yet living in theflesh, it is by so appearing that they tell their story, and ask for sympathy and assistance. I
say enable them to see, because there seem many reasons for concluding that they do not,under ordinary circumstances, see us, any more than we see them. Whether it be rapport
with certain inhabitants, or whether the phenomenon be dependent on certain periods, or
any other condition, we can not tell; but I have met with several accounts of houses inwhich an annoyance of this sort has recurred more than once, at different intervals,
sometimes at a distance of seven or ten years, the intermediate time being quite free fromit.
One of the most melancholy and impressive circumstances of this sort I have met with,occurred to Mrs. L⁠——, a lady with whose family I am acquainted; Mrs. L⁠—— herself
having been kind enough to furnish me with the particulars: A few years since, she took afurnished house in Stevenson street, North Shields, and she had been in it but a very few
hours before she was perplexed by hearing feet in the passage, though, whenever she
opened the door, she could see nobody. She went to the kitchen, and asked the servant if
she had not heard the same sound. She said she had not, but that there seemed to be strange
noises in the house. When Mrs. L⁠—— went to bed, she could not go to sleep for the noiseof a child’s rattle, which seemed to be inside her curtains. It rattled round her head, first on
one side, then on the other; then there were sounds of feet, and of a child crying, and awoman sobbing; and, in short, so many strange noises that the servant became frightened
and went away. The next girl Mrs. L⁠—— engaged came from Leith, and was a stranger tothe place; but she had only passed a night in the house, when she said to her mistress, “Thisis a troubled house you’ve got into, ma’am;” and she described, among the rest, that she
had repeatedly heard her own name called by a voice near her, though she could see
nobody.
One night Mrs. L⁠—— heard a voice, like nothing human, close to her, cry, “Weep!
weep! weep!” Then there was a sound like some one struggling for breath, and again“Weep! weep! weep!” Then the gasping, and a third time, “Weep! weep! weep!” She stoodstill, and looked steadfastly on the spot whence the voice proceeded, but could see nothing;and her little boy, who held her hand, kept saying, “What is that, mamma? What is that?”
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She describes the sound as most frightful. All the noises seemed to suggest the idea ofchildhood, and of a woman in trouble. One night, when it was crying round her bed, Mrs.
L⁠—— took courage and adjured it; upon which the noise ceased, for that time, but there
was no answer. Mr. L⁠—— was at sea when she took the house, and when he came home helaughed at the story at first, but soon became so convinced the account she gave wascorrect, that he wanted to have the boards taken up, because, from the noises seeming tohover much about one spot, he thought perhaps some explanation of the mystery might befound. But Mrs. L⁠—— objected that if anything of a painful nature were discovered sheshould not be able to continue in the house, and as she must pay the year’s rent, she wished,
if possible, to make out the time.
She never saw anything but twice; once, the appearance of a child seemed to fall fromthe ceiling, close to her, and then disappear; and another time she saw a child run into a
closet in a room at the top of the house; and it was most remarkable that a small door inthat room, which was used for going out on to the roof, always stood open. However often
they shut it, it was opened again immediately by an unseen hand, even before they got outof the room; and this continued the whole time they were in the house; while, night andday, some one in creaking shoes was heard pacing backward and forward in the room over
Mr. and Mrs. L⁠——’s heads.
At length the year expired; and to their great relief they quitted the house; but five or
six years afterward, a person who had bought it having taken up the floor of that upper
room to repair it, there was found, close to the small door above alluded to, the skeleton ofa child. It was then remembered that some years before a gentleman of somewhat dissolutehabits had resided there, and that he was supposed to have been on very intimate terms witha young woman-servant who lived with him, but there had been no suspicion of anything
more criminal.
About six years ago, Mr. C⁠——, a gentleman engaged in business in London, heard of
a good country-house in the neighborhood of the metropolis, which was to be had at a low
rent. It was rather an old-fashioned place, and was surrounded by a garden and pleasureground; and having taken a lease of it for seven years, furnished as it was, his family
removed thither, and he joined them once or twice a week, as his business permitted.
They had been some considerable time in the house without the occurrence of anything
remarkable, when one evening, toward dusk, Mrs. C⁠——, on going into what was called
the oak bed-room, saw a female figure near one of the windows. It was apparently a young
woman with dark hair hanging over her shoulders, a silk petticoat, and a short, white robe,and she appeared to be looking eagerly through the window, as if expecting somebody.
Mrs. C⁠—— clapped her hand upon her eyes, “as thinking she had seen something she
ought not to have seen,” and when she looked again the figure had disappeared.
Shortly after this, a young girl who filled the situation of under nursery-maid, came toher in great agitation, saying that she had had a terrible fright, from seeing a very ugly old
woman looking in upon her as she passed the window in the lobby. The girl was trembling
violently, and almost crying, so that Mrs. C⁠—— entertained no doubts of the reality of her
alarm. She, however, thought it advisable to laugh her out of her fear, and went with her tothe window, which looked into a closed court, but there was no one there, neither had anyof the other servants seen such a person. Soon after this, the family began to findthemselves disturbed with strange, and frequently very loud, noises during the night.
Among the rest, there was something like the beating of a crow-bar upon the pump in theabovementioned court; but, search as they would, they could discover no cause for thesound. One day, when Mr. C⁠—— had brought a friend from London to stay the night withhim, Mrs. C⁠—— thought proper to go up to the oak bed-room, where the stranger was tosleep, for the purpose of inspecting the arrangements for his comfort, when, to her great
surprise, some one seemed to follow her up to the fireplace, though, on turning round, there
was nobody to be seen. She said nothing about it, however, and returned below, where herhusband and the stranger were sitting. Presently, one of the servants (not the one mentioned
above) tapped at the door and requested to speak with her, and Mrs. C⁠—— going out, she
told her, in great agitation, that in going up stairs to the visiter’s room, a footstep had
followed her all the way to the fireplace, although she could see nobody. Mrs. C⁠—— said
something soothing, and that matter passed, she, herself, being a good deal puzzled, but
still unwilling to admit the idea that there was anything extra-natural in these occurrences.
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Repeatedly, after this, these footsteps were heard in different parts of the house, when
nobody was to be seen; and often, while she was lying in bed, she heard them distinctly
approach her door, when, being a very courageous woman, she would start out with aloaded pistol in her hand, but there was never any one to be seen. At length it was
impossible to conceal from herself and her servants that these occurrences were of an
extraordinary nature, and the latter, as may be supposed, felt very uncomfortable. Amongother unpleasant things, while sitting all together in the kitchen, they used to see the latch
lifted and the door open, though no one came in that they could see; and when Mr. C⁠——
himself watched for these events, although they took place, and he was quite on the alert,
he altogether failed in detecting any visible agent.
One night, the same servant who had heard the footsteps following her to the bed-room
fireplace, happening to be asleep in Mrs. C⁠——’s chamber, she became much disturbed,
and was heard to murmur, “Wake me! wake me!” as if in great mental anguish. Being
aroused, she told her mistress a dream she had had, which seemed to throw some light uponthese mysteries. She thought she was in the oak bed-room, and at one end of it she saw ayoung female in an old-fashioned dress, with long dark hair, while in another part of theroom was a very ugly old woman, also in old-fashioned attire. The latter addressing theformer said, “What have you done with the child, Emily? What have you done with thechild?” To which the younger figure answered, “Oh, I did not kill it. He was preserved, andgrew up, and joined the —— regiment, and went to India.” Then addressing the sleeper, theyoung lady continued, “I have never spoken to mortal before; but I will tell you all. My
name is Miss Black; and this old woman is Nurse Black. Black is not her name, but we callher so because she has been so long in the family.” Here the old woman interrupted the
speaker by coming up and laying her hand on the dreaming girl’s shoulder, while she said
something; but she could not remember what, for, feeling excruciating pain from the touch,she had been so far aroused as to be sensible she was asleep, and to beg to be wholly
awakened.
As the old woman seemed to resemble the figure that one of the other servants had seen
looking into the window, and the young one resembled that she had herself seen in the oakchamber, Mrs. C⁠—— naturally concluded that there was something extraordinary about
this dream, and she consequently took an early opportunity of inquiring in theneighborhood what was known as to the names or circumstances of the former inhabitantsof this house; and, after much investigation, she learned that, about seventy or eighty years
before, it had been in the possession of a Mrs. Ravenhall, who had a niece, named Miss
Black, living with her. This niece Mrs. C⁠—— supposed might be the younger of the two
persons who was seen. Subsequently, she saw her again in the same room, wringing her
hands, and looking with a mournful significance to one corner. They had the boards taken
up on that spot, but nothing was found.
One of the most curious incidents, connected with this story, remains to be told. Afteroccupying the house three years, they were preparing to quit it—not on account of its being
haunted, but for other reasons—when on awaking one morning, a short time before theirdeparture, Mrs. C⁠—— saw, standing at the foot of her bed, a dark-complexioned man, in aworking dress, a fustian jacket, and red comforter round his neck—who, however, suddenly
disappeared. Mr. C⁠—— was lying beside her at the time, but asleep. This was the lastapparition seen. But the strange thing is, that a few days after this, it being necessary toorder in a small quantity of coals to serve till their removal, Mr. C⁠—— undertook to
perform the commission on his way to London. Accordingly, the next day, she mentioned
to him that the coals had arrived; which he said was very fortunate, since he had entirely
forgotten to order them. Wondering whence they had come, Mrs. C⁠—— hereupon inquiredof the servants, who none of them knew anything about the matter; but on interrogating aperson in the village, by whom they had frequently been provided with this article, heanswered that they had been ordered by a dark man, in a fustian jacket and red comfort,
who had called for the purpose.
After this last event, Mr. and Mrs. C⁠—— quitted the house; but I have heard that its
subsequent tenants encountered some similar annoyances, although I have no means ofascertaining the particulars.
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Mr. Howitt; and as he has had the advantage of visiting the place, which I have not, I shalltake the liberty of borrowing his description of it, prefacing the account with the following
letter from Mr. Proctor, the owner of the house, who it will be seen vouches for the generalauthenticity of the narrative. The letter was written in answer to one from me, requestingsome more precise information than I had been able to obtain:—“Josh. Proctor hopes C. Crowe will excuse her note having remained two weeks
unanswered, during which time J. P. has been from home, or particularly engaged. Feelingaverse to add to the publicity the circumstances occurring in his house, at Willington, havealready obtained, J. P. would rather not furnish additional particulars; but if C. C. is not inpossession of the number of ‘Howitt’s Journal,’ which contains a variety of details on thesubject, he will be glad to forward her one. He would, at the same time, assure C. Crowe of
the strict accuracy of that portion of W. Howitt’s narrative which is extracted from‘Richardson’s Table Book.’ W. Howitt’s statements, derived from his recollection of verbal
communications with branches of J. Proctor’s family, are likewise essentially correct,
though, as might be expected in some degree, erroneous circumstantially.
“J. P. takes leave to express his conviction that the unbelief of the educated classes inapparitions of the deceased and kindred phenomena is not grounded on a fair philosophic
examination of the facts, which have induced the popular belief of all ages and countries;
and that it will be found by succeeding ages to have been nothing better than unreasoning
and unreasonable prejudice.
“Willington, near Newcastle-on-Tyne,
7th mo. 22, 1847.”“VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES.
“by william howitt.
“THE HAUNTED HOUSE AT WILLINGTON, NEAR NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
“We have of late years settled it as an established fact that ghosts and haunted houses
were the empty creation of ignorant times. We have comfortably persuaded ourselves thatsuch fancies only hovered in the twilight of superstition, and that in these enlightened days
they had vanished for ever. How often has it been triumphantly referred to, as a proof thatall such things were the offspring of ignorance, that nothing of the kind is heard of now?
What shall we say, then, to the following facts? Here we have ghosts and a haunted housestill. We have them in the face of our vaunted noonday light—in the midst of a busy and a
populous neighborhood—in the neighborhood of a large and most intelligent town—and ina family neither ignorant nor in any other respect superstitious. For years have these ghosts
and hauntings disturbed the quiet of a highly respectable family, and continue to haunt anddisturb, spite of the incredulity of the wise, the investigations of the curious, and theanxious vigilance of the suffering family itself.
“Between the railway running from Newcastle-on-Tyne to North Shields, and the riverTyne, there lie in a hollow some few cottages, a parsonage, a mill, and a miller’s house:
these constitute the hamlet of Willington. Just above these the railway is carried across thevalley on lofty arches, and from it you look down on the mill and cottages, lying at aconsiderable depth below. The mill is a large steam flour-mill, like a factory, and themiller’s house stands near it, but not adjoining it. None of the cottages which lie between
these premises and the railway, either, are in contact with them. The house stands on a sortof little promontory, round which runs the channel of a water-course, which appears to fill
and empty with the tides. On one side of the mill and house, slopes away upward a field toa considerable distance, where it is terminated by other enclosures; on the other stands a
considerable extent of ballast-hill—i. e., one of the numerous hills on the banks of the Tyne
made by the deposite of ballast from the vessels trading thither. At a distance, the top of themill seems about level with the country around it. The place lies about half-way between
Newcastle and North Shields.
“This mill is, I believe, the property of, and is worked by, Messrs. Unthank and Procter.
Mr. Joseph Procter resides on the spot in the house just by the mill, as already stated. He isa member of the society of friends—a gentleman in the very prime of life—and his wife, an
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intelligent lady, is of a family of friends in Carlisle. They have several young children. This
very respectable and well-informed family, belonging to a sect which of all others is mostaccustomed to control, to regulate, and to put down even the imagination—the last people
in the world, as it would appear, in fact, to be affected by any mere imaginary terrors or
impressions—have for years been persecuted by the most extraordinary noises andapparitions.
“The house is not an old house, as will appear; it was built about the year 1800. It has
no particularly spectral look about it. Seeing it in passing, or within, ignorant of its realcharacter, one should by no means say that it was a place likely to have the reputation of
being haunted. Yet looking down from the railway, and seeing it and the mill lying in a
deep hole, one might imagine various strange noises likely to be heard in such a place inthe night, from vessels on the river—from winds sweeping and howling down the gulley inwhich it stands—from engines in the neighborhood connected with coal-mines, one ofwhich, I could not tell where, was making at the time I was there a wild sighing noise, as I
stood on the hill above. There is not any passage, however, known of under the house, bywhich subterranean noises could be heard; nor are they merely noises that are heard,—
distinct apparitions are declared to be seen.
“Spite of the unwillingness of Mr. Procter, that these mysterious circumstances should
become quite public, and averse as he is to make known himself these strange visitations,they were of such a nature that they soon became rumored over the whole neighborhood.
Numbers of people hurried to the place to inquire into the truth of them, and at length aremarkable occurrence brought them into print. What this occurrence was, the pamphlet
which appeared, and which was afterward reprinted in ‘The Local Historian’s Table-Book,’
published by Mr. M. A. Richardson, of Newcastle, and which I here copy, will explain. It
will be seen that the writer of this article has the fullest faith in the reality of what herelates, as, indeed, vast numbers of the best informed inhabitants of the neighborhood have.
“authentic account of a visit to the haunted houseat willington.
“Were we to draw an inference from the number of cases of reported visitations fromthe invisible world that have been made public of late, we might be led to imagine that thedays of supernatural agency were about to recommence, and that ghosts and hobgoblins
were about to resume their sway over the fears of mankind. Did we, however, indulge insuch an apprehension, a glance at the current tone of the literature and philosophy of theday, when treating of these subjects, would show a measure of unbelief regarding them as
scornful and uncompromising as the veriest atheist or materialist could desire.
Notwithstanding the prevalence of this feeling among the educated classes, there is acuriosity and interest manifested in every occurrence of this nature, that indicate a lurking
faith at bottom, which an affected skepticism fails entirely to conceal. We feel, therefore,that we need not apologise to our readers for introducing the following particulars of a visit
to a house in this immediate neighborhood, which had become notorious for some years
previous, as being ‘haunted;’ and several of the reputed deeds, or misdeeds, of its
supernatural visitant had been published far and wide by rumor’s thousand tongues. We
deem it as worthy to be chronicled as the doings of its contemporary genii at Windsor,
Dublin, Liverpool, Carlisle, and Sunderland, and which have all likewise hitherto failed,after public investigation, to receive a solution consistent with a rejection of spiritual
agency.
“We have visited the house in question, which is well known to many of our readers, as
being near a large steam corn-mill, in full view of Willington viaduct, on the Newcastle andShields railway; and it may not be irrelevant to mention that it is quite detached from themill, or any other premises, and has no cellaring under it. The proprietor of the house, wholives in it, declines to make public the particulars of the disturbance to which he has been
subjected, and it must be understood that the account of the visit we are about to lay before
our readers is derived from a friend to whom Dr. Drury presented a copy of hiscorrespondence on the subject, with power to make such use of it as he thought proper. We
learned that the house had been reputed, at least one room in it, to have been haunted forty
years ago, and had afterward been undisturbed for a long period, during some years of
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which quietude the present occupant lived in it unmolested. We are also informed thatabout the time that the premises were building, viz., in 1800 or 1801, there were reports ofsome deed of darkness having been committed by some one employed about them. We
should extend this account beyond the limits we have set to ourselves, did we now enter
upon a full account of the strange things which have been seen and heard about the placeby several of the neighbors, as well as those which are reported to have been seen, heard,
and felt, by the inmates, whose servants have been changed, on that account, many times.
We proceed, therefore, to give the following letters which have been passed between
individuals of undoubted veracity, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions on thesubject.”“(Copy, No. 1.)“17th June, 1840.

“To Mr. Procter:“Sir: Having heard from indisputable authority, viz., that of my excellent friend, Mr.
Davison, of Low Willington, farmer, that you and your family are disturbed by most
unaccountable noises at night, I beg leave to tell you that I have read attentively Wesley’s
account of such things, but with, I must confess, no great belief; but an account of thisreport coming from one of your sect, which I admire for candor and simplicity, mycuriosity is excited to a high pitch, which I would fain satisfy. My desire is to remain alone
in the house all night with no companion but my own watch-dog, in which, as far as
courage and fidelity are concerned, I place much more reliance than upon any three young
gentlemen I know of. And it is also my hope that, if I have a fair trial, I shall be able tounravel this mystery. Mr. Davison will give you every satisfaction if you take the trouble toinquire of him concerning me.
“I am, sir, yours most respectfully,“Edward Drury.
“At C. C. Embleton’s, Surgeon,“No. 10 Church street, Sunderland.”“(Copy, No. 2.)“Joseph Procter’s respects to Edward Drury, whose note he received a few days ago,
expressing a wish to pass a night in his house at Willington. As the family is going fromhome on the 23d instant, and one of Unthank and Procter’s men will sleep in the house, if
Edward Drury feel inclined to come on or after the 24th, to spend a night in it, he is atliberty so to do, with or without his faithful dog, which, by-the-by, can be of no possibleuse, except as company. At the same time, Joseph Procter thinks it best to inform him thatparticular disturbances are far from frequent at present, being only occasional, and quite
uncertain, and therefore the satisfaction of Edward Drury’s curiosity must be considered asproblematical. The best chance will be afforded by sitting up alone in the third story, till it
be fairly daylight, say two or three A. M.
“Willington, 6th mo. 21st, 1840.”“Joseph Procter will leave word with T. Maun, foreman, to admit Edward Drury.
“Mr. Procter left home with his family on the 23d of June, and got an old servant, who
was then out of place in consequence of ill-health, to take charge of the house during theirabsence. Mr. Procter returned alone, on account of business, on the 3d of July, on theevening of which day Mr. Drury and his companion also unexpectedly arrived. After thehouse had been locked up, every corner of it was minutely examined. The room out of
which the apparition issued is too shallow to contain any person. Mr. Drury and his friend
had lights by them, and were satisfied that there was no one in the house besides Mr.
Procter, the servant, and themselves.”“(Copy, No. 3.)“Monday Morning, July 6th, 1840.

“To Mr. Procter:“Dear Sir: I am sorry I was not at home to receive you yesterday, when you kindlycalled to inquire for me. I am happy to state, that I am really surprised that I have been so
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little affected as I am, after that horrid and most awful affair. The only bad effect that I feelis a heavy dullness in one of my ears, the right one. I call it heavy dullness because I not
only do not hear distinctly, but feel in it a constant noise. This I never was affected with
before; but I doubt not it will go off. I am persuaded that no one went to your house at any
time more disbelieving in respect to seeing anything peculiar; and now no one can be moresatisfied than myself. I will, in the course of a few days, send you a full detail of all I saw
and heard. Mr. Spence and two other gentlemen came down to my house in the afternoon tohear my detail; but, sir, could I account for these noises from natural causes, yet so firmly
am I persuaded of the horrid apparition, that I would affirm that what I saw with my eyes
was a punishment to me for my scoffing and unbelief; that I am assured that, as far as thehorror is concerned, they are happy that believe and have not seen. Let me trouble you, sir,
to give me the address of your sister, from Cumberland, who was alarmed, and also of yourbrother. I would feel a satisfaction in having a line from them; and, above all things, it will
be a great cause of joy to me, if you never allow your young family to be in that horrid
house again. Hoping you will write a few lines at your leisure,“I remain, dear sir, yours very truly,“Edward Drury.”“(Copy, No. 4.)“Willington, 7th mo. 9, 1840.

“Respected Friend, E. Drury: Having been at Sunderland, I did not receive thine of
the 6th till yesterday morning. I am glad to hear thou art getting well over the effects of thy
unlooked-for visitation. I hold in respect thy bold and manly assertion of the truth, in theface of that ridicule and ignorant conceit with which that which is called the supernatural,in the present day, is usually assailed.
“I shall be glad to receive thy detail, in which it will be needful to be very particular inshowing that thou couldst not be asleep or attacked by nightmare, or mistake a reflection of
the candle, as some sagaciously suppose.
“I remain, respectfully, thy friend,“Josh. Procter.
“P. S.—I have about thirty witnesses to various things which can not be satisfactorily
accounted for on any other principle than that of spiritual agency.”“(Copy, No. 5.)“Sunderland, July 13, 1840.

“Dear Sir: I hereby, according to promise in my last letter, forward you a true accountof what I heard and saw at your house, in which I was led to pass the night from various
rumors circulated by most respectable parties—particularly from an account by myesteemed friend Mr. Davison, whose name I mentioned to you in a former letter. Having
received your sanction to visit your mysterious dwelling, I went on the 3d of July,accompanied by a friend of mine, T. Hudson. This was not according to promise, nor inaccordance with my first intent, as I wrote to you I would come alone; but I felt gratified atyour kindness in not alluding to the liberty I had taken, as it ultimately proved for the best.
I must here mention that, not expecting you at home, I had in my pocket a brace of pistols,
determining in my mind to let one of them drop before the miller, as if by accident, for fear
he should presume to play tricks upon me; but, after my interview with you, I felt there wasno occasion for weapons, and did not load them, after you had allowed us to inspect as
minutely as we pleased every portion of the house. I sat down on the third story landing,fully expecting to account for any noises that I might hear, in a philosophical manner. This
was about eleven o’clock P. M. About ten minutes to twelve, we both heard a noise, as if anumber of people were pattering with their bare feet upon the floor; and yet so singular was
the noise, that I could not minutely determine whence it proceeded. A few minutes
afterward we heard a noise, as if some one was knocking with his knuckles among our feet;this was followed by a hollow cough from the very room from which the apparition
proceeded. The only noise after this, was as if a person was rustling against the wall incoming up stairs. At a quarter to one, I told my friend that, feeling a little cold, I would liketo go to bed, as we might hear the noise equally well there; he replied that he would not go
to bed till daylight. I took up a note which I had accidentally dropped, and began to read it,
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after which I took out my watch to ascertain the time, and found that it wanted ten minutes
to one. In taking my eyes from the watch, they became riveted upon a closet-door, which I
distinctly saw open, and saw also the figure of a female attired in grayish garments, withthe head inclining downward, and one hand pressed upon the chest as if in pain, and theother, viz., the right hand, extended toward the floor, with the index finger pointing
downward. It advanced with an apparently cautious step across the floor toward me;
immediately as it approached my friend, who was slumbering, its right hand was extended
toward him: I then rushed at it, giving, as Mr. Procter states, a most awful yell; but, insteadof grasping it, I fell upon my friend, and I recollected nothing distinctly for nearly threehours afterward. I have since learned that I was carried down stairs in an agony of fear andterror.
“I hereby certify that the above account is strictly true and correct in every respect.
“Edward Drury.
“North Shields.”“The following more recent case of an apparition seen in the window of the same housefrom the outside, by four credible witnesses, who had the opportunity of scrutinizing it for
more than ten minutes, is given on most unquestionable authority. One of these witnesses isa young lady, a near connection of the family, who, for obvious reasons, did not sleep in thehouse; another, a respectable man, who has been many years employed in, and is foremanof, the manufactory; his daughter, aged about seventeen; and his wife, who first saw theobject and called out the others to view it. The appearance presented was that of abareheaded man, in a flowing robe like a surplice, who glided backward and forward about
three feet from the floor, or level with the bottom of the second story window, seeming toenter the wall on each side, and thus present a side view in passing. It then stood still in thewindow, and a part of the body came through both the blind, which was close down, andthe window, as its luminous body intercepted the view of the framework of the window. It
was semi-transparent, and as bright as a star, diffusing a radiance all around. As it grew
more dim, it assumed a blue tinge, and gradually faded away from the head downward. The
foreman passed twice close to the house under the window, and also went to inform thefamily, but found the house locked up. There was no moonlight, nor a ray of light visible
anywhere about, and no person near. Had any magic lantern been used, it could not
possibly have escaped detection; and it is obvious nothing of that kind could have been
employed on the inside, as in that case the light could only have been thrown upon theblind, and not so as to intercept the view both of the blind and of the window from without.
The owner of the house slept in that room, and must have entered it shortly after this figure
had disappeared.
“It may well be supposed what a sensation the report of the visit of Mr. Drury and its
result must have created. It flew far and wide, and when it appeared in print, still wider;
and, what was not a little singular, Mr. Procter received, in consequence, a great number ofletters from individuals of different ranks and circumstances, including many of muchproperty, informing him that their residences were, and had been for years, subject toannoyances of precisely a similar character.
“So, the ghosts and the hauntings are not gone, after all! We have turned our backs onthem, and, in the pride of our philosophy, have refused to believe in them; but they havepersisted in remaining, notwithstanding!
“These singular circumstances being at various times related by parties acquainted withthe family at Willington, I was curious, on a tour northward some time ago, to pay thishaunted house a visit, and to solicit a night’s lodging there. Unfortunately the family wasabsent, on a visit to Mrs. Procter’s relatives in Carlisle, so that my principal purpose was
defeated; but I found the foreman and his wife, mentioned in the foregoing narrative, living
just by. They spoke of the facts above detailed with the simple earnestness of people who
had no doubts whatever on the subject. The noises and apparitions in and about this houseseemed just like any other facts connected with it—as matters too palpable and positive tobe questioned, any more than that the house actually stood, and the mill ground. They
mentioned to me the circumstance of the young lady, as above stated, who took up her
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haunted house—and what trouble it had occasioned the family in procuring and retaining
servants.
“The wife accompanied me into the house, which I found in charge of a recentlymarried servant and her husband, during the absence of the family. This young woman—
who had, previous to her marriage, lived some time in the house—had never seen anything,
and therefore had no fear. I was shown over the house, and especially into the room on thethird story, the main haunt of the unwelcome visiters, and where Dr. Drury had received
such an alarm. This room, as stated, was and had been for some time abandoned as a bedroom, from its bad character, and was occupied as a lumber-room.
“At Carlisle, I again missed Mr. Procter: he had returned to Willington, so that I lost theopportunity of hearing from him or Mrs. Procter any account of these singular matters. I
saw, however, various members of his wife’s family, most intelligent people, of the highest
character for sound and practical sense, and they were unanimous in their confirmation of
the particulars I had heard, and which are here related.
“One of Mrs. Procter’s brothers—a gentleman in middle life, and of a peculiarly
sensible, sedate, and candid disposition, a person apparently most unlikely to be imposedon by fictitious alarms or tricks—assured me that he had himself, on a visit there, been
disturbed by the strangest noises; that he had resolved, before going, that if any such noises
occurred, he would speak, and demand of the invisible actor who he was, and why he camethither: but the occasion came, and he found himself unable to fulfil his intention. As he lay
in bed one night, he heard a heavy step ascend the stairs toward his room, and some one
striking, as it were, with a thick stick on the banisters, as he went along. It came to his door,and he essayed to call, but his voice died in his throat. He then sprang from his bed, and,opening the door, found no one there—but now heard the same heavy steps deliberately
descending, though invisible, the steps before his face, and accompanying the descent withthe same loud blows on the banisters.
“My informant now proceeded to the room-door of Mr. Procter, who he found had also
heard the sounds, and who now also arose, and with a light they made a speedy descentbelow, and a thorough search there, but without discovering anything that could account forthe occurrence.
“The two young ladies, who, on a visit there, had also been annoyed by this invisible
agent, gave me this account of it: The first night, as they were sleeping in the same bed,
they felt the bed lifted up beneath them. Of course, they were much alarmed. They feared
lest some one had concealed himself there for the purpose of robbery. They gave an alarm,search was made, but nothing was found. On another night, their bed was violently shaken,
and the curtains suddenly hoisted up[3] all round to the very tester, as if pulled by cords, andas rapidly let down again, several times! Search again produced no evidence of the cause.
The next, they had the curtains totally removed from the bed, resolving to sleep withoutthem, as they felt as though evil eyes were lurking behind them. The consequences of this,however, were still more striking and terrific. The following night, as they happened toawake, and the chamber was light enough (for it was summer) to see everything in it, theyboth saw a female figure, of a misty substance, and bluish-gray hue, come out of the wall atthe bed’s head, and through the head-board, in a horizontal position, and lean over them.
They saw it most distinctly—they saw it as a female figure come out of, and again passinto, the wall. Their terror became intense, and one of the sisters from that night refused tosleep any more in the house, but took refuge in the house of the foreman during her stay;the other shifting her quarters to another part of the house. It was the young lady who slept
at the foreman’s who saw, as above related, the singular apparition of the luminous figurein the window, along with the foreman and his wife.
“It would be too long to relate all the forms in which this nocturnal disturbance is saidby the family to present itself. When a figure appears, it is sometimes that of a man, as
already described, which is often very luminous, and passes through the walls as though
they were nothing. This male figure is well known to the neighbors by the name of “OldJeffrey!” At other times, it is the figure of a lady, also in gray costume, and as described by
Mr. Drury. She is sometimes seen sitting wrapped in a sort of mantle, with her head
depressed, and her hands crossed on her lap. The most terrible fact is, that she is withouteyes.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“To hear such sober and superior people gravely relate to you such things, gives you avery odd feeling. They say that the noise made is often like that of a pavior with his
rammer thumping on the floor. At other times it is coming down stairs, making a similar
loud sound. At others it coughs, sighs, and groans, like a person in distress; and, again,
there is the sound of a number of little feet pattering on the floor of the upper chamber,where the apparition has more particularly exhibited itself, and which, for that reason, issolely used as a lumber-room. Here these little footsteps may be often heard as if careeringa child’s carriage about, which in bad weather is kept up there. Sometimes, again, it makes
the most horrible laughs. Nor does it always confine itself to the night. On one occasion, ayoung lady, as she assured me herself, opened the door in answer to a knock, thehousemaid being absent, and a lady in fawn-colored silk entered, and proceeded up stairs.
As the young lady, of course, supposed it a neighbor come to make a morning call on Mrs.
Procter, she followed her up to the drawing-room, where, however, to her astonishment, she
did not find her, nor was anything more seen of her.
“Such are a few of the ‘questionable shapes’ in which this troublesome guest comes. As
may be expected, terror of it is felt by the neighboring cottagers, though it seems to confine
its malicious disturbance almost solely to the occupants of this one house. There is a well,
however, near to which no one ventures after it is dark, because it has been seen near it.
“It is useless to attempt to give any opinion respecting the real causes of these strange
sounds and sights. How far they may be real or imaginary, how far they may be explicableby natural causes or not—the only thing which we have here to record is, the very singularfact of a most respectable and intelligent family having for many years been continuallyannoyed by them, as well as their visiters. They express themselves as most anxious toobtain any clew to the true cause, as may be seen by Mr. Procter’s ready acquiescence inthe experiment of Mr. Drury. So great a trouble is it to them, that they have contemplated
the necessity of quitting the house altogether, though it would create great inconvenience as
regarded business. And it only remains to be added that we have not heard very recently
whether these visitations are still continued, though we have a letter of Mr. Procter’s to afriend of ours, dated September, 1844, in which he says: ‘Disturbances have for a length oftime been only very unfrequent, which is a comfort, as the elder children are getting old
enough (about nine or ten years) to be more injuriously affected by anything of the sort.’“Over these facts let the philosophers ponder, and if any of them be powerful enough to
exorcise ‘Old Jeffrey,’ or the bluish-gray and misty lady, we are sure that Mr. Joseph
Procter will hold himself deeply indebted to them. We have lately heard that Mr. Procter
has discovered an old book, which makes it appear that the very same ‘hauntings’ took
place in an old house, on the very same spot, at least two hundred years ago.”
To the above information, furnished by Mr. Howitt, I have to subjoin that the family of
Mr. Procter are now quitting the house, which he intends to divide into small tenements forthe work-people. A friend of mine who lately visited Willington, and who went over thehouse with Mr. Procter, assures me that the annoyances still continue, though less frequent
than formerly. Mr. Procter informed her that the female figure generally appeared in ashroud, and that it had been seen in that guise by one of the family only a few days before.
A wish being expressed by a gentleman visiting Mr. Procter that some natural explanationof these perplexing circumstances might be discovered, the latter declared his entire
conviction, founded on an experience of fifteen years, that no such elucidation was
possible.
[3]

It is remarkable that this hoisting of the bed-curtains is similar to an
incident recorded in the account of the visit of Lord Tyrone’s ghost to
Lady Beresford.

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C H A P T E R X I V.

319

SPECTRAL LIGHTS, AND APPARITIONS ATTACHED TO CERTAIN FAMILIES.

In commencing another chapter, I take the opportunity of repeating what I have said
before, viz., that in treating of these phenomena, I find it most convenient to assume what I
myself believe—that they are to be explained by the existence and appearance of what are
called GHOSTS; but in so doing, I am not presuming to settle the question: if any one will
examine into the facts and furnish a better explanation of them, I shall be ready to receiveit.
In the meantime, assuming this hypothesis, there is one phenomenon frequently
attending their appearance, which has given rise to a great deal of thoughtless ridicule, butwhich, in the present state of science, merits very particular attention. Grose, whom Dr.
Hibbert quotes with particular satisfaction, says: “I can not learn that ghosts carry tapers intheir hands, as they are sometimes depicted; though the room in which they appear, evenwhen without fire or candle, is frequently said to be as light as day.”Most persons will have heard of this peculiarity attending the appearance of ghosts. In
the case of Professor Dorrien’s apparition, mentioned in a former chapter, Professor Oeder
saw it, when there was no light in the room, by a flame which proceeded from itself. Whenhe had the room lighted, he saw it no longer, the light of the lamp rendering invisible themore delicate phosphorescent light of the spectre: just as the bright glare of the sun veils
the feebler lustre of the stars, and obscures to our senses many chemical lights which arevery perceptible in darkness. Hence the notion, so available to those who satisfy themselveswith scoffing without inquiring, that broad daylight banishes apparitions, and that the belief
in them is merely the offspring of physical as well as moral darkness.
I meet with innumerable cases in which this phosphorescent light is one of theaccompaniments, the flame sometimes proceeding visibly from the figure; while in others,
the room appeared pervaded with light, without its seeming to issue from any particular
object.
I remember a case of the servants in a country-house, in Aberdeenshire, hearing thedoor-bell ring after their mistress was gone to bed; on coming up to open it, they saw
through a window that looked into a hall that it was quite light, and that their master, Mr.
F⁠——, who was at the time absent from home, was there in his travelling dress. They ran
to tell their mistress what they had seen; but when they returned, all was dark, and there
was nothing unusual to be discovered. That night Mr. F⁠—— died at sea, on his voyage to
London.
A gentleman, some time ago, awoke in the middle of a dark winter’s night, andperceived that his room was as light as if it were day. He awoke his wife and mentioned thecircumstance, saying he could not help apprehending that some misfortune had occurred tohis fishing-boats, which had put to sea. The boats were lost that night.
Only last year, there was a very curious circumstance happened in the south of England,in which these lights were seen. I give the account literally as I extracted it from thenewspaper, and also the answer of the editor to my further inquiries. I know nothing moreof this story; but it is singularly in keeping with others proceeding from different quarters.
“A Ghost at Bristol.—We have this week a ghost-story to relate. Yes, a ghost-story; areal ghost-story, and a ghost-story without, as yet, any clew to its elucidation. After the
dissolution of the Calendars, their ancient residence, adjoining and almost forming a part ofAll-Saint’s church, Bristol, was converted into a vicarage-house, and it is still called by that
name, though the incumbents have for many years ceased to reside there. The present
occupants are Mr. and Mrs. Jones, the sexton and sextoness of the church, and one or two
lodgers; and it is to the former and their servant-maid that the strange visiter has made his
appearance, causing such terror by his nightly calls, that all three have determined onquitting the premises, if indeed they have not already carried their resolution into effect.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones’s description of the disturbance as given to the landlord, on whom theycalled in great consternation, is as distinct as any ghost-story could be. The nocturnal
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visiter is heard walking about the house when the inhabitants are in bed; and Mr. Jones,
who is a man of by no means nervous constitution, declares he has several times seen alight flickering on one of the walls. Mrs. Jones is equally certain that she has heard a manwith creaking shoes walking in the bed-room above her own, when no man was on thepremises (or at least ought to be), and “was nearly killed with the fright.” To the servantmaid, however, was vouchsafed the unenvied honor of seeing this restless night-visiter; shedeclares she has repeatedly had her bed-room door unbolted at night between the hours of
twelve and two o’clock—the period when such beings usually make their promenades—bysomething in human semblance; she can not particularize his dress, but describes it assomething antique, and of a fashion “lang syne gane,” and to some extent corresponding tothat of the ancient Calendars, the former inhabitants of the house. She further says he is a“whiskered gentleman” (we give her own words)—which whiskered gentleman has gone
the length of shaking her bed, and she believes would have shaken herself also, but that she
invariably puts her head under the clothes when she sees him approach. Mrs. Jones declares
she believes in the appearance of the whiskered gentleman, and she had made up her mind,
the night before she called on her landlord, to leap out of the window (and it is not a trifle
that will make people leap out of the windows) as soon as he entered the room. The effectof the ‘flickering light’ on Mr. Jones was quite terrific, causing excessive trembling, andthe complete doubling up of his whole body into a round ball, like.”—Bristol Times.
“Bristol Times Office, June 3, 1846.
“Madam: In reply to your inquiries respecting the ghost-story, I have to assure you thatthe whole affair remains wrapped in the same mystery as when chronicled in the pages of
the Bristol Times.
“I am, madam, yours obediently,“The Editor.”
I subsequently wrote to Mrs. Jones, who I found was not a very dexterous scribe; but
she confirmed the above account—adding, however, that the Rev. Mr. ——, the clergymanof the parish, said I had better write to him about it, and that he does not believe in suchthings. Of course he does not, and it would have been useless to have asked his opinion.
There never was, perhaps, a more fearless human being than Madame Gottfried, theempoisonneuse of Bremen; at least, she felt no remorse—she feared nothing but discovery;
and yet, when after years of successful crime she was at length arrested, she related thatsoon after the death of her first husband, Miltenburg, whom she had poisoned, as she wasstanding, in the dusk of the evening, in her drawing-room, she suddenly saw a bright light
hovering at no great distance above the floor, which advanced toward her bed-room door
and then disappeared. This phenomenon occurred on three successive evenings. On anotheroccasion, she saw a shadowy appearance hovering near her—“Ach! denke ich, das ist
Miltenburg, seine erscheinung!”—(Alas! thought I, that is the ghost of Miltenburg!) Yet did
not this withhold her murderous hand.
The lady who met with the curious adventure in Petersburgh, mentioned in a former
chapter, had no light in her room; yet she saw the watch distinctly by the old woman’slight, though of what nature it was, she does not know. Of the lights seen over graves,familiarly called “corpse-candles,” I have spoken elsewhere—as also of the luminous form
perceived by Rilling in the garden at Colmar, as mentioned by Baron von Reichenbach.
Most people have heard the story of the Radiant Boy seen by Lord Castlereagh—anapparition which the owner of the castle admitted to have been visible to many others. Dr.
Kerner mentions a similar fact, wherein an advocate and his wife were awakened by anoise and a light, and saw a beautiful child enveloped by the sort of glory that is seen
surrounding the heads of saints. It disappeared, and they never had a repetition of thephenomenon, which they afterward heard was believed to recur every seven years in thathouse, and to be connected with the cruel murder of a child by its mother.
To these instances I will add an account of the ghost seen in C⁠—— castle, copied fromthe handwriting of C⁠—— M⁠—— H⁠—— in a book of manuscript extracts, dated C⁠——
castle, December 22, 1824, and furnished to me by a friend of the family:—“In order to introduce my readers to the haunted room, I will mention that it forms partof the old house, with windows looking into the court, which in early times was deemed ahttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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necessary security against an enemy. It adjoins a tower built by the Romans for defence; forC⁠—— was properly more a border tower than a castle of any consideration. There is a
winding staircase in this tower, and the walls are from eight to ten feet thick.
“When the times became more peaceable, our ancestors enlarged the arrow-slit
windows, and added to that part of the building which looks toward the river Eden; theview of which, with its beautiful banks, we now enjoy. But many additions and alterations
have been made since that.
“To return to the room in question, I must observe that it is by no means remote orsolitary, being surrounded on all sides by chambers that are constantly inhabited. It is
accessible by a passage cut through a wall eight feet in thickness, and its dimensions aretwenty-one by eighteen. One side of the wainscoting is covered with tapestry; theremainder is decorated with old family-pictures, and some ancient pieces of embroidery,probably the handiwork of nuns. Over a press, which has doors of Venetian glass, is anancient oaken figure, with a battle-axe in his hand, which was one of those formerly placedon the walls of the city of Carlisle, to represent guards. There used to be, also, an oldfashioned bed and some dark furniture in this room; but, so many were the complaints of
those who slept there, that I was induced to replace some of these articles of furniture bymore modern ones, in the hope of removing a certain air of gloom, which I thought might
have given rise to the unaccountable reports of apparitions and extraordinary noises whichwere constantly reaching us. But I regret to say I did not succeed in banishing the nocturnal
visiter, which still continues to disturb our friends.
“I shall pass over numerous instances, and select one as being especially remarkable,from the circumstance of the apparition having been seen by a clergyman well known andhighly respected in this county, who, not six weeks ago, repeated the circumstances to acompany of twenty persons, among whom were some who had previously been entire
disbelievers in such appearances.
“The best way of giving you these particulars, will be by subjoining an extract from myjournal, entered at the time the event occurred.
“Sept. 8, 1803.—Among other guests invited to C⁠—— castle, came the Rev. Henry
A⁠——, of Redburgh, and rector of Greystoke, with Mrs. A⁠——, his wife, who was a Miss
S⁠——, of Ulverstone. According to previous arrangements, they were to have remainedwith us for some days; but their visit was cut short in a very unexpected manner. On themorning after their arrival, we were all assembled at breakfast, when a chaise and four
dashed up to the door in such haste that it knocked down part of the fence of my flowergarden. Our curiosity was, of course, awakened to know who could be arriving at so early
an hour; when, happening to turn my eyes toward Mr. A⁠——, I observed that he appeared
extremely agitated. ‘It is our carriage!’ said he; ‘I am very sorry, but we must absolutely
leave you this morning.’“We naturally felt and expressed considerable surprise, as well as regret at thisunexpected departure; representing that we had invited Colonel and Mrs. S⁠——, somefriends whom Mr. A⁠—— particularly desired to meet, to dine with us on that day. Our
expostulations, however, were vain; the breakfast was no sooner over than they departed,leaving us in consternation to conjecture what could possibly have occasioned so sudden an
alteration in their arrangements. I really felt quite uneasy lest anything should have given
them offence; and we reviewed all the occurrences of the preceding evening in order todiscover, if offence there was, whence it had arisen. But our pains were vain; and after
talking a great deal about it for some days, other circumstances banished it from our minds.
“It was not till we some time afterward visited the part of the country in which Mr.
A⁠—— resides, that we learned the real cause of his sudden departure from C⁠——. The
relation of the fact, as it here follows, is in his own words:—“Soon after we went to bed, we fell asleep: it might have been between one and two in
the morning when I awoke. I observed that the fire was totally extinguished; but althoughthat was the case, and we had no light, I saw a glimmer in the centre of the room, whichsuddenly increased to a bright flame. I looked out, apprehending that something had caught
fire, when, to my amazement, I beheld a beautiful boy, clothed in white, with bright locks,
resembling gold, standing by my bedside, in which position he remained some minutes,
fixing his eyes upon me with a mild and benevolent expression. He then glided gently away
toward the side of the chimney, where it is obvious there is no possible egress, and entirely
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disappeared. I found myself again in total darkness, and all remained quiet until the usual
hour of rising. I declare this to be a true account of what I saw at C⁠—— castle, upon myword as a clergyman.”
I am acquainted with some of the family, and with several of the friends of Mr. A⁠——,
who is still alive, though now an old man, and I can most positively assert that his own
conviction, with regard to the nature of this appearance, has remained ever unshaken. The
circumstance made a lasting impression upon his mind, and he never willingly speaks of it;
but when he does, it is always with the greatest seriousness, and he never shrinks fromavowing his belief, that what he saw admits of no other interpretation than the one he thenput upon it.
Now, let us see whether in this department of the phenomenon of ghost-seeing, namely,
the lights that frequently accompany the apparitions, there is anything so worthy of ridicule
as Grose and other such commentators seem to think.
Of God, the uncreated, we know nothing; but the created spirit, man, we can notconceive of independent of some organism or organ, however different that organ may beto those which form our means of apprehension and communication at present. This organ,
we may suppose to be that pervading ether which is now the germ of what St. Paul calls thespiritual body, the astral spirit of the mystics, the nerve-spirit of the clear-seers; thefundamental body, of which the external fleshly body is but the copy and husk—an organ
comprehending all those distinct ones which we now possess in the one universal, or, assome of the German physiologists call it, the central sense, of which we occasionallyobtain some glimpses in somnambulism, and in other peculiar states of nervous
derangement; especially where the ordinary senses of sight, hearing, feeling, &c., are inabeyance; an effect which Dr. Ennemoser considers to be produced by a change of polarity,
the external periphery of the nerves taking on a negative state; and which Dr. Passavent
describes as the retreating of the ether from the external to the internal, so that the nerves
no longer receive impressions, or convey information to the brain; a condition which may
be produced by various causes, as excess of excitement, great elevation of the spirit, as we
see in the ecstatics and martyrs, over-irritation producing consequent exhaustion; and also
artificially, by certain manipulations, narcotics, and other influences. 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, theparticulars of which have been recorded by various continental physicians of eminence—
all persons in that condition describe themselves as hearing and seeing, not by theirordinary organs, but by some means the idea of which they can not convey further than thatthey 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 firstfeeling an agreeable warmth pervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself, I
can not 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 can not tell how. Of
what nature this heavenly light was—and I can not forbear calling it heavenly, for it was
like nothing on earth—I know not, nor how far it may be related to those luminous
emanations occasionally seen around ecstatics, saints, martyrs, and dying persons; or to theflames seen by somnambules issuing from various objects, or to those observed by Von
Reichenbach’s patients proceeding from the ends of the fingers, &c. But at all events, since
the process which maintains life is of the nature of combustion, we have no reason to beamazed at the presence of luminous emanations; and as we are the subjects of various
electrical phenomena, nobody is surprised when, on combing their hair or pulling off theirsilk-stockings, they hear a crackling noise, or even see sparks.
Light, in short, is a phenomenon which seems connected with all forms of life; and I
need not here refer to that emitted by glow-worms, fire-flies, and those marine animals
which illuminate the sea. The eyes also of many animals shine with a light which is not
merely a reflected one—as has been ascertained by Rengger, a German naturalist, whofound himself able to distinguish objects in the most profound darkness, by the flamingeyes of a South American monkey.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“The seeing of a clear-seer,” says Dr. Passavent, “may be called a solar seeing, for helights and inter-penetrates his object with his own organic light, viz., his nervous ether,which becomes the organ of the spirit;” and under certain circumstances this organic lightbecomes visible, as in those above alluded to. Persons recovering from deep swoons andtrances, frequently describe themselves as having been in this region of light—this light ofthe spirit, if I may so call it—this palace of light, in which it dwells, which will hereafter be
its proper light; for the physical or solar light, which serves us while in the flesh, will be nolonger needed, when out of it, nor probably be perceived by the spirit, which will then, I
repeat, be a light to itself: and as this organic light—this germ of our future spiritual body—occasionally becomes partially visible now, there can not, I think, be any great difficultyin conceiving that it may, under given circumstances, be so hereafter.
The use of the word light, in the Scriptures, must not be received in a purely symbolicalsense. We shall dwell in light, or we shall dwell in darkness, in proportion as we haveshaken off the bonds that chain us to the earth; according, in short, to our moral state, weshall be pure and bright, or impure and dark.
Monsieur Arago mentions, in his treatise on lightning and the electrical fluid, that all
men are not equally susceptible of it, and that there are different degrees of receptivity,
verging from total insensibility to the extreme opposite; and he also remarks that animals
are more susceptible to it than men. He says the fluid will pass through a chain of persons,of whom perhaps one (though forming only the second link) will be wholly insensible ofthe shock. Such persons would be rarely struck by lightning, while another would be in as
great danger from a flash as if he were made of metal. Thus it is not only the situation of aman, during a storm, but also his physical constitution, that regulates the amount of his
peril. The horse and the dog are particularly susceptible.
Now, this varying susceptibility is analogous to, if not the very same, that causes thevarying susceptibility to such phenomena as I am treating of; and, accordingly, we knowthat in all times, horses and dogs have been reputed to have the faculty of seeing spirits:
and when persons who have the second-sight see a vision, these animals, if in contact withthem, perceive it also, and frequently evince symptoms of great terror. We also here findthe explanation of another mystery, namely, what the Germans call ansteckung, and theEnglish (skeptics when alluding to these phenomena) contagion—meaning simply
contagious fear; but, as when several persons form a chain, the shock from an electricalmachine will pass through the whole of them—so, if one person is in such a state as tobecome sensible of an apparition or some similar phenomenon, he may be able tocommunicate that power to another; and thus has arisen the conviction among thehighlanders, that a seer, by touching a person near him, enables him frequently toparticipate in his vision.
A little girl, in humble life, called Mary Delves, of a highly nervous temperament, hasbeen frequently punished for saying that the cat was on fire, and that she saw flames
issuing from various persons and objects.
With regard to the perplexing subject of corpse-lights, there would be little difficultyattending it if they always remained stationary over the graves; but it seems very wellestablished that that is not the case. There are numerous stories, proceeding from very
respectable quarters, proving the contrary; and I have heard two from a dignitary of thechurch, born in Wales, which I will relate:—
A female relation of his had occasion to go to Aberystwith, which was about twenty
miles from her home, on horseback; and she started at a very early hour for that purpose,with her father’s servant. When they had nearly reached the half-way, fearing the man
might be wanted at home, she bade him return, as she was approaching the spot where theservant of the lady she was going to visit was to meet her, in order to escort her the otherhalf.
The man had not long left her, when she saw a light coming toward her, the nature ofwhich she suspected. It moved, according to her description, steadily on, about three feetfrom the ground. Somewhat awestruck, she turned her horse out of the bridle-road, along
which it was coming, intending to wait till it had passed; but, to her dismay, just as it came
opposite to her, it stopped, and there remained perfectly fixed for nearly half an hour, at theend of which period it moved on as before.
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The servant presently came up, and she proceeded to the house of her friend, where she
related what she had seen. A few days afterward, the very servant who came to meet her
was taken ill and died: his body was carried along that road; and, at the very spot where thelight had paused, an accident occurred, which caused a delay of half an hour.
The other story was as follows: A servant in the family of Lady Davis, my informant’saunt, had occasion to start early for market. Being in the kitchen, about three o’clock in themorning, taking his breakfast alone, when everybody else was in bed, he was surprised athearing a sound of heavy feet on the stairs above; and, opening the door to see who it couldbe, he was struck with alarm at perceiving a great light, much brighter than could havebeen shed by a candle, at the same time that he heard a violent thump, as if some very
heavy body had hit the clock, which stood on the landing. Aware of the nature of the light,
the man did not await its further descent, but rushed out of the house—whence he presently
saw it issue from the front door, and proceed on its way to the churchyard.
As his mistress, Lady Davis, was at that period in her bed, ill, he made no doubt thather death impended; and when he returned from the market at night, his first question was,whether she was yet alive: and though he was informed she was better, he declared his
conviction that she would die, alleging as his reason what he had seen in the morning—anarration which led everybody else to the same conclusion.
The lady, however, recovered; but, within a fortnight, another member of the family
died: and as his coffin was brought down the stairs, the bearers ran it violently against theclock—upon which the man instantly exclaimed, “That is the very noise I heard!”
I could relate numerous stories wherein the appearance of a ghost was accompanied bya light; but as there is nothing that distinguishes them from those abovementioned, I will
not dilate further on this branch of the subject, on which, perhaps, I have said enough tosuggest to the minds of my readers that, although we know little how such things are, we doknow enough of analogous phenomena to enable us to believe, at least, their possibility.
I confess I find much less difficulty in conceiving the existence of such facts as thoseabove described, than those of another class, of which we meet with occasional instances.
For example, a gentleman of fortune and station, in Ireland, was one day walking along
the road, when he met a very old man, apparently a peasant, though well-dressed, andlooking as if he had on his Sunday habiliments. His great age attracted the gentleman’s
attention the more, that he could not help wondering at the alertness of his movements, andthe ease with which he was ascending the hill. He consequently accosted him, inquiring his
name and residence; and was answered that his name was Kirkpatrick, and that he lived at a
cottage, which he pointed out. Whereupon the gentleman expressed his surprise that heshould be unknown to him, since he fancied he had been acquainted with every man on his
estate. “It is odd you have never seen me before,” returned the old man, “for I walk here
every day.”“How old are you?” asked the gentleman.
“I am one hundred and five,” answered the other; “and have been here all my life.”
After a few more words, they parted; and the gentleman, proceeding toward somelaborers in a neighboring field, inquired if they knew an old man of the name of
Kirkpatrick. They did not; but on addressing the question to some older tenants, they said,“Oh, yes;” they had known him, and had been at his funeral; he had lived at the cottage on
the hill, but had been dead twenty years.
“How old was he when he died?” inquired the gentleman, much amazed. “He waseighty-five,” said they: so that the old man gave the age that he would have reached had hesurvived to the period of this rencontre.
This curious incident is furnished by the gentleman himself and all he can say is, that it
certainly occurred, and that he is quite unable to explain it. He was in perfect health at thetime, and had never heard of this man in his life, who had been dead several years before
the estate came into his possession.
The following is another curious story. The original will be found in the register of thechurch named, from which it has been copied for my use:—
EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTER IN BRISLEY CHURCH, NORFOLK.

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“December 12, 1706.—I, Robert Withers, M. A., vicar of Gately, do insert here a story
which I had from undoubted hands; for I have all the moral certainty of the truth of it
possible:—“Mr. Grose went to see Mr. Shaw on the 2d of August last. As they sat talking in theevening, says Mr. Shaw: ‘On the 21st of the last month, as I was smoking a pipe, andreading in my study, between eleven and twelve at night, in comes Mr. Naylor (formerly
fellow of St. John’s college, but had been dead full four years). When I saw him, I was notmuch affrighted, and I asked him to sit down, which accordingly he did for about twohours, and we talked together. I asked him how it fared with him. He said, “Verywell.”—“Were any of our old acquaintances with him?”—“No!” (at which I was muchalarmed), “but Mr. Orchard will be with me soon, and yourself not long after.” As he wasgoing away, I asked him if he would not stay a little longer, but he refused. I asked him if
he would call again. “No;” he had but three days’ leave of absence, and he had otherbusiness.’“N. B.—Mr. Orchard died soon after. Mr. Shaw is now dead: he was formerly fellow of
St. John’s college—an ingenious, good man. I knew him there; but at his death he had acollege-living in Oxfordshire, and here he saw the apparition.”An extraordinary circumstance occurred some years ago, in which a very pious andvery eminent Scotch minister, Ebenezer Brown of Inverkeithing, was concerned. A personof ill character in the neighborhood having died, the family very shortly afterward came tohim to complain of some exceedingly unpleasant circumstances connected with the room inwhich the dissolution had taken place, which rendered it uninhabitable, and requesting his
assistance. All that is known by his family of what followed, is that he went and entered theroom alone; came out again, in a state of considerable excitement and in a great
perspiration; took off his coat and re-entered the room; a great noise and I believe voices
were then heard by the family, who remained the whole time at the door; when he came out
finally, it was evident that something very extraordinary had taken place; what it was, hesaid, he could never disclose; but that perhaps after his death some paper might be foundupon the subject. None, however, as far as I can learn, has been discovered.
A circumstance of a very singular nature is asserted to have occurred, not very many
years back, in regard to a professor in the college of A⁠——, who had seduced a girl andmarried another woman. The girl became troublesome to him; and being found murdered,after having been last seen in his company, he was suspected of being some way concernedin the crime. But the strange thing is, that, from that period, he retired every evening at aparticular hour to a certain room, where he stayed a great part of the night, and where it
was declared that her voice was distinctly heard in conversation with him: a strange, wild
story, which I give as I have it, without pretending to any explanation of the belief that
seems to have prevailed, that he was obliged to keep this fearful tryst.
Visitations of this description—which seem to indicate that the deceased person is still,in some way incomprehensible to us, an inhabitant of the earth—are more perplexing thanany of the stories I meet with. In the time of Frederick II. of Prussia, the cook of a catholic
priest residing at a village named Quarrey, died, and he took another in her place; but thepoor woman had no peace or rest from the interference of her predecessor, insomuch that
she resigned her situation, and the minister might almost have done without any servant at
all. The fires were lighted, and the rooms swept and arranged, and all the needful services
performed, by unseen hands. Numbers of people went to witness the phenomena, till at
length the story reached the ears of the king, who sent a captain and a lieutenant of his
guard to investigate the affair. As they approached the house, they found themselves
preceded by a march, though they could see no musicians; and when they entered the parlor
and witnessed what was going on, the captain exclaimed: “If that doesn’t beat the devil!”upon which he received a smart slap on the face, from the invisible hand that was arranging
the furniture.
In consequence of this affair, the house was pulled down, by the king’s orders, andanother residence built for the minister at some distance from the spot.
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disposed to make the experiment; and it is not likely that the king would have ordered thehouse to be pulled down without being thoroughly satisfied of the truth of the story.
One of the most remarkable stories of this class I know—excepting indeed the famous
one of the Grecian bride—is that which is said to have happened at Crossen, in Silesia, inthe year 1659, in the reign of the Princess Elizabeth Charlotte. In the spring of that year, anapothecary’s man, called Christopher Monig—a native of Serbest, in Anhalt—died, andwas buried with the usual ceremonies of the Lutheran church. But, to the amazement of
everybody, a few days afterward, he, at least what seemed to be himself, appeared in theshop, where he would sit himself down, and sometimes walk, and take from the shelves
boxes, pots, and glasses, and set them again in other places; sometimes try and examine thegoodness of the medicines, weigh them with the scales, pound the drugs with a mighty
noise—nay, serve the people that came with bills to the shop, take their money and lay it up
in the counter: in a word, do all things that a journeyman in such cases used to do. He
looked very ghostly upon his former companions, who were afraid to say anything to him,
and his master being sick at that time, he was very troublesome to him. At last he took acloak that hung in the shop, put it on and walked abroad, but minding nobody in the streets;
he entered into some of the citizen’s houses, especially such as he had formerly known, yetspoke to no one but to a maid-servant, whom he met with hard by the church-yard, whom
he desired to go home and dig in a lower chamber of her master’s house, where she wouldfind an inestimable treasure. But the girl, amazed at the sight of him, swooned away;
whereupon he lifted her up, but left a mark upon her, in so doing, that was long visible. She
fell sick in consequence of the fright, and having told what Monig had said to her, they dug
up the place indicated, but found nothing but a decayed pot with a hemarites or bloodstone
in it. The affair making a great noise, the reigning princess caused the man’s body to betaken up, which being done, it was found in a state of putrefaction, and was reinterred. The
apothecary was then recommended to remove everything belonging to Monig—his linen,
clothes, books, &c.—after which the apparition left the house and was seen no more.
The fact of the man’s reappearance in this manner was considered to be so perfectly
established at the time, that there was actually a public disputation on the subject in theacademy of Leipsic. With regard to the importance the apparition attached to thebloodstone, we do not know but that there may be truth in the persuasion that this gem ispossessed of some occult properties of much more value than its beauty.
The story of the Grecian bride is still more wonderful, and yet it comes to us sosurprisingly well authenticated, inasmuch as the details were forwarded by the prefect of
the city in which the thing occurred, to the proconsul of his province, and by the latter werelaid before the emperor Hadrian—and as it was not the custom to mystify Roman emperors—we are constrained to believe that what the prefect and proconsul communicated to him,
they had good reason for believing themselves.
It appears that a gentleman, called Demostrates, and Charito, his wife, had a daughter
called Philinnion, who died; and that about six months afterward, a youth named Machates,
who had come to visit them, was surprised on retiring to the apartments destined tostrangers, by receiving the visits of a young maiden who eats and drinks and exchanges
gifts with him. Some accident having taken the nurse that way, she, amazed by the sight,
summons her master and mistress to behold their daughter, who is there sitting with theguest.
Of course, they do not believe her; but at length, wearied by her importunities, themother follows her to the guest’s chamber; but the young people are now asleep, and thedoor closed; but looking through the keyhole, she perceives what she believes to be herdaughter. Still unable to credit her senses, she resolves to wait till morning before
disturbing them; but when she comes again the young lady had departed; while Machates,on being interrogated, confesses that Philinnion had been with him, but that she had
admitted to him that it was unknown to her parents. Upon this, the amazement and agitationof the mother were naturally very great; especially when Machates showed her a ringwhich the girl had given him, and a bodice which she had left behind her; and his
amazement was no less, when he heard the story they had to tell. He, however, promisedthat if she returned the next night, he would let them see her; for he found it impossible tobelieve that his bride was their dead daughter. He suspected, on the contrary, that somethieves had stripped her body of the clothes and ornaments in which she had been buried,
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and that the girl who came to his room had bought them. When, therefore, she arrived, his
servant having had orders to summon the father and mother, they came; and perceiving that
it was really their daughter, they fell to embracing her, with tears. But she reproached themfor the intrusion, declaring that she had been permitted to spend three days with thisstranger, in the house of her birth; but that now she must go to the appointed place; andimmediately fell down dead, and the dead body lay there visible to all.
The news of this strange event soon spread abroad, the house was surrounded bycrowds of people, and the prefect was obliged to take measures to avoid a tumult. On thefollowing morning, at an early hour, the inhabitants assembled in the theatre, and thence
they proceeded to the vault, in order to ascertain if the body of Philinnion was where it had
been deposited six months before. It was not; but on the bier there lay the ring and cap
which Machates had presented to her the first night she visited him; showing that she had
returned there in the interim. They then proceeded to the house of Democrates, where they
saw the body, which it was decreed must now be buried without the bounds of the city.
Numerous religious ceremonies and sacrifices followed, and the unfortunate Machates,
seized with horror, put an end to his own life.
The following very singular circumstance occurred in this country toward the latter endof the last century, and excited, at the time, considerable attention; the more so, as it wasasserted by everybody acquainted with the people and the locality, that the removal of the
body was impossible by any recognised means; besides, that no one would have had thehardihood to attempt such a feat:—“Mr. William Craighead, author of a popular system of arithmetic, was parishschoolmaster of Monifieth, situate upon the estuary of the Tay, about six miles east from
Dundee. It would appear that Mr. Craighead was then a young man, fond of a frolic,without being very scrupulous about the means, or calculating the consequences. There
being a lykewake in the neighborhood, according to the custom of the times, attended by anumber of his acquaintance, Craighead procured a confederate, with whom he concerted aplan to draw the watchers from the house, or at least from the room where the corpse lay.
Having succeeded in this, he dexterously removed the dead body to an outer house, while
his companion occupied the place of the corpse in the bed where it had lain. It was agreed
upon between the confederates, that when the company were reassembled Craighead was tojoin them, and, at a concerted signal the impostor was to rise, shrouded like the dead man,
while the two were to enjoy the terror and alarm of their companions. Mr. Craighead camein, and, after being some time seated, the signal was made, but met no attention; he wasrather surprised; it was repeated, and still neglected. Mr. Craighead, in his turn, now
became alarmed; for he conceived it impossible that his companion could have fallen
asleep in that situation; his uneasiness became insupportable; he went to the bed, and found
his friend lifeless! Mr. Craighead’s feelings, as may well be imagined, now entirely
overpowered him, and the dreadful fact was disclosed. Their agitation was extreme, and it
was far from being alleviated when every attempt to restore animation to the thoughtless
young man proved abortive. As soon as their confusion would permit, an inquiry was madeafter the original corpse, and Mr. Craighead and another went to fetch it in, but it was not to
be found. The alarm and consternation of the company were now redoubled; for some timea few suspected that some hardy fellow among them had been attempting a Rowland for an
Oliver, but when every knowledge of it was most solemnly denied by all present, theirsituation can be more easily imagined than described; that of Mr. Craighead was little shortof distraction. Daylight came without relieving their agitation; no trace of the corpse could
be discovered, and Mr. Craighead was accused as the primum mobile of all that had
happened: he was incapable of sleeping, and wandered several days and nights in search of
the body, which was at last discovered in the parish of Tealing, deposited in a field, about
six miles distant from the place whence it was removed.
“It is related that this extraordinary affair had a strong and lasting effect upon Mr.
Craighead’s mind and conduct; that he immediately became serious and thoughtful, andever after conducted himself with great prudence and sobriety.”
Among what are called superstitions, there are a great many curious ones attached tocertain families; and from some members of these families I have been assured thatexperience has rendered it impossible for them to forbear attaching importance to thesepersuasions.
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A very remarkable circumstance occurred lately in this part of the world, the facts ofwhich I had an opportunity of being well acquainted with.
One evening, somewhere about Christmas, of the year 1844, a letter was sent for myperusal, which had been just received from a member of a distinguished family, in
Perthshire. The friend who sent it me, an eminent literary man, said, “Read the enclosed;
and we shall now have an opportunity of observing if any event follows the prognostics.”
The information contained in the letter was to the following effect:—Miss D⁠——, a relative of the present Lady C⁠——, who had been staying some timewith the earl and countess, at their seat near Dundee, was invited to spend a few days atC⁠—— castle, with the earl and countess of A⁠——. She went: and while she was dressing
for dinner, the first evening of her arrival, she heard a strain of music under her window,
which finally resolved itself into a well-defined sound of a drum. When her maid came up
stairs, she made some inquiries about the drummer that was playing near the house; but the
maid knew nothing on the subject. For the moment, the circumstance passed from Miss
D⁠——’s mind; but recurring to her again during the dinner, she said, addressing Lord
A⁠——, “My lord, who is your drummer?”—upon which his lordship turned pale, Lady
A⁠—— looked distressed, and several of the company (who all heard the question)
embarrassed; while the lady, perceiving that she had made some unpleasant allusion,
although she knew not to what their feelings referred, forbore further inquiry till she
reached the drawing-room, when, having mentioned the circumstance again to a member ofthe family, she was answered, “What! have you never heard of the drummer-boy?”—“No,”replied Miss D⁠——; “who in the world is he?”—“Why,” replied the other, “he is a person
who goes about the house playing his drum whenever there is a death impending in thefamily. The last time he was heard was shortly before the death of the last countess (theearl’s former wife), and that is why Lord A⁠—— became so pale when you mentioned it.
‘The drummer’ is a very unpleasant subject in this family, I assure you!”Miss D⁠—— was naturally much concerned, and, indeed, not a little frightened at this
explanation, and her alarm being augmented by hearing the sounds on the following day,she took her departure from C⁠—— castle and returned to Lord C⁠——’s, stopping on her
way to call on some friends, where she related this strange circumstance to the family,
through whom the information reached me.
This affair was very generally known in the north, and we awaited the event withinterest. The melancholy death of the countess about five or six months afterward, at
Brighton, sadly verified the prognostic. I have heard that a paper was found in her desk
after her death, declaring her conviction that the drum was for her; and it has beensuggested that probably the thing preyed upon her mind and caused the catastrophe: but inthe first place, from the mode of her death, that does not appear to be the case; in thesecond, even if it were, the fact of the verification of the prognostic remains unaffected;
besides which, those who insist upon taking refuge in this hypothesis must admit that,
before people living in the world like Lord and Lady A⁠——, could attach so much
importance to the prognostic as to entail such fatal effects, they must have had very goodreason for believing in it.
The legend connected with “the drummer” is, that either himself, or some officer whose
emissary he was, had become an object of jealousy to a former Lord A⁠——, and that he
was put to death by being thrust into his own drum and flung from the window of the tower
in which Miss D⁠——’s room was situated. It is said that he threatened to haunt them if they
took his life; and he seems to have been as good as his word, having been heard several
times in the memory of persons yet living.
There is a curious legend attached to the family of G⁠——, of R⁠——, to the effect that,when a lady is confined in that house, a little old woman enters the room when the nurse isabsent, and strokes down the bed-clothes; after which the patient, according to the technicalphrase, “never does any good,” and dies. Whether the old lady has paid her visits or not I
do not know, but it is remarkable that the results attending several late confinements there
have been fatal.
There was a legend, in a certain family, that a single swan was seen on a particular lake
before a death. A member of this family told me that on one occasion, the father, being awidower, was about to enter into a second marriage. On the wedding-day, his son appearedso exceedingly distressed, that the bridegroom was offended, and, expostulating with him,
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was told by the young man that his low spirits were caused by his having seen the swan. He(the son) died that night quite unexpectedly.
Besides Lord Littleton’s dove, there are a great many very curious stories recorded inwhich birds have been seen in a room when a death was impending; but the most
extraordinary prognostic I know is that of “the black dog,” which seems to be attached tosome families:—
A young lady of the name of P⁠——, not long since was sitting at work, well andcheerful, when she saw, to her great surprise, a large black dog close to her. As both door
and window were closed, she could not understand how he had got in; but when she started
up to put him out, she could no longer see him.
Quite puzzled, and thinking it must be some strange illusion, she sat down again andwent on with her work, when, presently, he was there again. Much alarmed, she now ran
out and told her mother, who said she must have fancied it, or be ill. She declared neither
was the case; and, to oblige her, the mother agreed to wait outside the door, and if she saw
it again, she was to call her. Miss P⁠—— re-entered the room, and presently there was thedog again; but when she called her mother, he disappeared. Immediately afterward, themother was taken ill and died. Before she expired, she said to her daughter, “Remember theblack dog!”
I confess I should have been much disposed to think this a spectral illusion, were it notfor the number of corroborative instances; and I have only this morning read in the review
of a work called “The Unseen World,” just published, that there is a family in Cornwall
who are also warned of an approaching death by the apparition of a black dog: and a very
curious example is quoted, in which a lady newly married into the family, and knowing
nothing of the tradition, came down from the nursery to request her husband would go up
and drive away a black dog that was lying on the child’s bed. He went up, and found thechild dead!
I wonder if this phenomenon is the origin of the French phrase “bête noir,” to express
an annoyance, or an augury of evil?
Most persons will remember the story of Lady Fanshawe, as related by herself—
namely, that while paying a visit to Lady Honor O’Brien, she was awakened the first night
she slept there by a voice, and, on drawing back the curtain, she saw a female figure
standing in the recess of the window, attired in white, with red hair and a pale and ghastly
aspect. “She looked out of the window,” says Lady Fanshawe, “and cried in a loud voice,such as I never before heard, ‘A horse!—a horse!—a horse!’ and then with a sigh, whichrather resembled the wind than the voice of a human being, she disappeared. Her body
appeared to me rather like a thick cloud than a real solid substance. I was so frightened,”
she continues, “that my hair stood on end, and my night-cap fell off. I pushed and shookmy husband, who had slept all the time, and who was very much surprised to find me insuch a fright, and still more so when I told him the cause of it, and showed him the open
window. Neither of us slept any more that night, but he talked to me about it, and told me
how much more frequent such apparitions were in that country than in England.”This was, however, what is called a banshee: for in the morning Lady Honor came tothem, to say that one of the family had died in the night, expressing a hope that they had
not been disturbed: “for,” said she, “whenever any of the O’Briens is on his death-bed, it isusual for a woman to appear at one of the windows every night till he expires; but when I
put you into this room, I did not think of it.” This apparition was connected with some sadtale of seduction and murder.
I could relate many more instances of this kind, but I wish as much as possible to avoid
repeating cases already in print; so I will conclude this chapter with the following accountof “Pearlin Jean,” whose persevering annoyances, at Allanbank, were so thoroughly
believed and established, as to have formed at various times a considerable impediment toletting the place. I am indebted to Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe for the account of Jean,and the anecdote that follows.
A housekeeper, called Bettie Norrie, that lived many years at Allanbank, declared she
and various other people had frequently seen Jean, adding that they were so used to her, as
to be no longer alarmed at her noises.
“In my youth,” says Mr. Sharpe, “Pearlin Jean was the most remarkable ghost in
Scotland, and my terror when a child. Our old nurse, Jenny Blackadder, had been a servant
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at Allanbank, and often heard her rustling in silks up and down stairs, and along thepassage. She never saw her—but her husband did.
“She was a French woman, whom the first baronet of Allanbank (then Mr. Stuart) met
with at Paris, during his tour to finish his education as a gentleman. Some people said she
was a nun, in which case she must have been a sister of charity, as she appears not to havebeen confined to a cloister. After some time, young Stuart became either faithless to thelady, or was suddenly recalled to Scotland by his parents, and had got into his carriage, atthe door of the hotel, when his Dido unexpectedly made her appearance, and stepping on
the fore-wheel of the coach to address her lover, he ordered the postillion to drive on; theconsequence of which was, that the lady fell, and one of the wheels going over her
forehead, killed her!
“In a dusky autumnal evening, when Mr. Stuart drove under the arched gateway of
Allanbank, he perceived Pearlin Jean sitting on the top, her head and shoulders covered
with blood.
“After this, for many years, the house was haunted: doors shut and opened with great
noise at midnight; and the rustling of silks, and pattering of high-heeled shoes, were heard
in bed-rooms and passages. Nurse Jenny said there were seven ministers called together at
one time, to lay the spirit; ‘but they did no mickle good, my dear.’“The picture of the ghost was hung between those of her lover and his lady, and kept
her comparatively quiet; but when taken away, she became worse-natured than ever. This
portrait was in the present Sir J⁠—— G⁠——’s possession. I am unwilling to record its fate.
“The ghost was designated ‘Pearlin,’ from always wearing a great quantity of that sortof lace.[4]“Nurse Jenny told me that when Thomas Blackadder was her lover (I remember
Thomas very well), they made an assignation to meet one moonlight night in the orchard at
Allanbank. True Thomas, of course, was the first comer; and, seeing a female figure, in alight-colored dress, at some distance, he ran forward with open arms to embrace his Jenny.
Lo, and behold! as he neared the spot where the figure stood, it vanished; and presently hesaw it again, at the very end of the orchard, a considerable way off. Thomas went home in afright; but Jenny, who came last, and saw nothing, forgave him, and they were married.
“Many years after this, about the year 1790, two ladies paid a visit at Allanbank—I
think the house was then let—and passed a night there. They had never heard a word about
the ghost; but they were disturbed the whole night with something walking backward andforward in their bed-chamber. This I had from the best authority.
“Sir Robert Stuart was created a baronet in the year 1687.
“Lady Stapleton, grandmother of the late Lord le Despencer, told me that the night
Lady Susan Fane (Lord Westmoreland’s daughter) died in London, she appeared to herfather, then at Merriworth, in Kent. He was in bed, but had not fallen asleep. There was alight in the room; she came in, and sat down on a chair at the foot of the bed. He said toher, ‘Good God, Susan! how came you here? What has brought you from town?’ She madeno answer; but rose directly, and went to the door, and looked back toward him very
earnestly: then she retired, shutting the door behind her. The next morning he had notice ofher death. This, Lord Westmoreland himself told to Lady Stapleton, who was by birth aFane, and his near relation.”[4]“A species of lace made of thread.”—Jamieson.

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C H A P T E R X V.

345

APPARITIONS SEEKING THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING.

With regard to the appearance of ghosts, the frequency of haunted houses,
presentiments, prognostics, and dreams, if we come to inquire closely, it appears to me thatall parts of the world are much on an equality—only, that where people are most engaged
in business or pleasure, these things are, in the first place, less thought of and less believedin, consequently less observed; and when they are observed, they are readily explained
away: and in the second place—where the external life, the life of the brain, wholly
prevails—either they do not happen, or they are not perceived—the rapport not existing, or
the receptive faculty being obscured.
But, although the above phenomena seem to be equally well known in all countries,
there is one peculiar class of apparitions of which I meet with no records but in Germany. I
allude to ghosts, who, like those described in the “Seeress of Prevorst,” seek the prayers of
the living. In spite of the positive assertions of Kerner, Eschenmayer, and others, that afterneglecting no means to investigate the affair, they had been forced into the conviction thatthe spectres that frequented Frederica Hauffe were not subjective illusions, but real
outstanding forms, still, as she was in the somnambulic state, many persons remain
persuaded that the whole thing was delusion. It is true, that as those parties were not there,
and as all those who did go to the spot came to a different conclusion, this opinion being
only the result of preconceived notions or prejudices, and not of calm investigation, is of novalue whatever; nevertheless, it is not to be denied that these narrations are very
extraordinary; but, perplexing as they are, they by no means stand alone. I find many
similar ones noticed in various works, where there has been no somnambule in question. In
all cases, these unfortunate spirits appear to have been waiting for some one with whomthey could establish a rapport, so as to be able to communicate with them; and this waiting
has sometimes endured a century or more. Sometimes they are seen by only one person, atother times by several, with varying degrees of distinctness, appearing to one as a light, toanother as a shadowy figure, and to a third as a defined human form. Other testimonies of
their presence—as sounds, footsteps, lights, visible removing of solid articles without avisible agent, odors, &c.—are generally perceived by many; in short, the sounds seem
audible to all who come to the spot, with the exception of the voice, which in most
instances is only heard by the person with whom the rapport is chiefly established. Somecases are related, where a mark like burning is left on the articles seen to be lifted. This isan old persuasion, and has given rise to many a joke. But, upon the hypothesis I haveoffered, the thing is simple enough: the mark will probably be of the same nature as thatleft by the electrical fluid;—and it is this particular, and the lights that often accompany
spirits, that have caused the notion of material flames, sulphur, brimstone, &c., to beconnected with the idea of a future state. According to our views, there can be no difficultyin conceiving that a happy and blessed spirit would emit a mild radiance; while anger ormalignity would necessarily alter the character of the effulgence.
As whoever wishes to see a number of these cases may have recourse to my translationof the “Seeress of Prevorst,” I will here only relate one, of a very remarkable nature, that
occurred in the prison of Weinsberg, in the year 1835.
Dr. Kerner, who has published a little volume containing a report of the circumstances,
describes the place where the thing happened to be such a one as negatives at once all
possibility of trick or imposture. It was in a sort of block-house or fortress—a prison withina prison—with no windows but what looked into a narrow passage, closed with several
doors. It was on the second floor; the windows were high up, heavily barred with iron, andimmovable without considerable mechanical force. The external prison is surrounded by ahigh wall, and the gates are kept closed day and night. The prisoners in different apartments
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as people of unimpeachable respectability and veracity. As depositions regarding this affair
were laid before the magistrates, it is on them I found my narration.
On the 12th September, 1835, the deputy-governor or keeper of the jail, named Mayer,
sent in a report to the magistrates that a woman called Elizabeth Eslinger was every night
visited by a ghost, which generally came about eleven o’clock, and which left her no rest,
as it said she was destined to release it, and it always invited her to follow it; and as shewould not, it pressed heavily on her neck and side till it gave her pain. The persons
confined with her pretended also to have seen this apparition.
Signed“Mayer.”A woman named Rosina Schahl, condemned to eight days’ confinement for abusive
language, deposed, that about eleven o’clock, Eslinger began to breathe hard as if she wassuffocating; she said a ghost was with her, seeking his salvation. “I did not trouble myself
about it, but told her to wake me when it came again. Last night I saw a shadowy form,
between four and five feet high, standing near the bed; I did not see it move. Eslinger
breathed very hard, and complained of a pressure on the side. For several days she hasneither ate nor drank anything.
Signed“Schahl.”“COURT RESOLVES,“That Eslinger is to be visited by the prison physician, and a report made as to hermental and bodily health.
“Signed by the magistrates,“Eckhardt,“Theurer,“Knorr.”“REPORT.

“Having examined the prisoner, Elizabeth Eslinger, confined here since the beginningof September, I found her of sound mind, but possessed with one fixed idea, namely, that
she is and has been for a considerable time troubled by an apparition, which leaves her norest, coming chiefly by night, and requiring her prayers to release it. It visited her before
she came to the prison, and was the cause of the offence that brought her here. Having now,in compliance with the orders of the supreme court, observed this woman for eleven weeks,
I am led to the conclusion that there is no deception in this case, and also that thepersecution is not a mere monomaniacal idea of her own, and the testimony not only of her
fellow-prisoners, but that of the deputy-governor’s family, and even of persons in distanthouses, confirms me in this persuasion.
“Eslinger is a widow, aged thirty-eight years, and declares that she never had any
sickness whatever, neither is she aware of any at present; but she has always been a ghostseer, though never till lately had any communication with them; that now, for eleven weeks
that she has been in the prison, she is nightly disturbed by an apparition, that had
previously visited her in her own house, and which had been once seen also by a girl offourteen—a statement which this girl confirms. When at home, the apparition did notappear in a defined human form, but as a pillar of cloud, out of which proceeded a hollow
voice, signifying to her that she was to release it, by her prayers, from the cellar of awoman in Wimmenthal, named Singhaasin, whither it was banished, or whence it could notfree itself. She (Eslinger) says that she did not then venture to speak to it, not knowing
whether to address it as Sie, Ihr, or Du (that is, whether she should address it in the secondor third person)—which custom among the Germans has rendered a very important point of
etiquette. It is to be remembered that this woman was a peasant, without education, who
had been brought into trouble by treasure-seeking, a pursuit in which she hoped to beassisted by this spirit. This digging for buried treasure is a strong passion in Germany.
“The ghost now comes in a perfect human shape, and is dressed in a loose robe, with agirdle, and has on its head a four-cornered cap. It has a projecting chin and forehead, fiery,
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the outlines of the spectre.
“Both she and her fellow-prisoners declare, that this apparition comes several times in anight, but always between the evening and morning bell. He often comes through theclosed door or window, but they can then see neither door nor window, nor iron bars; theyoften hear the closing of the door, and can see into the passage when he comes in or out
that way, so that if a piece of wood lies there they see it. They hear a shuffling in thepassage as he comes and goes. He most frequently enters by the window, and they thenhear a peculiar sound there. He comes in quite erect. Although their cell is entirely closed,
they feel a cool wind[5] when he is near them. All sorts of noises are heard, particularly acrackling. When he is angry, or in great trouble, they perceive a strange mouldering, earthy
smell. He often pulls away the coverlet, and sits on the edge of the bed. At first the touch of
his hand was icy cold, since he became brighter it is warmer; she first saw the brightness of
his finger-ends; it afterward spread further. If she stretches out her hand she can not feelhim, but when he touches her she feels it. He sometimes takes her hands and lays them
together, to make her pray. His sighs and groans are like a person in despair; they are heard
by others as well as Eslinger. While he is making these sounds, she is often praying aloud,or talking to her companions, so they are sure it is not she who makes them. She does notsee his mouth move when he speaks. The voice is hollow and gasping. He comes to her for
prayers, and he seems to her like one in a mortal sickness, who seeks comfort in the prayersof others. He says he was a catholic priest in Wimmenthal, and lived in the year 1414.”(Wimmenthal is still catholic; the woman Eslinger herself is a Lutheran, and belongs to
Backnang.)“He says, that among other crimes, a fraud committed conjointly with his father, on his
brothers, presses sorely on him; he can not get quit of it; it obstructs him. He always
entreated her to go with him to Wimmenthal, whither he was banished, or consigned, andpray there for him.
“She says she can not tell whether what he says is true; and does not deny that she
thought to find treasures by his aid. She has often told him that the prayers of a sinner, likeherself, can not help him, and that he should seek the Redeemer; but he will not forbear hisentreaties. When she says these things, he is sad, and presses nearer to her, and lays hishead so close that she is obliged to pray into his mouth. He seems hungry for prayers. She
has often felt his tears on her cheek and neck; they felt icy cold; but the spot soon afterburns, and they have a bluish red mark. (These marks are visible on her skin.)“One night this apparition brought with him a large dog, which leaped on the beds, andwas seen by her fellow-prisoners also, who were much terrified, and screamed. The ghost,
however, spoke, and said, ‘Fear not; this is my father.’ He had since brought the dog withhim again, which alarmed them dreadfully, and made them quite ill.
“Both Mayer and the prisoners asserted, that Eslinger was scarcely seen to sleep, either
by night or day, for ten weeks. She ate very little, prayed continually, and appeared verymuch wasted and exhausted. She said she saw the spectre alike, whether her eyes wereopened or closed, which showed that it was a magnetic perception, and not seeing by herbodily organs. It is remarkable that a cat belonging to the jail, being shut up in this room,
was so frightened when the apparition came, that it tried to make its escape by flying
against the walls; and finding this impossible, it crept under the coverlet of the bed, in
extreme terror. The experiment was made again, with the same result; and after this second
time the animal refused all nourishment, wasted away, and died.
“In order to satisfy myself,” says Dr. Kerner, “of the truth of these depositions, I went
to the prison on the night of the 15th of October, and shut myself up without light inEslinger’s cell. About half-past eleven I heard a sound as of some hard body being flung
down, but not on the side where the woman was, but the opposite; she immediately began
to breathe hard, and told me the spectre was there. I laid my hand on her head, and adjured
it as an evil spirit to depart. I had scarcely spoken the words when there was a strange
rattling, crackling noise, all round the walls, which finally seemed to go out through thewindow; and the woman said that the spectre had departed.
“On the following night it told her that it was grieved at being addressed as an evil
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redemption.
“On the 18th of October, I went to the cell again, between ten and eleven, taking withme my wife, and the wife of the keeper, Madame Mayer. When the woman’s breathing
showed me the spectre was there, I laid my hand on her, and adjured it, in gentle terms, notto trouble her further. The same sort of sound as before commenced, but it was softer, andthis time continued all along the passage, where there was certainly nobody. We all heard it.
“On the night of the 20th I went again, with Justice Heyd. We both heard sounds when
the spectre came, and the woman could not conceive why we did not see it. We could not;but we distinctly felt a cool wind blowing upon us when, according to her account, it wasnear, although there was no aperture by which air could enter.”On each of these occasions Dr. Kerner seems to have remained about a couple of hours.
Madame Mayer now resolved to pass a night in the cell, for the purpose of observation;and she took her niece, a girl aged nineteen, with her: her report is as follows:—“It was a rainy night, and, in the prison, pitch dark. My niece slept sometimes; I
remained awake all night, and mostly sitting up in bed.
“About midnight I saw a light come in at the window; it was a yellowish light, andmoved slowly; and though we were closely shut in, I felt a cool wind blowing on me. I said
to the woman, ‘The ghost is here, is he not?’ She said ‘Yes,’ and continued to pray, as she
had been doing before. The cool wind and the light now approached me; my coverlet wasquite light, and I could see my hands and arms; and at the same time I perceived anindescribable odor of putrefaction; my face felt as if ants were running over it. (Most of theprisoners described themselves as feeling the same sensation when the spectre was there.)
Then the light moved about, and went up and down the room; and on the door of the cell I
saw a number of little glimmering stars, such as I had never before seen. Presently, I andmy niece heard a voice which I can compare to nothing I ever heard before. It was not likea human voice. The words and sighs sounded as if they were drawn up out of a deep
hollow, and appeared to ascend from the floor to the roof in a column; while this voice
spoke, the woman was praying aloud: so I was sure it did not proceed from her. No one
could produce such a sound. They were strange, superhuman sighs and entreaties forprayers and redemption.
“It is very extraordinary that, whenever the ghost spoke, I always felt it beforehand.
[Proving that the spirit had been able to establish a rapport with this person. She was in amagnetic relation to him.] We heard a crackling in the room also. I was perfectly awake,and in possession of my senses; and we are ready to make oath to having seen and heard
these things.”
On the 9th of December, Madame Mayer spent the night again in the cell, with herniece and her maid-servant; and her report is as follows:—“It was moonlight, and I sat up in bed all night, watching Eslinger. Suddenly I saw awhite shadowy form, like a small animal, cross the room. I asked her what it was; and she
answered, ‘Don’t you see it’s a lamb? It often comes with the apparition.’ We then saw astool, that was near us, lifted and set down again on its legs. She was in bed, and praying
the whole time. Presently, there was such a noise at the window that I thought all the panes
were broken. She told us it was the ghost, and that he was sitting on the stool. We thenheard a walking and shuffling up and down, although I could not see him; but presently I
felt a cool wind blowing on me, and out of this wind the same hollow voice I had heard
before, said, ‘In the name of Jesus, look on me!’
“Before this, the moon was gone, and it was quite dark; but when the voice spoke tome, I saw a light around us, though still no form. Then there was a sound of walking
toward the opposite window, and I heard the voice say, ‘Do you see me now?’ And then,for the first time, I saw a shadowy form, stretching up as if to make itself visible to us, but
could distinguish no features.
“During the rest of the night, I saw it repeatedly, sometimes sitting on the stool, and atothers moving about; and I am perfectly certain that there was no moonlight now, nor any
other light from without. How I saw it, I can not tell; it is a thing not to be described.
“Eslinger prayed the whole time, and the more earnestly she did so, the closer the
spectre went to her. It sometimes sat upon her bed.
“About five o’clock, when he came near to me, and I felt the cool air, I said, ‘Go to myhusband, in his chamber, and leave a sign that you have been there!’ He answered
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distinctly, ‘Yes.’ Then we heard the door, which was fast locked, open and shut; and we
saw the shadow float out (for he floated rather than walked), and we heard the shuffling
along the passage.
“In a quarter of an hour we saw him return, entering by the window; and I asked him if
he had been with my husband, and what he had done. He answered by a sound like a short,low, hollow laugh. Then he hovered about without any noise, and we heard him speaking toEslinger, while she still prayed aloud. Still, as before, I always knew when he was going to
speak. After six o’clock, we saw him no more. In the morning, my husband mentioned,
with great surprise, that his chamber door, which he was sure he had fast bolted and locked,
even taking out the key when he went to bed, he had found wide open.”On the 24th, Madame Mayer passed the night there again; but on this occasion she only
saw a white shadow coming and going, and standing by the woman, who prayedunceasingly. She also heard the shuffling.
Between prisoners and the persons in authority who went to observe, the number of
those who testify to this phenomenon is considerable; and, although the amount of what
was perceived varied according to the receptivity of the subject in each case, the evidenceof all is perfectly coincident as to the character of the phenomena. Some saw only the light;
others distinguished the form in the midst of it; all heard the sound, and perceived themouldering earthy smell.
That the receptivity of the women was greater than that of the men, after what I haveelsewhere said, should excite no surprise; the preponderance of the sympathetic system inthem being sufficient to account for the difference.
Frederica Follen, from Lowenstein, who was eight weeks in the same cell with
Eslinger, was witness to all the phenomena, though she only once arrived at seeing thespectre in its perfect human form, as the latter saw it; but it frequently spoke to her, bidding
her amend her life, and remember that it was one who had tasted of death that give her thiscounsel. This circumstance had a great effect upon her.
When any of them swore, the apparition always evinced much displeasure, grasped
them by the throat, and forced them to pray. Frequently, when he came or went, they said itsounded like a flight of pigeons.
Catherine Sinn, from Mayenfels, was confined in an adjoining room for a fortnight.
After her release, she was interrogated by the minister of her parish, and deposed that she
had known nothing of Eslinger, or the spectre; “but every night, being quite alone, I heard arustling and a noise at the window, which looked only into the passage. I felt and heard,
though I could not see anybody, that some one was moving about the room; these sounds
were accompanied by a cool wind, though the place was closely shut up. I heard also acrackling, and a shuffling, and a sound as if gravel were thrown; but could find none in themorning. Once it seemed to me that a hand was laid softly on my forehead. I did not likestaying alone, on account of these things, and begged to be put into a room with others; so I
was placed with Eslingen and Follen. The same things continued here, and they told me
about the ghost; but not being alone, I was not so frightened. I often heard him speak; it
was hollow and slow, not like a human voice; but I could seldom catch the words. When heleft the prison, which was generally about five in the morning, he used to say, ‘Pray!’ andwhen he did so, he would add, ‘God reward you!’ I never saw him distinctly till the lastmorning I was there; then I saw a white shadow standing by Eslinger’s bed.
Signed,“Catherine Sinn.
“Minister Binder, Mayenfels.”
It would be tedious, were I to copy the depositions of all the prisoners, the experienceof most of them being similar to the above. I will therefore content myself with giving an
abstract of the most remarkable particulars.
Besides the crackling, rustling as of paper, walking, shuffling, concussions of thewindows and of their beds, &c., &c., they heard sometimes a fearful cry, and not
unfrequently the bed-coverings were pulled from them; it appearing to be the object of thespirit to manifest himself thus to those to whom he could not make himself visible; and as I
find this pulling off the bed-clothes, and heaving up the bed as if some one were under it,
repeated in a variety of cases, foreign and English, I conclude the motive to be the same.
Several of the women heard him speak.
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All these depositions are contained in Dr. Kerner’s report to the magistrates; and heconcludes by saying, that there can be no doubt of the fact of the woman Elizabeth Eslinger
suffering these annoyances, by whatever name people may choose to call them.
Among the most remarkable phenomena, is the real or apparent opening of the door, sothat they could see what was in the passage. Eslinger said that the spirit was often
surrounded by a light, and his eyes looked fiery; and there sometimes came with him twolambs, which occasionally appeared as stars. He often took hold of Eslinger, and made her
sit up, put her hands together, that she might pray; and once he appeared to take a pen andpaper from under his gown, and wrote, laying it on her coverled.
It is extremely curious that, on two occasions, Eslinger saw Dr. Kerner and Justice
Heyd enter with the ghost, when they were not there in the body, and both times Heyd wasenveloped in a black cloud. The ghost, on being asked, told Eslinger that the cloudindicated that trouble was impending. A few days afterward his child died very
unexpectedly, and Dr. Kerner now remembered, that the first time Eslinger said she hadseen Heyd in this way, his father had died directly afterward. Kerner attended both patients,
and was thus associated in the symbol. Follen also saw these two images, and spoke,
believing the one to be Dr. Kerner himself.
On other occasions she saw strangers come in with the ghost, whom afterward, when
they really came in the body, she recognised. This seems to have been a sort of secondsight.
Dr. K. says, I think justly enough, that if Eslinger had been feigning, she never would
have ventured on what seemed so improbable.
Some of the women, after the spectre had visibly leaned over them, or had spoken into
their ears, were so affected by the odor he diffused that they vomited, and could not eat tillthey had taken an emetic; and those parts of their persons that he touched became painful
and swollen, an effect I find produced in numerous other instances.
The following particulars are worth observing, in the evidence of a girl sixteen years ofage, called Margaret Laibesberg, who was confined for ten days for plucking some grapes
in a vineyard. She says she knew nothing about the spectre, but that she was greatly
alarmed the first night at hearing the door burst open and something come shuffling in.
Eslinger bade her not fear, and said that it would not injure her. The girl, however, being
greatly terrified every night, and hiding her head under the bed-clothes, on the fourth
Eslinger got out of her own bed, and, coming to her, said: “Do, in the name of God, look at
him! He will do you no harm, I assure you.”—“Then,” says the girl, “I looked out fromunder the clothes, and I saw two white forms, like two lambs—so beautiful that I could
have looked at them for ever. Between them stood a white, shadowy form, as tall as a man,but I was not able to look longer, for my eyes failed me.” The terrors of this girl were so
great, that Eslinger had repeatedly occasion to get out of bed and fetch her to lie withherself. When she could be induced to look, she always saw the figure, and he bade her
also pray for him. Whenever he touched her, which he did on the forehead and eyes, she
felt pain, but says nothing of any subsequent swelling. Both this girl and another, called
Neidhardt, who was brought in on the last day of Margaret L⁠——’s imprisonment, testified
that on the previous night they had heard Eslinger ask the ghost why he looked so angry;
and that they had heard him answer that it was “because she had on the preceding nightneglected to pray for him as much as usual,” which neglect arose from two gentlemen
having passed the night in the cell.
When on the tenth day the girl Margaret L⁠—— was released, she said that there wassomething so awful to her in this apparition, that she had firmly resolved and vowed to bepious and lead henceforth a virtuous life.
Some of them seem to have felt little alarm; Maria Bar, aged forty-one, said: “I was notafraid, for I have a good conscience.” The offences for which these women were confined
appear to have been very slight ones, such as quarrelling, &c.
In a room that opened into the same passage, men were shut up for disputing with thepolice, neglect of regulations, and similar misdemeanors. These persons not only heard thenoises as above described, such as the walking, shuffling, opening and shutting the door,&c., &c., but some of them saw the ghost. Christian Bauer deposed that he had never heard
anything about the ghost, but that, being disturbed by a knocking and rustling toward threeo’clock on the second morning of his incarceration, he looked up and saw a white figure
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bending over him, and heard a strange hollow voice say: “You must needs have patience!”
He said he thought it must be his grandfather, at which Stricker, his companion, laughed.
Stricker deposed that he heard a hollow voice say: “You must needs have patience;” andthat Bauer told him that there was a white apparition near him, and that he supposed it was
his grandfather. Bauer said that he was frightened the first night, but got used to it and did
not mind.
It is worthy of observation, that when they heard the door of the women’s room open,
they also heard the voice of Eslinger praying, which seems as if the door not only appeared
to open, but actually did so. We have already seen that this spirit could open doors. In the“Seeress of Prevorst,” the doors were constantly audibly and visibly opened, as by an
unseen hand, when she saw a spectre enter; and I know to an absolute certainty that thesame phenomenon takes place in a house not far from where I am writing; and this,sometimes, when there are two people sleeping in the room—a lady and gentleman. The
door having been fast locked when they went to bed, the room thoroughly examined, andevery precaution taken—for they are unwilling to believe in the spiritual character of the
disturbances that annoy them—they are aroused by a consciousness that it is opening, andthey do find it open, on rising to investigate the fact.
One of the most remarkable proofs, either of the force of volition or of the electrical
powers of the apparition that haunted Eslinger, or else of his power to imitate sounds, wasthe real, or apparent, violent shaking of the heavy, iron-barred window, which it is asserted
the united efforts of six men could not shake at all when they made the experiment.
The supreme court having satisfied itself that there was no imposture in this case, it was
proposed that some men of science should be invited to investigate the strange
phenomenon, and endeavor if possible to explain it. Accordingly, not only Dr. Kernerhimself and his son, but many others, passed nights in the prison for this purpose. Amongthese, besides some ministers of the Lutheran church, there was an engraver called
Duttenhofer; Wagner, an artist; Kapff, professor of mathematics at Heilbroun; Frass, abarrister; Doctors Seyffer and Sicherer, physicians; Heyd, a magistrate; Baron von Hugel,&c., &c.: but their perquisitions elicited no more than has been already narrated—all heard
the noises, most of them saw the lights, and some saw the figure. Duttenhofer and Kapff
saw it without a defined outline; it was itself bright, but did not illuminate the room. Someof the sounds appeared to them like the discharging of a Leyden jar. There was also athrowing of gravel, and a heavy dropping of water, but neither to be found. Professor Kapff
says that he was quite cool and self-possessed, till there was such a violent concussion of
the heavy, barred window, that he thought it must have come in; then both he andDuttenhofer felt horror-struck.
As they could not see the light emitted by the spectre when the room was otherwise
lighted, they were in the dark; but they took every care to ascertain that Eslinger was in her
bed while these things were going on. She prayed aloud the whole time, unless when
speaking to them. By the morning, she used to be dreadfully exhausted, from this continual
exertion.
It is also mentioned that the straw on which she lay was frequently changed andexamined, and every means taken to ascertain that there was nothing whatever in her
possession that could enable her to perform any sort of jugglery. Her fellow-prisoners werealso invited to tell all they knew or could discover; and a remission of their sentencespromised to those who would make known the imposition, if there was one.
Dr. Sicherer, who was accompanied by Mr. Frass, says that, having heard of these
phenomena, which he thought the more unaccountable from the circumstances of thewoman’s age and condition, &c.—she being a healthy, hard-working person, aged thirtyeight, who had never known sickness—he was very desirous of inquiring personally into
the affair.
While they were in the court of the prison, waiting for admittance, they heard
extraordinary noises, which could not be accounted for, and during the night there was arepetition of those above described—especially the apparent throwing of gravel, or peas,
which seemed to fall so near him that he involuntarily covered his face. Then followed the
feeling of a cool wind; and then the oppressive odor, for which, he says, he can find nocomparison, and which almost took away his breath. He was perfectly satisfied that it was
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perception of this odor, he saw a thick, gray cloud, of no defined shape, near Eslinger’s
bed. When this cloud disappeared, the odor was no longer perceptible. It was a finemoonlight night, and there was light enough in the room to distinguish the beds, &c.
The same phenomena recurred several times during the night: Eslinger was heard, eachtime the ghost was there, praying and reciting hymns. They also heard her say, “Don’t press
my hands so hard together!”—“Don’t touch me!” &c. The voice of the spirit they did nothear. Toward three or four o’clock, they heard heavy blows, footsteps, opening and shuttingof the door, and a concussion of the whole house, that made them think it was going to fallon their heads. About six o’clock, they saw the phantom again; and altogether these
phenomena recurred at least ten times in the course of the night.
Dr. Sicherer concludes by saying that he had undertaken the investigation with a mind
entirely unprepossessed; and that in the report he made, at the desire of the supreme court,
he had recorded his observations as conscientiously as if he had been upon a jury. He adds
that he had examined everything; and that neither in the person of the woman, nor in any
other of the inmates of the prison, could he find the smallest grounds for suspicion, nor any
clew to the mystery, which, in a scientific point of view, appeared to him utterly
inexplicable. Dr. Sicherer’s report is dated Heilbronn, January 8, 1836.
Mr. Fraas, who accompanied him, confirms the above statement in every particular,
with the addition that he several times saw a light, of a varying circumference, moving
about the room; and that it was while he saw this, that the woman told him the ghost wasthere. He also felt an oppression of the breath and a pressure on his forehead each time
before the apparition came, especially once, when, although he had carefully abstained
from mentioning his sensations, she told him it was standing close at his head. He stretchedout his hand, but perceived nothing, except a cool wind and an overpowering smell.
Dr. Seyffer being there one night, with Dr. Kerner, in order to exclude the possibility oflight entering through the window, they stopped it up. They, however, saw thephosphorescent light of the spectre, as before. It moved quietly about, and remained aquarter of an hour. The room was otherwise perfectly dark; the sounds accompanying it
were like the dropping of water and the discharge of a Leyden jar. They fully ascertainedthat these phenomena did not proceed from the woman.
I have already given the depositions of Madame Mayer, the wife of the deputygovernor or keeper of the prison, who is spoken of as a highly respectable person. Mayer
himself, however, though quite unable to account for all these extraordinary proceedings,
found great difficulty in believing that there was anything supernatural in the affair; and hetold Eslinger that, if she wished him to be convinced, she must send the ghost to do it!
He says: “The night after I had said this, I went to bed and to sleep, little expecting sucha visiter; but, toward midnight, I was awakened by something touching my left elbow. Thiswas followed by a pain; and in the morning, when I looked at the place, I saw several blue
spots. I told Eslinger that this was not enough, and that she must tell the ghost to touch myother elbow. This was done on the following night, and, at the same time, I perceived asmell like putrefaction. The blue spots followed.” (It will be remembered that Eslinger had
blue spots also.)
Mayer continues to say that the spectre made known its presence in his chamber by
various sounds, such as were heard in the other part of the house. He never saw the figure
distinctly, but his wife did: she always prayed when it was there. He, however, felt the coolwind that they all described.
The ghost told Eslinger that he should continue his visits to the prison after she had
quitted it, and he did so. The second night after her release, they felt his approach,especially from the cool wind, and Madame Mayer desired him to testify his presence toher husband. Immediately there were sounds like a wind-instrument, and these wererepeated at her desire.
The prisoners also heard and felt the apparition after Eslinger’s departure; and Mayer
says he is perfectly assured that in this jail, where the inmates were frequently changed,
everybody was locked up, and every place thoroughly examined, it was utterly impossible
for any trick to be played: besides which, all parties agreed that the sounds were often of a
description that could not have been produced by any known means.
But it was not to the prison alone that this apparition confined his visits. To
whomsoever Eslinger sent him, he went—testifying his presence by the same signs as
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above described. He visited the chambers of several of the magistrates, of a teacher named
Neuffer, of the referendary burgher, of a citizen named Rummel, and many others. Of
these, some only perceived his presence by the noises, the cool air, the smell, or the touch;others saw the light also, and others perceived the figure with more or less distinctness.
A Mr. Dorr, of Heilbronn, seems to have scoffed very much at these rumors, and Dr.
Kerner bade Eslinger ask the ghost to convince him, which she did.
Mr. Dorr says: “When I heard these things talked of, I always laughed at them, and wasthought very sensible for so doing. Now I shall be laughed at in my turn, no doubt.” Hethen relates that, on the morning of the 30th of December, 1835, he awoke, as usual, about
five o’clock, and was thinking of some business he had in hand, when he became consciousthat there was something near him, and he felt as if it blew cold upon him. He started up,
thinking some animal had got into his room, but could find nothing. Next he heard a noise,like sparks from an electrical machine, and then a report close to his right ear. Had there
been anything visible, it was light enough to see it. This report was frequently heard in theprison.
Wherever the apparition once made a visit, he generally continued to go for several
successive nights. He also visited Professor Kapff at Heilbronn, and Baron von Hugel at
Eschenau, without being desired to do so by Eslinger; and Neuffer, whom he also went to,
she knew nothing of.
When he visited Dr. Kerner’s chamber, his wife, who had prided herself on her
incredulity, and boasted of being born on St. Thomas’s day, was entirely converted, for she
not only heard him, but saw him distinctly. He visited them for several nights, accompaniedby the noises and the light.
One night, while lying awake observing these phenomena, they fancied they heard theirhorse come out of his stable, which was under their room. In the morning, he was foundstanding outside, with his halter on; it was not broken, and it was evident that the horse had
not got loose by any violence. Moreover, the door of the stable was closed behind him, as it
had been at night when he was shut up.
Dr. Kerner’s sister, who came from a distance to visit them, had heard very little about
this affair, yet she was awakened by a sound that seemed like some one trying to speak into
her ear; and, looking up, she saw two stars, like those described by Margaret Laibesberg.
She observed that they emitted no rays. She also felt the cool air, and perceived the corpselike odor. This odor accompanied the ghost even when it appeared at Heilbronn.
It is remarkable that some of these persons, both men and women, felt themselves
unable to move or call out while the spectre was there, and that they were relieved themoment he went away. They appeared to be magnetized; but this feeling was by no means
universal. Many were perfectly composed and self-possessed the whole time, and madetheir observations to each other. All agreed that the speaking of the apparition seemed likethat of a person making efforts to speak. Now, as we are to presume that he did not speakby means of organs, as we do, but that he imitated the sounds of words as he imitated othersounds, by some means with which we are unacquainted—for since the noises were heard
by everybody within hearing, we must suppose that they actually existed—we, who know
the extreme difficulty of imitating human speech, may conceive how this imitation shouldbe very defective.
Dutthenhofer and others remarked that there was no echo from the sounds, as well asthat the phosphorescence shed no light around; and though the spectre could touch them, or
produce the sensation that he did, they could not feel him: but, as in all similar cases, could
thrust their hands through what appeared to be his body. The sensation of his falling tears,
and the marks they left, seem most unaccountable; and yet, in the records of a ghost thathaunted the countess of Eberstein, in 1685, we find the same thing asserted. This account
was made public by the authority of the consistorial court, and with the consent of thefamily.
At length, on the 11th of February, the ghost took his departure from Eslinger; at least,
after that day he was no more seen or heard by her or anybody else. He had always
entreated her to go to Wimmenthal, where he had formerly lived, to pray for him; and, after
she was released from the jail, by the advice of her friends, she did it. Some of themaccompanied her, and they saw the apparition near her while she was kneeling in the open
air, though not all with equal distinctness. A very respectable woman, called Wörner—a
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stranger to Eslinger, whom she says she never saw or spoke to till that day—offered tomake oath that she had accompanied her to Wimmenthal, and that, with the other friends,
she had stood about thirty paces off, quite silent and still, while the woman knelt andprayed; and that she had seen the apparition of a man, accompanied by two smaller
spectres, hovering near her. “When the prayer was ended, he went close to her, and there
was a light like a falling star; then I saw something like a white cloud, that seemed to float
away: and after that, we saw no more.”
Eslinger had been very unwilling to undertake this expedition: she took leave of herchildren before she started, and evidently expected mischief would befall her; and now, on
approaching her, they found her lying cold and insensible. When they had revived her, she
told them that, on bidding her farewell, before he ascended—which he did, accompaniedby two bright infantine forms—the ghost had asked her to give him her hand; and that, after
wrapping it in her handkerchief, she had complied. “A small flame had arisen from thehandkerchief when he touched it; and we found the marks of his fingers like burns, but
without any smell.” This, however, was not the cause of her fainting; but she had been
terrified by a troop of frightful animals that she saw rush past her, when the spirit floatedaway.
From this time, nobody, either in the prison or out of it, was troubled with thisapparition.
This is certainly a very extraordinary story; and what is more extraordinary, such cases
do not seem to be very uncommon in Germany. I meet with many recorded: and an eminent
German scholar of my acquaintance tells me that he has also heard of several, and was
surprised that we have no similar instances here. If these things occurred merely among theRoman catholics, we might be inclined to suppose that they had some connection with theirnotion of purgatory: but, on the contrary, it appears to be among the Lutheran population
they chiefly occur—insomuch that it has even been suggested that the omission of prayers
for the dead, in the Lutheran church, is the cause of the phenomenon. But, on the other
hand, as in the present case, and in several others, the person that revisits the earth was of
the catholic persuasion when alive, we are bound to suppose that he had the benefit of his
own church’s prayers.
I am here assuming that all the above strange phenomena were really produced by theagency of an apparition. If they were not, what were they? The three physicians, who wereamong the visiters, must have been perfectly aware of the contagious nature of some formsof nervous disorder, and from the previous incredulity of two of them, they must have beenquite prepared to regard these phenomena from that point of view; yet they seem unable tobring them under the category of sensuous illusions.
The apparently electrical nature of the lights, and of several of the sounds, is very
remarkable, as are also the swellings produced on some of the persons by the touch of theghost, which remind us of Professor Hofer’s case, mentioned in a former chapter. The
apparition of the dog and the lambs also, strange as they are, are by no means isolatedcases. These appearances seem to be symbolical: the father had been evil, and had led his
son to do evil, and he appeared in the degraded form of a dog; and the innocence of thechildren, who had been, probably, in some way wronged, was symbolized by theirappearing as lambs. “If I had lived as a beast,” said an apparition to the Seeress of Provorst,“I should appear as a beast.” These symbolical transfigurations can not appear very
extravagant to those who accept the belief of many theologians, that the serpent of thegarden of Eden was an evil spirit incarnated in that degraded form.
How for the removal of the horse out of the stable was connected with the rest of thephenomena, it is impossible to say; but a similar circumstance has very lately occurred withregard to a dog that was locked up in the house in this neighborhood, which I have several
times alluded to, where footsteps and rustlings are heard, doors are opened, and a feelingthat some one is blowing or breathing upon them is felt by the inhabitants.
The holes burnt in the handkerchief are also quite in accordance with many otherrelations of the kind, especially that of the maid of Orlach, and also that of theHammerschan family, mentioned in “Stilling’s Pneumatology,” when a ghost who had
been, as he said, waiting one hundred and twenty years for some one to release him by theirprayers, was seen to take a handkerchief, on which he left the marks of his five fingers,
appearing like burnt spots. A bible that he touched was marked in the same manner; andhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowethese two mementoes of the apparition were carefully retained in the family. Thisparticularity, also, reminds us of Lord Tyrone’s leaving the marks of his hand on Lady
Beresord’s wrist, on which she ever afterward wore a black riband. In several instances I
find it reported that when an apparition is requested to render himself visible to, or to enter
into communication with, other persons besides those to whom he addresses himself, heanswers that it is impossible; and in other cases, that he could do it, but that theconsequences to those persons would be pernicious. This, together with the circumstance of
their waiting so long for the right person, tends strongly to support the hypothesis that an
intense magnetic rapport is necessary to any facility of intercourse. It also appears that thepower of establishing this rapport with one or more persons, varies exceedingly among
these denizens of a spiritual world, some being only able to render themselves audible,
others to render themselves visible to one person, while a few seem to possess considerably
greater powers or privileges.
Another particular to be observed is, that in many instances, if not in all, these spirits
are what the Germans call gebannt, that is, banned, or proscribed, or, as it were, tethered toa certain spot, which they can occasionally leave, as Anton did the cellar at Wimmenthal, towhich he was gebannt, but from which they can not free themselves. To this spot they seemto be attached, as by an invisible chain, whether by the memory of a crime committed
there, or by a buried treasure, or even by its being the receptacle of their own bodies. In
short, it seems perfectly clear, admitting them to be apparitions of the dead, that, whatever
the bond may be that keeps them down, they can not quit the earth; they are, as St. Martinsays, remainers, not returners, and this seems to be the explanation of haunted houses.
In the year 1827, Christian Eisengrun, a respectable citizen of Neckarsteinach, wasvisited by a ghost of the above kind, and the particulars were judically recorded. He was at
Eherbach, in Baden, working as a potter, which was his trade, in the manufactory of Mr.
Gehrig, when he was one night awakened by a noise in his chamber, and, on looking up, he
saw a faint light, which presently assumed a human form, attired in a loose gown; he could
see no head. He had his own head under the clothes; but it presently spoke, and told himthat he was destined to release it, and for that purpose he must go to the catholic
churchyard of Neckarsteinach, and there, for twenty-one successive days, repeat thefollowing verse from the New Testament, before the stone sepulchre there:—“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? So,
the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.”—1 Cor. ii. 11.
The ghost having repeated his visits and his request, the man consulted his master what
he should do, and he advised him not to trifle with the apparition, but to do what herequired, adding that he had known many similar instances. Upon this, Eisengrun went to
Neckarsteinach, and addressed himself to the catholic priest there, named Seitz, who gave
him the same counsel, together with his blessing and also a hymn of Luther’s, which hebade him learn and repeat, as well as the verse, when he visited the sepulchre.
As there was only one stone sepulchre in the churchyard, Eisengrun had no difficulty infinding it; and while he performed the service imposed on him by the ghost, the latter stoodon the grave with his hands folded as if in prayer; but when he repeated the hymn, hemoved rapidly backward and forward, but still not overstepping the limits of the stone. The
man, though very frightened, persevered in the thing for the time imposed, twenty-one
days; and during this period he saw the perfect form of the apparition, which had nocovering on its head except very white hair. It always kept its hands folded, and had largeeyes, in which he never perceived any motion; this filled him with horror. Many persons
went to witness the ceremony.
The surviving nephews and nieces of the apparition brought an action against
Eisengrun, and they contrived to have him seized and carried to the magistrate’s house, oneday, at the time he should have gone to the churchyard. But the ghost came and beckoned,
and made signs to him to follow him, till the man was so much affected and terrified that heburst into tears. The two magistrates could not see the spectre, but feeling themselvesaffected with a cold shudder, they consented to his going.
He was then publicly examined in court, together with the offended family and anumber of witnesses; and the result was, that he was permitted to continue the service forthe twenty-one days, after which he never saw or heard more of the ghost, who had been
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the churchyard, affected Eisengrun so much, that it was some time before he recovered his
usual health. He had all his life been a ghost-seer, but had never had communication withany before this event.
The catholic priest, in this instance, appears to have been more liberal than the deceased
timber-merchant, for the latter did not seem to like the Lutheran hymn which the formerprescribed. His dissatisfaction, however, may have arisen from their making any addition to
the formula he had himself indicated.
[5]

It is to be observed that this is the sensation asserted to be felt by
Reichenbach’s patients on the approach of the magnet.

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CHAPTER XVI.

376

THE POLTERGEIST OF THE GERMANS, AND POSSESSION.

With regard to the so-called hauntings, referred to in the preceding chapter, there
seems reason to believe that the invisible guest was formerly a dweller upon earth, in theflesh, who is prevented by some circumstance which we are not qualified to explain, frompursuing the destiny of the human race, by entering freely into the next state prepared forhim. He is like an unfortunate caterpillar that ‘can not entirely free itself from theinteguments of its reptile life which chain it to the earth, while its fluttering wings vainly
seek to bear it into the region to which it now belongs.’ But there is another kind of
haunting, which is still more mysterious and strange, though by no means unfrequent, andwhich, from the odd, sportive, mischievous nature of the disturbances created, one canscarcely reconcile to our notions of what we understand by the term ghost; for in thosecases where the unseen visitant appears to be the spirit of a person deceased, we see
evidences of grief, remorse, and dissatisfaction, together with, in many instances, adisposition to repeat the acts of life—or at least to simulate a repetition of them: but there isnothing sportive or mischievous, nor, except where an injunction is disobeyed or a request
refused, are there generally any evidences of anger or malignity. But in the other cases
alluded to, the annoyances appear rather like the tricks of a mischievous imp. I refer towhat the Germans call the poltergeist, or racketing spectre, for the phenomenon is known
in all countries, and has been known in all ages.
Since hearing of the phenomenon of the electric girl, which attracted so much attention
and occasioned so much controversy in Paris lately, and other similar cases which havesince reached me, I feel doubtful whether some of these strange circumstances may nothave been connected with electricity in one form or another. The famous story of what isfamiliarly called the Stockwell ghost, for example, might possibly be brought under thiscategory. I have heard some people assert that the mystery of this affair was subsequently
explained away, and the whole found to be a trick: but that is a mistake. Some years ago, I
was acquainted with persons whose parents were living on the spot at that time, who knew
all the details, and to them it remained as great a mystery as ever; not the smallest light had
ever been thrown upon it. People are so glad to get rid of troublesome mysteries of thisdescription, that they are always ready to say, “The trick has been found out!” and those
who pride themselves on not believing idle stories, are to the last degree credulous when“the idle story” flatters their skepticism.
The circumstances of the so-called Stockwell ghost, which I extract from a reportpublished at the time, are as follows:—
The pamphlet was entitled: “An authentic, candid, and Circumstantial Narrative of theastonishing Transactions at Stockwell, in the County of Surrey, on Monday and Tuesday,the 6th and 7th days of January, 1772; containing a Series of the most surprising andunaccountable Events that ever happened, which continued, from first to last, upward oftwenty hours, and at different places: published with the consent and approbation of thefamily and other parties concerned, to authenticate which the original copy is signed bythem.
“Before we enter upon a description of the most extraordinary transactions that perhaps
ever happened, we shall begin with an account of the parties who were principallyconcerned, and, in justice to them, give their characters, by which means the impartialworld may see what credit is due to the following narrative:—“The events, indeed, are of so strange and singular a nature, that we can not be at all
surprised the public should be doubtful of the truth of them, more especially as there havebeen too many impositions of this sort; but, let us consider, here are no sinister ends to beanswered, no contributions to be wished for, nor would be accepted, as the parties are in
reputable situations and good circumstances, particularly Mrs. Golding, who is a lady of an
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this assertion; but, as their loss was trivial, they must be left out of the question, except so
far as they appear corroborating evidences. Mr. Pain’s maid lost nothing.
“How or by what means these transactions were brought about, has never transpired:
we have only to rest our confidence on the veracity of the parties, whose descriptions havebeen most strictly attended to, without the least deviation: nothing here offered is either
exaggerated or diminished—the whole stated in the clearest manner, just as they occurred:as such only we lay them before the candid and impartial public.
“Mrs. Golding, an elderly lady at Stockwell, in Surrey, at whose house the transactions
began, was born in the same parish (Lambeth), has lived in it ever since, and has always
been well known and respected as a gentlewoman of unblemished honor and character.
Mrs. Pain, a niece of Mrs. Golding, has been married several years to Mr. Pain, a farmer, at
Brixton causeway, a little above Mr. Angel’s—has several children, and is well known andrespected in the parish. Mary Martin, Mr. Pain’s servant, an elderly woman, has lived two
years with them and four years with Mrs. Golding, where she came from. Richard Fowler
lives almost opposite to Mr. Pain, at the Brick pound—an honest, industrious, and soberman. And Sarah Fowler, wife to the above, is an industrious and sober woman.
“These are the subscribing evidences that we must rest the truth of the facts upon; yetthere are numbers of other persons who were eye-witnesses of many of the transactions
during the time they happened, all of whom must acknowledge the truth of them.
“Another person who bore a principal part in these scenes was Ann Robinson, Mrs.
Golding’s maid, a young woman about twenty years old, who had lived with her but one
week and three days. So much for the historiæ personæ, and now for the narrative.
“On Monday, January the 6th, 1772, about ten o’clock in the forenoon, as Mrs. Golding
was in her parlor, she heard the china and glasses in the back kitchen tumble down andbreak; her maid came to her and told her the stone plates were falling from the shelf; Mrs.
Golding went into the kitchen and saw them broke. Presently after, a row of plates from thenext shelf fell down likewise, while she was there, and nobody near them; this astonishedher much, and while she was thinking about it, other things in different places began totumble about, some of them breaking, attended with violent noises all over the house; aclock tumbled down and the case broke; a lantern that hung on the staircase was thrown
down and the glass broken to pieces; an earthen pan of salted beef broke to pieces and thebeef fell about: all this increased her surprise and brought several persons about her, amongwhom was Mr. Rowlidge, a carpenter, who gave it as his opinion that the foundation was
giving way and that the house was tumbling down, occasioned by the too great weight ofan additional room erected above: so ready are we to discover natural causes foreverything! But no such thing happened, as the reader will find; for whatever was thecause, that cause ceased almost as soon as Mrs. Golding and her maid left any place, andfollowed them wherever they went. Mrs. Golding ran into Mr. Gresham’s house, agentleman living next door to her, where she fainted.
“In the interim, Mr. Rowlidge and other persons were removing Mrs. Golding’s effects
from her house, for fear of the consequences he had prognosticated. At this time all wasquiet; Mrs. Golding’s maid, remaining in the house, was gone up stairs, and when called
upon several times to come down, for fear of the dangerous situation she was thought to bein, she answered very coolly, and after some time came down as deliberately, without any
seeming fearful apprehensions.
“Mrs. Pain was sent for from Brixton Causeway, and desired to come directly, as her
aunt was supposed to be dead: this was the message to her. When Mrs. Pain came, Mrs.
Golding was come to herself, but very faint.
“Among the persons who were present was Mr. Gardner, a surgeon, of Clapham, whomMrs. Pain desired to bleed her aunt, which he did. Mrs. Pain asked him if the blood shouldbe thrown away: he desired it might not, as he would examine it when cold. These minuteparticulars would not be taken notice of, but as a chain to what follows. For the next
circumstance is of a more astonishing nature than anything that had preceded it: the bloodthat was just congealed, sprang out of the basin upon the floor, and presently after the basin
broke to pieces! This china basin was the only thing broke belonging to Mr. Gresham; abottle of rum that stood by it broke at the same time.
“Among the things that were removed to Mr. Gresham’s, was a tray full of china, ajapan bread-basket, some mahogany waiters, with some bottles of liquors, jars of pickles,
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he gave it to one Robert Hames, who laid it on the grass-plat at Mrs. Gresham’s: but, before
he could put it out of his hands, some parts of the frame on each side flew off! It rained atthat time; Mrs. Golding desired it might be brought into the parlor, where it was put under asideboard, and a dressing-glass along with it. It had not been there long, before the glasses
and china which stood on the sideboard began to tumble about and fall down, and broke
both the glasses to pieces. Mr. Saville and others being asked to drink a glass of wine orrum, both the bottles broke in pieces before they were uncorked!
“Mrs. Golding’s surprise and fear increasing, she did not know what to do, or where togo. Wherever she and her maid were, these strange, destructive circumstances followed her,and how to help or free herself from them was not in her power or any other person’spresent. Her mind was one confused chaos, lost to herself and everything about her—drove
from her own home, and afraid there would be no other to receive her. At last she left Mr.
Gresham’s and went to Mr. Mayling’s, a gentleman at the next door; here she stayed about
three quarters of an hour, during which time nothing happened. Her maid stayed at Mr.
Gresham’s to put up what few things remained unbroken of her mistress’s, in a backapartment, when a jar of pickles that stood upon a table turned upside down; then a jar of
raspberry jam broke to pieces; next two mahogany waiters and a quadrille-box likewise
broke in pieces.
“Mrs. Pain, not choosing her aunt should stay too long at Mr. Mayling’s, for fear of
being troublesome, persuaded her to go to her house at Rush Common, near Brixton
Causeway, where she would endeavor to make her as happy as she could, hoping by thistime all was over, as nothing had happened at that gentleman’s house while she was there.
This was about two o’clock in the afternoon.
“Mr. and Miss Gresham were at Mr. Pain’s house when Mrs. Pain, Mrs. Golding, andher maid, went there. It being about dinner-time, they all dined together; in the interim,Mrs. Golding’s servant was sent to her house to see how things remained. When she
returned, she told them nothing had happened since they left it. Some time after, Mr.
Gresham and miss went home, everything remaining quiet at Mr. Pain’s; but about eighto’clock in the evening a fresh scene began. The first thing that happened was, a whole rowof pewter dishes, except one, fell from off a shelf to the middle of the floor, rolled about alittle while, then settled; and, what is almost beyond belief, as soon as they were quiet,
turned upside down! They were then put on the dresser, and went through the same asecond time. Next fell a whole row of pewter plates from off the second shelf over the
dresser to the ground, and, being taken up and put on the dresser one in another, they werethrown down again.
“The next thing was, two eggs that were upon one of the pewter shelves, one of themflew off, crossed the kitchen, struck a cat on the head, and then broke in pieces.
“Next, Mary Martin, Mrs. Pain’s servant, went to stir the kitchen fire; she got to theright-hand side of it, being a large chimney, as is usual in farmhouses. A pestle and mortarthat stood nearer the left-hand end of the chimney-shelf, jumped about six feet on the floor!
Then went candlesticks and other brasses, scarcely anything remaining in its place. After
this, the glasses and china were put down on the floor for fear of undergoing the same fate:they presently began to dance and tumble about, and then broke to pieces. A teapot that
was among them flew to Mrs. Golding’s maid’s foot, and struck it.
“A glass tumbler that was put on the floor jumped about two feet and then broke.
Another that stood by it jumped about at the same time, but did not break till some hours
after, when it jumped again, and then broke. A china bowl that stood in the parlor jumped
from the floor to behind a table that stood there. This was most astonishing, as the distancefrom where it stood was between seven and eight feet, but was not broke. It was put backby Richard Fowler to its place, where it remained some time, and then flew to pieces.
“The next thing that followed was a mustard-pot, that jumped out of a closet and was
broke. A single cup that stood upon the table (almost the only thing remaining) jumped up,
flew across the kitchen, ringing like a bell, and then was dashed to pieces against the
dresser. A candlestick that stood on the chimney-shelf flew across the kitchen to the parlordoor, at about fifteen feet distance. A teakettle under the dresser was thrown out about twofeet; another kettle, that stood at one end of the range, was thrown against the iron that isfixed to prevent children from falling into the fire. A tumbler with rum-and-water in it, thathttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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stood upon a waiter upon a table in the parlor, jumped about ten feet, and was broke. The
table then fell down, and along with it a silver tankard belonging to Mrs. Golding—thewaiter in which stood the tumbler, and a candlestick. A case-bottle then flew to pieces.
“The next circumstance was, a ham that hung in one side of the kitchen-chimney raised
itself from the hook and fell down to the ground. Some time after, another ham, that hungon the other side of the chimney, likewise underwent the same fate. Then a flitch of bacon,
which hung up in the same chimney, fell down.
“All the family were eye-witnesses to these circumstances, as well as other persons,some of whom were so alarmed and shocked, that they could not bear to stay, and were
happy in getting away, though the unhappy family were left in the midst of their distresses.
Most of the genteel families around were continually sending to inquire after them, andwhether all was over or not. Is it not surprising that some among them had not the
inclination and resolution to try to unravel this most intricate affair, at a time when it would
have been in their power to have done so? There certainly was sufficient time for so doing,as the whole, from first to last, continued upward of twenty hours.
“At all the times of action, Mrs. Golding’s servant was walking backward and forward,
in either the kitchen or parlor, or wherever some of the family happened to be. Nor could
they get her to sit down five minutes together, except at one time for about half an hour
toward the morning, when the family were at prayers in the parlor; then all was quiet: butin the midst of the greatest confusion, she was as much composed as at any other time, andwith uncommon coolness of temper advised her mistress not to be alarmed or uneasy, as
she said these things could not be helped. Thus she argued, as if they were common
occurrences, which must happen in every family!
“This advice surprised and startled her mistress almost as much as the circumstancesthat occasioned it. For how can we suppose that a girl of about twenty years old (an age
when female timidity is too often assisted by superstition) could remain in the midst ofsuch calamitous circumstances (except they proceed from causes best known to herself),
and not be struck with the same terror as every other person was who was present? These
reflections led Mr. Pain (and, at the end of the transactions, likewise Mrs. Golding) to thinkthat she was not altogether so unconcerned as she appeared to be; but, hitherto, the wholeremains mysterious and unrivalled.
“About ten o’clock at night, they sent over the way to Richard Fowler, to desire hewould come and stay with them. He came and continued till one in the morning, and was so
terrified that he could remain no longer.
“As Mrs. Golding could not be persuaded to go to bed, Mrs. Pain at that time (oneo’clock) made an excuse to go up stairs to her youngest child, under pretence of getting it
to sleep, but she really acknowledges it was through fear, as she declares she could not sit
up to see such strange things going on, as everything, one after another, was broke, tillthere was not above two or three cups and saucers remaining out of a considerable quantityof china, &c, which was destroyed to the amount of some pounds.
“About five o’clock on Tuesday morning, Mrs. Golding went up to her niece, anddesired her to get up, as the noises and destruction were so great, she could continue in thehouse no longer. At this time all the tables, chairs, drawers, &c., were tumbling about.
When Mrs. Pain came down, it was amazing beyond all description. Their only security
then was to quit the house, for fear of the same catastrophe as had been expected themorning before at Mrs. Golding’s. In consequence of this resolution, Mrs. Golding and her
maid went over the way to Richard Fowler’s. When Mrs. Golding’s maid had seen her safe
to Richard Fowler’s, she came back to Mrs. Pain, to help her to dress the children in thebarn, where she had carried them for fear of the house falling. At this time all was quiet.
They then went to Fowler’s, and then began the same scene as had happened at the otherplaces. It must be remarked, all was quiet here as well as elsewhere, till the maid returned.
“When they got to Mr. Fowler’s, he began to light a fire in his back room. When done,
he put the candle and candlestick upon a table in the fore-room. This apartment Mrs.
Golding and her maid had passed through. Another candlestick, with a tin lamp in it, thatstood by it, were both dashed together, and fell to the ground. A lantern, with which Mrs.
Golding was lighted across the road, sprang from a hook to the ground, and a quantity ofoil spilled on the floor. The last thing was, the basket of coals tumbled over, the coals
rolling about the room The maid then desired Richard Fowler not to let her mistress remain
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there, as she said wherever she was the same things would follow. In consequence of thisadvice, and fearing greater losses to himself, he desired she would quit his house; but first
begged her to consider within herself, for her own and the public’s sake, whether or not she
had been guilty of some atrocious crime, for which Providence was determined to pursue
her on this side of the grave: for he could not help thinking she was the object that was tobe made an example to posterity, by the all-seeing eye of Providence, for crimes which but
too often none but that Providence can penetrate, and by such means as these bring to light.
“Thus was the poor gentlewoman’s measure of affliction complete, not only to haveundergone all which has been related, but to have added to it the character of a bad andwicked woman, when till this time she was esteemed as a most deserving person. In candor
to Fowler, he could not be blamed. What could he do? what would any man have done thatwas so circumstanced? Mrs. Golding soon satisfied him: she told him she would not stay inhis house or any other person’s, as her conscience was quite clear, and she could as well
wait the will of Providence in her own house as in any other place whatever; upon which
she and her maid went home. Mr. Pain went with them. After they had got to Mrs.
Golding’s the last time, the same transactions once more began upon the remains that wereleft.
“A nine-gallon cask of beer, that was in the cellar, the door being open, and no person
near it, turned upside down. A pail of water, that stood on the floor, boiled like a pot! A box
of candles fell from a shelf in the kitchen to the floor; they rolled out, but none were broke:
and a round mahogany table overset in the parlor.
“Mr. Pain then desired Mrs. Golding to send her maid for his wife to come to them.
When she was gone, all was quiet. Upon her return she was immediately discharged, andno disturbances have happened since. This was between six and seven o’clock on Tuesday
morning.
“At Mrs. Golding’s were broke the quantity of three pailfuls of glass, china, &c. At
Mrs. Pain’s they filled two pails.
“Thus ends the narrative—a true, circumstantial, and faithful account of which we havelaid before the public; and have endeavored as much as possible, throughout the whole, tostate only facts, without presuming to obtrude any opinion on them. If we have in parthinted anything that may appear unfavorable to the girl, it is not from a determination to
charge her with the cause, right or wrong, but only from a strict adherence to truth, mostsincerely wishing this extraordinary affair may be unravelled.
“The above narrative is absolutely and strictly true, in witness whereof we have set ourhands this eleventh day of January, 1772:—“Mary Golding,“John Pain,“Mary Pain,“Richard Fowler,“Sarah Fowler,“Mary Martin.”“The original copy of this narrative, signed as above, with the parties’ own hands, wasput into the hands of Mr. Marks, bookseller, in St. Martin’s Lane, to satisfy persons whochoose to inspect the same.”
Such phenomena as this of the Stockwell ghost are by no means uncommon, and I am
acquainted with many more instances than I can allude to here. One occurred very lately inthe neighborhood of London, as I learned from the following newspaper paragraph. I
subsequently heard that the little girl had been sent away; but whether the phenomena thenceased, or whether she carried the disturbance with her, I have not been able to ascertain,
nor does it appear certain that she had anything to do with it:—“A Mischievous and Mysterious Ghost.—(From a correspondent.)—The whole ofthe neighborhood of Black Lion-lane, Bayswater, is ringing with the extraordinary
occurrences that have recently happened in the house of a Mr. Williams, in the Moscowroad, and which bear a strong resemblance to the celebrated Stockwell ghost affair in 1772.
The house is inhabited by Mr. and Mrs. Williams, a grown-up son and daughter, and a little
girl between ten and eleven years of age. On the first day, the family, who are remarkablefor their piety, were startled all at once by a mysterious movement among the things in thehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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sitting-rooms and kitchen, and other parts of the house. At one time, without any visible
agency, one of the jugs came off the hook over the dresser, and was broken; then followed
another, and next day another. A china teapot, with the tea just made in it, and placed on themantel-piece, whisked off on to the floor, and was smashed. A pewter one, which had been
substituted immediately after, did the same, and, when put on the table, was seen to hop
about as if bewitched, and was actually held down while the tea was made for Mr.
Williams’s breakfast, before leaving for his place of business. When for a time all had been
quiet, off came from its place on the wall, a picture in a heavy gilt frame, and fell to thefloor without being broken. All was now amazement and terror, for the old people are very
superstitious, and ascribing it to a supernatural agency, the other pictures were removed,and stowed away on the floor. But the spirit of locomotion was not to be arrested. Jugs andplates continued at intervals to quit their posts, and skip off their hooks and shelves into the
middle of the room, as though they were inspired by the magic flute, and at supper, when
the little girl’s mug was filled with beer, the mug slided off the table on to the floor. Threetimes it was replaced, and three times it moved off again. It would be tedious to relate thefantastic tricks which have been played by household articles of every kind. An Egyptian
vase jumped off the table suddenly, when no soul was near, and was smashed to pieces. The
teakettle popped off the fire into the grate as Mr. Williams had filled the teapot, which fell
off the chimney-piece. Candlesticks, after a dance on the table, flew off, and ornamentsfrom the shelves, and bonnets and cap-boxes flung about in the oddest manner. A lookingglass hopped off a dressing-table, followed by combs and brushes and several bottles, and agreat pincushion has been remarkably conspicuous for its incessant jigs from one part toanother. The little girl, who is a Spaniard, and under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, issupposed by their friends to be the cause of it all, however extraordinary it may seem in
one of her age, but up to the present time it continues a mystery, and the modus operandi isinvisible.”—Morning Post.
To imagine that these extraordinary effects were produced by the voluntary agency ofthe child, furnishes one of those remarkable instances of the credulity of the skeptical, towhich I have referred. But when we read a true statement of the effects involuntarily
exhibited by Angelique Cottin, we begin to see that it is just possible the other strange
phenomena may be provided by a similar agency.
The French Academy of Sciences had determined, as they had formerly done by
Mesmerism, that the thing should not be true. Monsieur Arago was nonsuited; but although
it is extremely possible that either the phenomenon had run its course and arrived at anatural termination, or that the removal of the girl to Paris had extinguished it, there
appears no doubt that it had previously existed.
Angelique Cottin was a native of La Perriere, aged fourteen, when, on the 15th ofJanuary, 1846, at eight o’clock in the evening, while weaving silk-gloves at an oaken
frame, in company with other girls, the frame began to jerk, and they could not by any
efforts keep it steady. It seemed as if it were alive, and becoming alarmed, they called in theneighbors, who would not believe them; but desired them to sit down and go on with theirwork. Being timid, they went one by one, and the frame remained still till Angeliqueapproached, when it recommenced its movements, while she was also attracted by theframe: thinking she was bewitched or possessed, her parents took her to the presbytery thatthe spirit might be exorcised. The curate, however, being a sensible man, refused to do it,
but set himself, on the contrary, to observe the phenomenon, and being perfectly satisfiedof the fact, he bade them take her to a physician.
Meanwhile, the intensity of the influence, whatever it was, augmented; not only articles
made of oak, but all sorts of things were acted upon by it and reacted upon her, while
persons who were near her, even without contact, frequently felt electric shocks. The
effects, which were diminished when she was on a carpet or a waxed cloth, were mostremarkable when she was on the bare earth. They sometimes entirely ceased for two or
three days, and then recommenced. Metals were not affected. Anything touched by her
apron or dress would fly off, although a person held it; and Monsieur Hebert, while seatedon a heavy tub or trough, was raised up with it. In short, the only place she could repose on,
was a stone covered with cork; they also kept her still by isolating her. When she was
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magnetic direction. Great numbers of enlightened medical and scientific men witnessed
these phenomena, and investigated them with every precaution to prevent imposition. She
was often hurt by the violent involuntary movements she was thrown into, and wasevidently afflicted by chorea.
Unfortunately, her parents, poor and ignorant, insisted much against the advice of thedoctors, on exhibiting her for money; and under these circumstances, she was brought toParis; and nothing is more probable than that after the phenomena had really ceased, thegirl may have been induced to simulate what had originally been genuine. The thing
avowedly ceased altogether on the 10th of April, and there has been no return of it.
In 1831, a young girl, also aged fourteen, who lived as under nursery-maid in a Frenchfamily, exhibited the same phenomena, and when the case of Angelique Cottin was madepublic, her master published hers. He says that things of such an extraordinary nature
occurred as he dare not repeat, since none but an eye-witness could believe them. The thinglasted for three years, and there was ample time for observation.
In the year 1686, a man at Brussels, called Breekmans, was similarly affected. A
commission was appointed by the magistrates to investigate his condition; and, being
pronounced a sorcerer, he would have been burnt, had he not luckily made his escape.
Many somnambulic persons are capable of giving an electric shock; and I have met
with one person, not somnambulic, who informs me that he has frequently been able to do
it by an effort of the will.
Dr. Ennemoser relates the case of a Mademoiselle Emmerich, sister to the professor oftheology at Strasburg, who also possessed this power. This young lady, who appears tohave been a person of very rare merit and endowments, was afflicted with a long andsingular malady, originating in a fright, in the course of which she exhibited many very
curious phenomena, having fallen into a state of natural somnambulism, accompanied by ahigh degree of lucidity. Her body became so surcharged with electricity, that it wasnecessary to her relief to discharge it; and she sometimes imparted a complete battery ofshocks to her brother and her physician, or whoever was near her, and that frequently when
they did not touch her. Professor Emmerich mentions also that she sent him a smart shock,one day, when he was several rooms off. He started up and rushed into her chamber, where
she was in bed; and as soon as she saw him she said, laughing: “Ah, you felt it, did you?”
Mademoiselle Emmerich’s illness terminated in death.
Cotugno, a surgeon, relates that, having touched with his scalpel the intercostal nerve ofa mouse that had bitten his leg, he received an electric shock; and where the torpedo
abounds, the fishermen, in pouring water over the fish they have caught for the purpose of
washing them, know if one is among them by the shock they sustain.
A very extraordinary circumstance, which we may possibly attribute to some suchinfluence as the above, occurred at Rambouillet in November, 1846. The particulars are
furnished by a gentleman residing on the spot at the time, and were published by the Baron
Dupotel—who, however, attempts no explanation of the mystery:—
One morning some travelling merchants, or pedlars, came to the door of a farmhouse,belonging to a man named Bottel, and asked for some bread, which the maid-servant gavethem, and they went away. Subsequently one of the party returned to ask for more, and was
refused. The man, I believe, expressed some resentment and uttered vague threats, but she
would not give him anything and he departed. That night at supper the plates began todance and roll off the table, without any visible cause, and several other unaccountablephenomena occurred; and the girl going to the door and chancing to place herself justwhere the pedlar had stood, she was seized with convulsions and an extraordinary rotatory
motion. The carter who was standing by laughed at her, and out of bravado placed himself
on the same spot, when he felt almost suffocated, and was so unable to command his
movements that he was overturned into a large pool in front of the house.
Upon this they rushed to the curé of the parish for assistance; but he had scarcely said aprayer or two before he was attacked in the same manner, though in his own house; and his
furniture beginning to oscillate and crack as if it were bewitched, the poor people were
frightened out of their wits.
By-and-by the phenomena intermitted, and they hoped all was over; but presently it
began again, and this occurred more than once before it subsided wholly.
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On the 8th December, 1836, at Stuttgard, Carl Fischer, a baker’s boy, aged seventeen,of steady habits and good character, was fixed with a basket on his shoulders, in someunaccountable way, in front of his master’s house. He foresaw the thing was to happen
when he went out with his bread very early in the morning; earnestly wished that the day
was over, and told his companion that if he could only cross the threshold, on his return, heshould escape it. It was about six when he did return; and his master, hearing a fearful noise
which he could not describe—“as if proceeding from a multitude of beings”—looked out of
the window, where he saw Carl violently struggling and fighting with his apron, though his
feet were immoveably fixed to one spot. A hissing sound proceeded from his mouth andnose, and a voice, which was neither his nor that of any person present, was heard to cry,
“Stand fast, Carl!” The master says that he could not have believed such a thing; and he
was so alarmed that he did not venture into the street, where numerous persons wereassembled. The boy said he must remain there till eleven o’clock; and the police kept guard
over him till that time, as the physician said he must not be interfered with, and the people
sought to push him from the spot. When the time had expired, he was carried to thehospital, where he seemed exceedingly exhausted and fell into a profound sleep.
I meet with numerous extraordinary records of a preternatural ringing of all the bells ina house; sometimes occurring periodically for a considerable time, and continuing after
precautions have been taken which precluded the possibility of trick or deception, the wires
being cut, and vigilant eyes watching them; and yet they rung on, by day or night, just thesame.
It is certainly very difficult to conceive, but at the same time it is not impossible, thatsuch strange phenomena as that of the Stockwell ghost, and many similar ones, may be the
manifestations of some extraordinary electrical influence; but there are other cases ofpoltergeist which it is impossible to attribute to the same cause, since they are accompaniedby evident manifestations of will and intelligence. Such was the instance related inSouthey’s Life of Wesley, which occurred in the year 1716, beginning with a groaning, andsubsequently proceeding to all manner of noises, lifting of latches, clattering of windows,
knockings of a most mysterious kind, &c., &c. The family were not generally frightened,but the young children, when asleep, showed symptoms of great terror. This annoyancelasted, I think, two or three months, and then ceased. As in most of these cases, the dog wasextremely frightened, and hid himself when the visitations commenced.
In the year 1838, a circumstance of the same kind occurred in Paris, in the Rue St.
Honoré; and not very long ago there was one in Caithness, in which most unaccountable
circumstances transpired. Among the rest, stones were flung, which never hit people, but
fell at their feet, in rooms perfectly closed on all sides. A gentleman who witnessed these
extraordinary phenomena, related the whole story to an advocate of my acquaintance, who
assured me that, however impossible he found it to credit such things, he should certainly
place entire reliance on that gentleman’s word in any other case.
Then there is the famous story of the drummer of Tedworth;[6] and the persecution ofProfessor Schuppart, at Giessen, in Upper Hesse, which continued, with occasional
intermission, for six years. This affair began with a violent knocking at the door one night;
next day stones were sent whizzing through closed rooms in all directions, so that, although
no one was struck, the windows were all broken; and no sooner were new panes put in,than they were broken again. He was persecuted with slaps on the face, by day and bynight, so that he could get no rest; and when two persons were appointed by the authorities
to sit by his bed to watch him, they got the slaps also. When he was reading at his desk, hislamp would suddenly rise up and remove to the other end of the room—not as if thrown,
but evidently carried. His books were torn to pieces and flung at his feet; and when he was
lecturing, this mischievous sprite would tear out the leaf he was reading; and it is very
remarkable, that the only thing that seemed available as a protection, was a drawn sword
brandished over his head by himself or others, which was one of the singularities attending
the case of the drummer of Tedworth. Schuppart narrated all these circumstances in his
public lectures, and nobody ever disputed the facts.
A remarkable case of this sort occurred in the year 1670, at Keppock, near Glasgow.
There, also, stones were thrown which hit nobody, but the annoyance only continued eightdays; and there are several more to be found recorded in works of that period. The
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disturbance that happened in the house of Gilbert Cambell, at Glenluce, excitedconsiderable notice. Here, as elsewhere, stones were thrown; but, as in most similar
instances I meet with, no human being was damaged—the license of these spirits, orgoblins, or whatever they be, seeming to extend no further than worrying and tormenting
their victims. In this case, however, the spirit spoke to them, though he was never seen. The
annoyance commenced in November, of the year 1654, I think, and continued till April,when there was some intermission till July, when it recommenced. The loss of the family
from the things destroyed was ruining; for their household goods and chattels wererendered useless, their food was polluted and spoiled, and their very clothes cut to pieces
while on their backs, by invisible hands; and it was in vain that all the ministers about thecountry assembled to exorcise this troublesome spirit, for whoever was there the thing
continued exactly the same.
At length poor Cambell applied to the synod of presbyters for advice; and a meeting
was convened in October, 1655, and a solemn day of humiliation was imposed through thewhole bounds of the presbytery, for the sake of the afflicted family. Whether it was owing
to this or not, there ensued an alleviation from that time till April, and from April till
August they were entirely free, and hoped all was over; but then it began again worse thanever, and they were dreadfully tormented through the autumn; after which the disturbanceceased, and although the family lived in the house many years afterward, nothing of thesort ever happened again.
There was another famous case, which occurred at a place called Ring-Croft, in
Kirkcudbright, in the year 1695. The afflicted family bore the name of Mackie. In thisinstance, the stones did sometimes hit them, and they were beaten as if by staves; they, as
well as strangers who came to the house, were lifted off the ground by their clothes; their
bed-coverings were taken off their beds; things were visibly carried about the house byinvisible hands; several people were hurt, even to the effusion of blood, by stones andblows; there were fire-balls seen about the house, which were several times ignited; people,
both of the family and others, felt themselves grasped as if by a hand; then there wasgroaning, crying, whistling, and a voice that frequently spoke to them. Crowds of people
went to the house; but the thing continued just the same whether there were many or few,
and sometimes the whole building shook as if it were coming down.
A day of humiliation was appointed in this case also, but without the least effect. The
disturbance commenced in February, and ended on the 1st of May. Numberless people
witnessed the phenomenon, and the account of it is attested by fourteen ministers andgentlemen.
The same sort of thing occurred in the year 1659, in a place inhabited by an evangelicalbishop, called Schlotterbeck. It began in the same manner, by throwing of stones and otherthings, many of which came through the roof, insomuch that they believed at first that someanimal was concealed there. However, nothing could be found, and the invisible guest soon
proceeded to other annoyances similar to those abovementioned; and though they could notsee him, his footsteps were for ever heard about the house. At length, wearied out, thebishop applied to the government for aid; and they sent him a company of soldiers to guard
the house by day and night, out of which he and his family retired. But the goblin cared no
more for the soldiers than it had done for the city watch; the thing continued without
intermission, whoever was there, till it ceased of its own accord. There was a house at Aixla-Chapelle that was for several years quite uninhabitable from a similar cause.
I could mention many other cases, and, as I have said before, they occur in all
countries; but these will suffice as specimens of the class. It is in vain for people who were
not on the spot to laugh, and assert that these were the mischievous tricks of servants orothers, when those who were there, and who had such a deep interest in unravelling themystery, and such abundance of time and opportunity for doing it, could find no solutionwhatever. In many of the above cases, the cattle were unloosed, the horses were turned outof their stables, and uniformly all the animals in the way exhibited great terror, sweating
and trembling, while the visitation continued.
Since we can not but believe that man forms but one class in an immense range ofexistences, do not these strange occurrences suggest the idea that occasionally someindividual out of this gamut of beings comes into rapport with us, or crosses our path like acomet, and that, while certain conditions last, it can hover about us, and play these puckish,https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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cognizant of it no more!
But one of the most extraordinary examples of this kind of annoyance is that which
occurred, in the year 1806, in the castle of Prince Hohenlohe, in Silesia. The account isgiven at length by Councillor Hahn, of Ingelfingen, who witnessed the circumstances; andin consequence of the various remarks that have been since made on the subject, indifferent publications, he has repeatedly reasserted the facts in letters, which have been
printed and laid before the public. I can not, therefore, see what right we have to disbelievea man of honor and character, as he is said to be, merely because the circumstances henarrates are unaccountable, more especially as the story, strange as it is, by no means stands
alone in the annals of demonology. The following details were written down at the time theevents occurred, and they were communicated by Councillor Hahn to Dr. Kerner in theyear 1828:—“After the campaign of the Prussians against the French, in the year 1806, the reigningprince of Hohenlohe gave orders to Councillor Hahn, who was in his service, to proceed toSlawensick, and there to wait his return. His serene highness advanced from Leignitz
toward his principality, and Hahn also commenced his journey toward Upper Silesia on the
19th November. At the same period, Charles Kern, of Kuntzlau, who had fallen into thehands of the French, being released on parole, and arriving at Leignitz in an infirm
condition, he was allowed to spend some time with Hahn, while awaiting his exchange.
“Hahn and Kern had been friends in their youth, and their destinies having broughtthem both at this time into the Prussian states, they were lodged together in the sameapartment of the castle, which was one on the first floor, forming an angle at the back of thebuilding, one side looking toward the north and the other to the east. On the right of thedoor of this room was a glass door, which led into a chamber divided from those which
followed by a wainscot partition. The door in this wainscot, which communicated to thoseadjoining rooms, was entirely closed up, because in them all sorts of household utensils
were kept. Neither in this chamber, nor in the sitting-room which preceded it, was there any
opening whatever which could furnish the means of communication from without; nor was
there anybody in the castle besides the two friends, except the prince’s two coachmen andHahn’s servant. The whole party were fearless people; and as for Hahn and Kern, they
believed in nothing less than ghosts or witches, nor had any previous experience induced
them to turn their thoughts in that direction. Hahn, during his collegiate life, had been muchgiven to philosophy—had listened to Fichte, and earnestly studied the writings of Kant.
The result of his reflections was a pure materialism; and he looked upon created man, notas an aim, but merely as a means to a yet undeveloped end. These opinions he has sincechanged, like many others who think very differently in their fortieth year to what they didin their twentieth. The particulars here given are necessary in order to obtain credence forthe following extraordinary narrative; and to establish the fact that the phenomena were notmerely accepted by ignorant superstition, but coolly and courageously investigated byenlightened minds. During the first days of their residence in the castle, the two friends,
living together in solitude, amused their long evenings with the works of Schiller, of whomthey were both great admirers; and Hahn usually read aloud. Three days had thus passed
quietly away, when, as they were sitting at the table, which stood in the middle of the room,
about nine o’clock in the evening, their reading was interrupted by a small shower of lime
which fell around them. They looked at the ceiling, concluding it must have come thence,but could perceive no abraded parts; and while they were yet seeking to ascertain whence
the lime had proceeded, there suddenly fell several larger pieces, which were quite cold,
and appeared as if they had belonged to the external wall. At length, concluding the lime
must have fallen from some part of the wall, giving up further inquiry, they went to bed,
and slept quietly till morning, when, on awaking, they were somewhat surprised at thequantity which strewed the floor, more especially as they could still discover no part of thewalls or ceiling from which it could have fallen. But they thought no more of the matter till
evening, when, instead of the lime falling as before, it was thrown, and several pieces
struck Hahn. At the same time they heard heavy blows, sometimes below, and sometimes
over their heads, like the sound of distant guns; still, attributing these sounds to naturalcauses, they went to bed as usual, but the uproar prevented their sleeping, and each accused
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finding that the noise continued when they both got out and stood together in the middle of
the room, they were satisfied that this was not the case. On the following evening, a third
noise was added, which resembled the faint and distant beating of a drum. Upon this, they
requested the governess of the castle to send them the key of the apartments above andbelow, which was brought them by her son; and while he and Kern went to make theirinvestigations, Hahn remained in their own room. Above, they found an empty room;
below, a kitchen. They knocked, but the noise they made was very different to that which
Hahn continued all the while to hear around him. When they returned, Hahn said, jestingly,‘The place is haunted!’ On this night, when they went to bed, with a light burning, they
heard what seemed like a person walking about the room with slippers on, and a stick, withwhich he struck the floor as he moved step by step. Hahn continued to jest, and Kern tolaugh, at the oddness of these circumstances, for some time, when they both, as usual, fell
asleep, neither in the slightest degree disturbed by these events, nor inclined to attributethem to any supernatural cause. But on the following evening the affair became more
inexplicable: various articles in the room were thrown about; knives, forks, brushes, caps,
slippers, padlocks, funnel, snuffers, soap—everything, in short, that was moveable; whilelights darted from the corners, and everything was in confusion; at the same time, the lime
fell and the blows continued. Upon this, the two friends called up the servants, Knittel, thecastle watch, and whoever else was at hand, to be witnesses of these mysterious operations.
In the morning all was quiet, and generally continued so till after midnight. One evening,
Kern going into the chamber to fetch something, and hearing an uproar that almost drove
him backward to the door, Hahn caught up the light, and both rushed into the room, where
they found a large piece of wood lying close to the wainscot. But supposing this to be thecause of the noise, who had set it in motion? For Kern was sure the door was shut, evenwhile the noise was making; neither had there been any wood in the room. Frequently,
before their eyes, the knives and snuffers rose from the table, and fell, after some minutes,
to the ground; and Hahn’s large shears were once lifted in this manner between him andone of the prince’s cooks, and falling to the ground, stuck into the floor. As some nights,
however, passed quite quietly, Hahn was determined not to leave the rooms; but when, forthree weeks, the disturbance was so constant that they could get no rest, they resolved on
removing their beds into the large room above, in hopes of once more enjoying a little quiet
sleep. Their hopes were vain—the thumping continued as before; and not only so, but
articles flew about the room which they were quite sure they had left below. ‘They may
fling as they will,’ cried Hahn, ‘sleep I must;’ while Kern began to undress, pondering onthese matters as he walked up and down the room. Suddenly Hahn saw him stand, as if
transfixed, before the looking-glass on which he had accidentally cast his eyes. He had sostood for some time, when he was seized with a violent trembling, and turned from themirror with his face as white as death. Hahn, fancying the cold of an uninhabited room had
seized him, hastened to throw a cloak over him, when Kern, who was naturally very
courageous, recovered himself, and related, though with trembling lips, that as he had
accidentally looked in the glass, he had seen a white female figure looking out of it; she
was in front of his own image, which he distinctly saw behind her. At first he could not
believe his eyes; he thought it must be fancy, and for that reason he had stood so long; butwhen he saw that the eyes of the figure moved, and looked into his, a shudder had seized
him, and he had turned away. Hahn, upon this, advanced with firm steps to the front of themirror, and called upon the apparition to show itself to him; but he saw nothing, although
he remained a quarter of an hour before the glass, and frequently repeated his exhortation.
Kern then related that the features of the apparition were very old, but not gloomy ormorose; the expression was that of indifference; but the face was very pale, and the head
was wrapped in a cloth which left only the features visible.
“By this time it was four o’clock in the morning; sleep was banished from their eyes,
and they resolved to return to the lower room and have their beds brought back again: but
the people who were sent to fetch them returned, declaring they could not open the door,
although it did not appear to be fastened. They were sent back again; but a second and athird time they returned with the same answer. Then Hahn went himself, and opened it withthe greatest ease. The four servants, however, solemnly declared that all their unitedstrength could make no impression on it.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“In this way a month had elapsed: the strange events at the castle had got spreadabroad; and among others who desired to convince themselves of the facts were two
Bavarian officers of dragoons, namely, Captain Cornet and Lieutenant Magerle, of theregiment of Minuci. Magerle offering to remain in the room alone, the others left him; but
scarcely had they passed into the next apartment, when they heard Magerle storming like a
man in a passion, and cutting away at the tables and chairs with his sabre, whereupon thecaptain thought it advisable to return, in order to rescue the furniture from his rage. They
found the door shut, but he opened it on their summons, and related, in great excitement,that as soon as they had quitted the room, some cursed thing had begun to fling lime andother matters at him, and, having examined every part of the room without being able todiscover the agent of the mischief, he had fallen into a rage and cut madly about him.
“The party now passed the rest of the evening together in the room, and the two
Bavarians closely watched Hahn and Kern in order to satisfy themselves that the mystery
was no trick of theirs. All at once, as they were quietly sitting at the table, the snuffers rose
into the air and fell again to the ground behind Magerle, and a leaden ball flew at Hahn andhit him upon the breast, and presently afterward they heard a noise at the glass-door, as if
somebody had struck his fist through it, together with a sound of falling glass. On
investigation they found the door entire, but a broken drinking-glass on the floor. By thistime the Bavarians were convinced, and they retired from the room to seek repose in one
more peaceful.
“Among other things, the following, which occurred to Hahn, is remarkable. One
evening about eight o’clock, being about to shave himself, the implements for the purpose,
which were lying on a pyramidal stand in a corner of the room, flew at him, one after theother—the soap-box, the razor, the brush, and the soap—and fell at his feet, although hewas standing several paces from the pyramid. He and Kern, who was sitting at the table,laughed, for they were now so accustomed to these events that they only made themsubjects of diversion. In the meantime, Hahn poured some water, which had been standingon the stove, in a basin, observing, as he dipped his finger into it, that it was of a nice heatfor shaving. He seated himself before the table and strapped his razor, but when heattempted to prepare the lather, the water was clean vanished out of the basin. Anothertime, Hahn was awakened by goblins throwing at him a squeezed-up piece of sheet-lead inwhich tobacco had been wrapped, and when he stooped to pick it up, the self-same piece
was flung at him again. When this was repeated a third time, Hahn flung a heavy stick at
his invisible assailant.
“Dorfel, the book-keeper, was frequently a witness to these strange events. He once laid
his cap on the table by the stove; when, being about to depart, he sought for it, it hadvanished. Four or five times he examined the table in vain; presently afterward he saw itlying exactly where he had placed it when he came in. On the same table, Knittel having
once placed his cap and drawn himself a seat, suddenly, although there was nobody near
the table, he saw the cap flying through the room to his feet, where it fell.
“Hahn now determined to find out the secret himself, and for this purpose seatedhimself, with two lights before him, in a position where he could see the whole of the room
and all the doors and windows it contained;—but the same things occurred, even when
Kern was out, the servants in the stables, and nobody in the room but himself; and thesnuffers were as usual flung about, although the closest observation could not detect bywhom.
“The forest-master, Radzensky, spent a night in the room, but, although the two friends
slept, he could get no rest. He was bombarded without intermission, and in the morning his
bed was found full of all manner of household articles.
“One morning, in spite of all the drumming and flinging, Hahn was determined tosleep; but a heavy blow on the wall close to his bed soon awoke him from his slumbers. A
second time he went to sleep, and was awaked by a sensation as if some person had dipped
his finger in water and was sprinkling his face with it. He pretended to sleep again, while
he watched Kern and Knittel, who were sitting at the table; the sensation of sprinkling
returned, but he could find no water on his face.
“About this time, Hahn had occasion to make a journey as far as Breslau; and when hereturned he heard the strangest story of all. In order not to be alone in this mysterious
chamber, Kern had engaged Hahn’s servant, a man of about forty years of age, and of entire
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singleness of character, to stay with him. One night as Kern lay in his bed, and this man
was standing near the glass-door in conversation with him, to his utter amazement hebeheld a jug of beer, which stood on a table in the room at some distance from him, slowly
lifted to a height of about three feet, and the contents poured into a glass that was standing
there also, until the latter was half full. The jug was then gently replaced, and the glass
lifted and emptied as by some one drinking; while John, the servant, exclaimed in terrified
surprise, ‘Lord Jesus! it swallows!’ The glass was quietly replaced, and not a drop of beer
was to be found on the floor. Hahn was about to require an oath of John in confirmation ofthis fact; but forbore, seeing how ready the man was to take one, and satisfied of the truthof the relation.
“One night Knetsch, an inspector of the works, passed the night with the two friends,
and in spite of the unintermitting flinging they all three went to bed. There were lights in
the room, and presently all three saw two napkins, in the middle of the room, rise slowly up
to the ceiling, and, having there spread themselves out, flutter down again. The china bowlof a pipe belonging to Kern flew about and was broken. Knives and forks were flung, andat last one of the latter fell on Hahn’s head, though fortunately with the handle downward:
and having now endured this annoyance for two months, it was unanimously resolved toabandon this mysterious chamber, for this night at all events. John and Kern took up one of
the beds and carried it into the opposite room, but they were no sooner gone than a pitcher
for holding chalybeate-water flew to the feet of the two who remained behind, although nodoor was open, and a brass candlestick was flung to the ground. In the opposite room thenight passed quietly, although some sounds still issued from the forsaken chamber. After
this there was a cessation to these strange proceedings, and nothing more remarkableoccurred, with the exception of the following circumstance. Some weeks after theabovementioned removal, as Hahn was returning home and crossing the bridge that leads tothe castle-gate, he heard the foot of a dog behind him. He looked round, and called
repeatedly on the name of a grayhound that was much attached to him, thinking it might be
her; but, although he still heard the foot, even when he ascended the stairs, as he could see
nothing, he concluded it was an illusion. Scarcely, however, had he set his foot within theroom, than Kern advanced and took the door out of his hand, at the same time calling thedog by name,—immediately adding, however, that he thought he had seen the dog, but that
he had no sooner called her than she disappeared. Hahn then inquired if he had really seen
the dog. ‘Certainly I did,’ replied Kern, ‘she was close behind you—half within the door—
and that was the reason I took it out of your hand, lest, not observing her, you should haveshut it suddenly and crushed her. It was a white dog, and I took it for Flora.’ Search wasimmediately made for the dog, but she was found locked up in the stable and had not beenout of it the whole day. It is certainly remarkable—even supposing Hahn to have been
deceived with respect to the footsteps—that Kern should have seen a white dog behind
him, before he had heard a word on the subject from his friend, especially as there was nosuch animal in the neighborhood; besides, it was not yet dark, and Kern was very sharpsighted.
“Hahn remained in the castle for half a year after this, without experiencing anything
extraordinary; and even persons who had possession of the mysterious chambers were notsubjected to any annoyance.
“The riddle, however, in spite of all the perquisitions and investigations that were set on
foot remained unsolved—no explanation of these strange events could be found; and evensupposing any motive could exist, there was nobody in the neighborhood clever enough tohave carried on such a system of persecution, which lasted so long, that the inhabitants ofthe chamber became almost indifferent to it.
“In conclusion, it is only necessary to add that Councillor Hahn wrote down thisaccount for his own satisfaction, with the strictest regard to truth. His words are:—“ ‘I have described these events exactly as I heard and saw them: from beginning to end
I observed them with the most entire self-possession. I had no fear, nor the slightest
tendency to it; yet the whole thing remains to me perfectly inexplicable. Written the 19th ofNovember, 1808.
“ ‘Augustus Hahn, Councillor.’

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe“Doubtless many natural explanations of these phenomena will be suggested by those
who consider themselves above the weakness of crediting stories of this description. Somesay that Kern was a dexterous juggler, who contrived to throw dust in the eyes of his friend
Hahn; while others affirm that both Hahn and Kern were intoxicated every evening! I did
not fail to communicate these objections to Hahn, and here insert his answer:—“ ‘After the events alluded to, I resided with Kern for a quarter of a year in another partof the castle of Slawensick (which has since been struck by lightning, and burnt), withoutfinding a solution of the mystery, or experiencing a repetition of the annoyance, which
discontinued from the moment we quitted those particular apartments. Those persons must
suppose me very weak, who can imagine it possible that, with only one companion, I could
have been the subject of his sport for two months without detecting him. As for Kernhimself, he was, from the first, very anxious to leave the rooms; but as I was unwilling toresign the hope of discovering some natural cause for these phenomena, I persisted inremaining; and the thing that at last induced me to yield to his wishes was the vexation at
the loss of his china-pipe, which had been flung against the wall and broken. Besides,
jugglery requires a juggler, and I was frequently quite alone when these events occurred. It
is equally absurd to accuse us of intoxication. The wine there was too dear for us to drink atall, and we confined ourselves wholly to weak beer. All the circumstances that happened
are not set down in the narration; but my recollection of the whole is as vivid as if it had
occurred yesterday. We had also many witnesses, some of whom have been mentioned.
Councillor Klenk also visited me at a later period, with every desire to investigate themystery; and when, one morning, he had mounted on a table, for the purpose of doing so,
and was knocking at the ceiling with a stick, a powder-horn fell upon him, which he hadjust before left on the table in another room. At that time Kern had been for some timeabsent. I neglected no possible means that could have led to a discovery of the secret; andat least as many people have blamed me for my unwillingness to believe in a supernaturalcause as the reverse. Fear is not my failing, as all who are acquainted with me know; and,to avoid the possibility of error, I frequently asked others what they saw when I was myself
present; and their answers always coincided with what I saw myself. From 1809 to 1811 I
lived in Jacobswald, very near the castle where the prince himself was residing. I am awarethat some singular circumstances occurred while he was there; but as I did not witness themmyself, I can not speak of them more particularly.
“ ‘I am still as unable as ever to account for those events, and I am content to submit tothe hasty remarks of the world, knowing that I have only related the truth, and what many
persons now alive witnessed as well as myself.
“ ‘Councillor Hahn.
“ ‘Ingelfinger, August 24, 1828.’ ”[7]The only key to this mystery ever discovered was, that after the destruction of the castle
by lightning, when the ruins were removed, there was found the skeleton of a man withouta coffin. His skull had been split, and a sword lay by his side!
Now, I am very well aware how absurd and impossible these events will appear to
many people, and that they will have recourse to any explanation rather than admit themfor facts. Yet, so late as the year 1835, a suit was brought before the sheriff of Edinburgh, inwhich Captain Molesworth was defendant, and the landlord of the house he inhabited(which was at Trinity, about a couple of miles from Edinburgh) was plaintiff, founded uponcircumstances not so varied, certainly, but quite as inexplicable. The suit lasted two years,
and I have been favored with the particulars of the case by Mr. M⁠—— L⁠——, the advocate
employed by the plaintiff, who spent many hours in examining the numerous witnesses,
several of whom were officers of the army, and gentlemen of undoubted honor and capacity
for observation.
Captain Molesworth took the house of a Mr. Webster, who resided in the adjoining one,in May or June, 1835; and when he had been in it about two months, he began to complainof sundry extraordinary noises, which, finding it impossible to account for, he took it into
his head (strangely enough) were made by Mr. Webster. The latter naturally represented
that it was not probable he should desire to damage the reputation of his own house, anddrive his tenant out of it, and retorted the accusation. Still, as these noises and knockings
continued, Captain Molesworth not only lifted the boards in the room most infected, but
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actually made holes in the wall which divided his residence from Mr. Webster’s, for the
purpose of detecting the delinquent—of course without success. Do what they would, thething went on just the same: footsteps of invisible feet, knockings, and scratchings, andrustlings, first on one side, and then on the other, were heard daily and nightly. Sometimes
this unseen agent seemed to be knocking to a certain tune, and if a question were addressed
to it which could be answered numerically—as, “How many people are there in thisroom?” for example—it would answer by so many knocks. The beds, too, wereoccasionally heaved up, as if somebody were underneath, and where the knockings were,
the wall trembled visibly, but, search as they would, no one could be found.
Captain Molesworth had had two daughters, one of whom, named Matilda, had lately
died; the other, a girl between twelve and thirteen, called Jane, was sickly, and generally
kept her bed; and, as it was observed that, wherever she was, these noises most frequently
prevailed, Mr. Webster, who did not like the mala fama that was attaching itself to his
house, declared that she made them, while the people in the neighborhood believed that it
was the ghost of Matilda, warning her sister that she was soon to follow.
Sheriff’s officers, masons, justices of peace, and the officers of the regiment quarteredat Leith, who were friends of Captain Molesworth, all came to his aid, in hopes of detecting
or frightening away his tormentor, but in vain. Sometimes it was said to be a trick ofsomebody outside the house, and then they formed a cordon round it; and next, as the poor
sick girl was suspected, they tied her up in a bag—but it was all to no purpose.
At length, ill and wearied out by the annoyances and the anxieties attending the affair,
Captain Molesworth quitted the house, and Mr. Webster brought an action against him forthe damages committed by lifting the boards, breaking the walls, and firing at thewainscoat, as well as for the injury done to his house by saying it was haunted, which
prevented other tenants taking it.
The poor young lady died, hastened out of the world, it is said, by the severe measuresused while she was under suspicion; and the persons that have since inhabited the house
have experienced no repetition of the annoyance.
The manner in which these strange persecutions attach themselves to certain persons
and places, seems somewhat analogous to another class of cases, which bear a great
similarity to what was formerly called possession: and I must here observe that many
German physicians maintain that, to this day, instances of genuine possession occur, andthere are several works published in their language on the subject; and for this malady they
consider magnetism the only remedy, all others being worse than useless. Indeed, they lookupon possession itself as a demono-magnetic state, in which the patient is in rapport withmischievous or evil spirits; as, in the agatho (or good) magnetic state, which is the opposite
pole, he is in rapport with good ones: and they particularly warn their readers against
confounding this infliction with cases of epilepsy or mania. They assert that, althoughinstances are comparatively rare, both sexes and all ages are equally subject to thismisfortune; and that it is quite an error to suppose, either, that it has ceased since theresurrection of Christ, or that the expression used in the Scriptures, “possessed by a devil,”meant merely insanity or convulsions.
This disease, which is not contagious, was well known to the Greeks; and in later times
Hoffmann has recorded several well-established instances. Among the distinguishing
symptoms, they reckon the patient’s speaking in a voice that is not his own; frightful
convulsions and motions of the body, which arise suddenly, without any previous
indisposition; blasphemous and obscene talk; a knowledge of what is secret, and of the
future; a vomiting of extraordinary things such as hair, stones, pins, needles, &c., &c. I
need scarcely observe that this opinion is not universal in Germany; still, it obtains among
many who have had considerable opportunities for observation.
Dr. Bardili had a case in the year 1830, which he considered decidedly to be one ofpossession. The patient was a peasant-woman, aged thirty-four, who never had any
sickness whatever, and the whole of whose bodily functions continued perfectly regularwhile she exhibited the following strange phenomena: I must observe that she was happily
married, and had three children—was not a fanatic, and bore an excellent character for
regularity and industry—when, without any warning or perceptible cause, she was seizedwith the most extraordinary convulsions, while a strange voice proceeded from her, whichassumed to be that of an unblessed spirit, who had formerly inhabited a human form. While
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Night-Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowethese fits were on her, she entirely lost her own individuality, and became this person: on
returning to herself, her understanding and character were as entire as before. The
blasphemy and cursing, and barking and screeching, were dreadful. She was wounded andinjured severely by the violent falls and blows she gave herself; and when she had anintermission, she could do nothing but weep over what they told her had passed, and thestate in which she saw herself. She was, moreover, reduced to a skeleton; for when she
wanted to eat, the spoon was turned round in her hand, and she often fasted for days
together.
This affliction lasted for three years; all remedies failed, and the only alleviation she
obtained was by the continued and earnest prayers of those about her, and her own: foralthough this demon did not like prayers, and violently opposed her kneeling down, evenforcing her to outrageous fits of laughter, still they had a power over him. It is remarkablethat pregnancy, confinement, and the nursing her child, made not the least difference in thiswoman’s condition: all went on regularly, but the demon kept his post. At length, being
magnetized, the patient fell into a partially somnambulic state, in which another voice washeard to proceed from her, being that of her protecting spirit, which encouraged her topatience and hope, and promised that the evil guest would be obliged to vacate his quarters.
She often now fell into a magnetic state without the aid of a magnetizer. At the end of three
years she was entirely relieved and as well as ever.
In the case of Rosina Wildin, aged ten years, which occurred at Pleidelsheim, in 1834,
the demon used to announce himself by crying out, “Here I am again!” Whereupon theweak, exhausted child, who had been lying like one dead, would rage and storm in a voice
like a man’s, perform the most extraordinary movements and feats of violence and strength,
till he would cry out, “Now I must be off again!” This spirit spoke generally in the plural
number, for he said she had another besides himself, a dumb devil, who plagued her most.
“He it is that twirls her round and round, distorts her features, turns her eyes, locks her
teeth, &c. What he bids me, I must do!” This child was at length cured by magnetism.
Barbara Rieger, of Steinbach, aged ten, in 1834, was possessed by two spirits, whospoke in two distinctly different male voices and dialects; one said he had formerly been amason, the other gave himself out for a deceased provisor; the latter of whom was much theworst of the two. When they spoke, the child closed her eyes, and when she opened themagain, she knew nothing of what they had said. The mason confessed to have been a greatsinner, but the provisor was proud and hardened, and would confess nothing. They oftencommanded food, and made her eat it, which, when she recovered her individuality, she felt
nothing of, but was very hungry. The mason was very fond of brandy and drank a great
deal; and if not brought when he ordered it, his raging and storming was dreadful. In her
own individuality the child had the greatest aversion to this liquor. They treated her forworms, and other disorders, without the least effect; till at length, by magnetism, the mason
was cast out. The provisor was more tenacious, but finally they got rid of him too, and thegirl remained quite well.
In 1835, a respectable citizen, whose full name is not given, was brought to Dr. Kerner.
He was aged thirty-seven, and till the last seven years had been unexceptionable in conductand character. An unaccountable change had, however, come over him in his thirtieth year,
which made his family very unhappy; and at length, one day, a strange voice suddenly
spoke out of him, saying that he was the late magistrate S⁠——, and that he had been in him
six years. When this spirit was driven out, by magnetism, the man fell to the earth, and was
almost torn to pieces by the violence of the struggle; he then lay for a space as if dead, andarose quite well and free.
In another case, a young woman at Gruppenbach, was quite in her senses, and heard thevoice of her demon (who was also a deceased person) speak out of her, without having any
power to suppress it.
In short, instances of this description seem by no means rare; and if such a phenomenon
as possession ever did exist, I do not see what right we have to assert that it exists nolonger, since, in fact, we know nothing about it; only, that being determined to admit
nothing so contrary to the ideas of the present day, we set out by deciding that the thing is
impossible.
Since these cases occur in other countries, no doubt they must do so in this; and,indeed, I have met with one instance much more remarkable in its details than any of thosehttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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abovementioned, which occurred at Bishopwearmouth, near Sunderland, in the year 1840;
and as the particulars of this case have been published and attested by two physicians andtwo surgeons, not to mention the evidence of numerous other persons, I think we are boundto accept the facts, whatever interpretation we may choose to put upon them.
The patient, named Mary Jobson, was between twelve and thirteen years of age; herparents, respectable people in humble life, and herself an attendant on a Sunday-school.
She became ill in November, 1839, and was soon afterward seized with terrific fits, which
continued, at intervals, for eleven weeks. It was during this period that the family firstobserved a strange knocking, which they could not account for. It was sometimes in one
place, and sometimes in another; and even about the bed, when the girl lay in a quiet sleep,with her hands folded outside the clothes. They next heard a strange voice, which told themcircumstances they did not know, but which they afterward found to be correct. Then there
was a noise like the clashing of arms, and such a rumbling that the tenant below thought thehouse was coming down; footsteps where nobody was to be seen, water falling on the floor,
no one knew whence, locked doors opened, and above all, sounds of ineffably sweet music.
The doctors and the father were suspicious, and every precaution was taken, but no solutionof the mystery could be found. This spirit, however, was a good one, and it preached tothem, and gave them a great deal of good advice. Many persons went to witness thisstrange phenomenon, and some were desired to go by the voice, when in their own homes.
Thus Elizabeth Gauntlett, while attending to some domestic affairs at home, was startled byhearing a voice say, “Be thou faithful, and thou shalt see the works of thy God, and shalt
hear with thine ears!” She cried out, “My God! what can this be!” and presently she saw alarge white cloud near her. On the same evening the voice said to her, “Mary Jobson, one ofyour scholars is sick; go and see her, and it will be good for you.” This person did not know
where the child lived, but having inquired the address, she went: and at the door she heard
the same voice bid her go up. On entering the room she heard another voice, soft andbeautiful, which bade her be faithful, and said, “I am the Virgin Mary.” This voicepromised her a sign at home; and accordingly, that night, while reading the Bible, she heard
it say, “Jemima, be not afraid; it is I: if you keep my commandments it shall be well withyou.” When she repeated her visit the same things occurred, and she heard the mostexquisite music.
The same sort of phenomena were witnessed by everybody who went—the immoral
were rebuked, the good encouraged. Some were bidden instantly to depart, and were forced
to go. The voices of several deceased persons of the family were also heard, and maderevelations.
Once the voice said, “Look up, and you shall see the sun and moon on the ceiling!” andimmediately there appeared a beautiful representation of these planets in lively colors, viz.,green, yellow, and orange. Moreover, these figures were permanent; but the father, who
was a long time skeptical, insisted on whitewashing them over; however, they still
remained visible.
Among other things, the voice said, that though the child appeared to suffer, she did
not; that she did not know where her body was; and that her own spirit had left it, andanother had entered; and that her body was made a speaking trumpet. The voice told thefamily and visiters many things of their distant friends, which proved true.
The girl twice saw a divine form standing by her bedside who spoke to her, and Joseph
Ragg, one of the persons who had been invited by the voice to go, saw a beautiful andheavenly figure come to his bedside about eleven o’clock at night, on the 17th of January.
It was in male attire, surrounded by a radiance; it came a second time on the same night.
On each occasion it opened his curtains and looked at him benignantly, remaining about aquarter of an hour. When it went away, the curtains fell back into their former position. One
day, while in the sick child’s room, Margaret Watson saw a lamb, which passed through thedoor and entered a place where the father, John Jobson, was; but he did not see it.
One of the most remarkable features in this case is the beautiful music which was heardby all parties, as well as the family, including the unbelieving father; and indeed it seems tohave been, in a great degree, this that converted him at last. This music was heard
repeatedly during a space of sixteen weeks: sometimes it was like an organ, but more
beautiful; at others there was singing of holy songs, in parts, and the words distinctly heard.
The sudden appearance of water in the room too was most unaccountable; for they felt it,
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and it was really water. When the voice desired that water should be sprinkled, it
immediately appeared as if sprinkled. At another time, a sign being promised to theskeptical father, water would suddenly appear on the floor; this happened “not once, but
twenty times.”
During the whole course of this affair, the voices told them that there was a miracle tobe wrought on this child; and accordingly on the 22d of June, when she was as ill as everand they were only praying for her death, at five o’clock the voice ordered that her clothes
should be laid out, and that everybody should leave the room except the infant, which was
two years and a half old. They obeyed; and having been outside the door a quarter of anhour, the voice cried, “Come in!” and when they entered, they saw the girl completely
dressed and quite well, sitting in a chair with the infant on her knee, and she had not had anhour’s illness from that time till the report was published, which was on the 30th ofJanuary, 1841.
Now, it is very easy to laugh at all this, and assert that these things never happened,because they are absurd and impossible; but while honest, well-meaning, and intelligent
people, who were on the spot, assert that they did, I confess I find myself constrained tobelieve them, however much I find in the case which is discrepant with my notions. It was
not an affair of a day or an hour—there was ample time for observation—for thephenomena continued from the 9th of February to the 22d of June; and the determined
unbelief of the father regarding the possibility of spiritual appearances, insomuch that heultimately expressed great regret for the harshness he had used, is a tolerable security
against imposition. Moreover, they pertinaciously refused to receive any money orassistance whatever, and were more likely to suffer in public opinion than otherwise by the
avowal of these circumstances.
Dr. Clanny, who publishes the report with the attestations of the witnesses, is aphysician of many years’ experience, and is also, I believe, the inventor of the improved
Davy lamp; and he declares his entire conviction of the facts, assuring his readers that“many persons holding high rank in the established church, ministers of otherdenominations, as well as many lay-members of society, highly respected for learning andpiety, are equally satisfied.” When he first saw the child lying on her back, apparently
insensible, her eyes suffused with florid blood, he felt assured that she had a disease of thebrain; and he was not in the least disposed to believe in the mysterious part of the affair, tillsubsequent investigation compelled him to do so: and that his belief is of a very decided
character we may feel assured, when he is content to submit to all the obloquy he must
incur by avowing it.
He adds that, since the girl has been quite well, both her family and that of Joseph Ragg
have frequently heard the same heavenly music as they did during her illness; and Mr.
Torbock, a surgeon, who expresses himself satisfied of the truth of the above particulars,also mentions another case, in which he, as well as a dying person he was attending, heard
divine music just before the dissolution.
Of this last phenomenon—namely, sounds as of heavenly music being heard when adeath was occurring—I have met with numerous instances.
From the investigation of the above case, Dr. Clanny has arrived at the conviction thatthe spiritual world do occasionally identify themselves with our affairs; and Dr. Drury
asserts that, besides this instance, he has met with another circumstance which has left him
firmly convinced that we live in a world of spirits, and that he has been in the presence ofan unearthly being, who had “passed that bourne from which,” it is said, “no traveller
returns.”[8]But the most extraordinary case I have yet met with is the following; because it is one
which can not, by any possibility, be attributed to disease or illusion. It is furnished to me
from the most undoubted authority, and I give it as I received it, with the omission of thenames. I have indeed, in this instance, thought it right to change the initial, and substitute
G. for the right one—the particulars being of a nature which demand the greatest delicacy,
as regards the parties concerned:—“Mrs. S. C. Hall, in early life, was intimately acquainted with a family, one of whom,
Richard G⁠——, a young officer in the army, was subject to a harassing visitation of a kindthat is usually regarded as supernatural. Mrs. H. once proposed to pay a visit to her
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particular friend, Catherine G⁠——, but was told that it would not be convenient exactly atthat time, as Richard was on the point of coming home. She thought the inconvenience
consisted in the want of a bed-room, and spoke of sleeping with Miss G⁠——, but foundthat the objection really lay in the fact of Richard being ‘haunted,’ which rendered it
impossible for anybody else to be comfortable in the same house with him. A few weeks
after Richard’s return, Mrs. Hall heard of Mrs. G⁠——’s being extremely ill; and found, on
going to call, that it was owing to nothing but the distress the old lady suffered inconsequence of the strange circumstance connected with her son. It appeared that Richard,wherever he was—at home, in camp, in lodgings, abroad, or in his own country—was
liable to be visited in his bed-room at night by certain extraordinary noises. Any light hekept in the room was sure to be put out. Something went beating about the walls and his
bed, making a great noise, and often shifting close to his face, but never becoming visible.
If a cage-bird was in his room, it was certain to be found dead in the morning. If he kept a
dog in the apartment, it would make away from him as soon as released, and never comenear him again. His brother, even his mother, had slept in the room, but the visitation took
place as usual. According to Miss G⁠——’s report, she and other members of the family
would listen at the bed-room door, after Richard had gone to sleep, and would hear thenoises commence; and they would then hear him sit up and express his vexation by a few
military execrations. The young man, at length, was obliged by this pest to quit the army
and go upon half-pay. Under its influence he became a sort of Cain; for, wherever he lived,
the annoyance was so great that he was quickly obliged to remove. Mrs. Hall heard of his
having ultimately gone to settle in Ireland, where, however, according to a brother whom
she met about four years ago, the visitation which afflicted him in his early years was in nodegree abated.”
This can not be called a case of possession, but seems to be one of a rapport, whichattaches this invisible tormentor to his victim.
[6]

[7]

There was also a remarkable case of this sort at Mr. Chaves, inDevonshire, in the year 1810, where affidavits were made before themagistrates attesting the facts, and large rewards offered for discovery,
but in vain. The phenomena continued several months, and the spiritual
agent was frequently seen in the form of some strange animal.
Translated from the original German.—C. C.

[8]Alluding, I conclude, to the affair at Willington.

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CHAPTER XVII.

411

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

In a former chapter, I alluded to the forms seen floating over graves, by Billing,
Pfeffel’s amanuensis. By some persons, this luminous form is seen only as a light, just as
occurs in many of the apparition cases I have related. How far Baron Reichenbach iscorrect in his conclusion, that these figures are merely the result of the chemical process
going on below, it is impossible for any one at present to say. The fact that these lights do
not always hover over the graves, but sometimes move from them, militates against thisopinion, as I have before observed; and the insubstantial nature of the form which
reconstructed itself after Pfeffel had passed his stick through it proves nothing, since thesame thing is asserted of all apparitions I meet with, let them be seen where they may,
except in such very extraordinary cases as that of the Bride of Corinth, supposing that story
to be true.
At the same time, although these cases are not made out to be chemical phenomena,
neither are we entitled to class them under the head of what is commonly understood by theword ghost; whereby we comprehend a shadowy shape, informed by an intelligent spirit.
But there are some cases, a few of which I will mention, that it seems extremely difficult toinclude under one category or the other.
The late Lieutenant-General Robertson, of Lawers, who served during the whole of theAmerican war, brought home with him, at its termination, a negro, who went by the nameof Black Tom, and who continued in his service. The room appropriated to the use of thisman, in the general’s town residence (I speak of Edinburgh), was on the ground floor; andhe was heard frequently to complain that he could not rest in it, for that every night thefigure of a headless lady, with a child in her arms, rose out of the hearth and frightened him
dreadfully. Of course nobody believed this story, and it was supposed to be the dream of
intoxication, as Tom was not remarkable for sobriety; but, strange to say, when the oldmansion was pulled down to build Gillespie’s hospital, which stands on its site, there wasfound, under the hearth-stone in that apartment, a box containing the body of a female,from which the head had been severed; and beside her lay the remains of an infant,wrapped in a pillow-case trimmed with lace. She appeared, poor lady, to have been cut off
in the “blossom of her sins;” for she was dressed, and her scissors were yet hanging by ariband to her side, and her thimble was also in the box, having, apparently, fallen from the
shrivelled finger.
Now, whether we are to consider this a ghost, or a phenomenon of the same nature asthat seen by Billing, it is difficult to decide. Somewhat similar is the following case, which
I have borrowed from a little work entitled “Supernaturalism in New England.” Not only
does this little extract prove that the same phenomena, be they interpreted as they may,
exist in all parts of the world, but I think it will be granted me that, although we have nothere the confirmation that time furnished in the former instance, yet it is difficult to
suppose that this unexcitable person should have been the subject of so extraordinary aspectral illusion.
“Whoever has seen Great pond, in the east parish of Haverhill, has seen one of the very
loveliest of the thousand little lakes or ponds of New England. With its soft slopes ofgreenest verdure—its white and sparkling sand-rim—its southern hem of pine and maple,
mirrored, with spray and leaf, in the glassy water—its graceful hill-sentinels round about,white with the orchard-bloom of spring, or tasselled with the corn of autumn—its longsweep of blue waters, broken here and there by picturesque headlands—it would seem aspot, of all others, where spirits of evil must shrink, rebuked and abashed, from thepresence of the beautiful. Yet here, too, has the shadow of the supernatural fallen. A lady ofmy acquaintance, a staid, unimaginative church-member, states that, a few years ago, she
was standing in the angle formed by two roads, one of which traverses the pond-shore, theother leading over the hill which rises abruptly from the water. It was a warm summer
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the wall a few yards before her, without noise or displacing of a stone. The driver sat
sternly erect, with a fierce countenance, grasping the reins tightly, and looking neither tothe right nor the left. Behind the cart, and apparently lashed to it, was a woman of gigantic
size, her countenance convulsed with a blended expression of rage and agony, writhing andstruggling, like Laocoon in the folds of the serpent. Her head, neck, feet, and arms, were
naked; wild locks of gray hair streamed back from temples corrugated and darkened. The
horrible cavalcade swept by across the street, and disappeared at the margin of the pond.”
Many persons will have heard of the “Wild Troop of Rodenstein,” but few are aware of
the curious amount of evidence there is in favor of the strange belief which prevails among
the inhabitants of that region. The story goes, that the former possessors of the castles ofRodenstein and Schnellert were robbers and pirates, who committed, in conjunction, allmanner of enormities; and that, to this day, the troop, with their horses and carriages, anddogs, are heard, every now and then, wildly rushing along the road between the two castles.
This sounds like a fairy tale; yet so much was it believed, that, up to the middle of the lastcentury, regular reports were made to the authorities in the neighborhood of the periods
when the troop had passed. Since that, the landgericht, or court leet, has been removed toFurth, and they trouble themselves no longer about the Rodenstein troop; but a traveller,
named Wirth, who a few years ago undertook to examine into the affair, declares the people
assert that the passage of the visionary cavalcade still continues; and they assured him thatcertain houses, that he saw lying in ruins, were in that state because, as they lay directly inthe way of the troop, they were uninhabitable. There is seldom anything seen; but the noiseof carriage-wheels, horses’ feet, smacking of whips, blowing of horns, and the voice of
these fierce hunters of men urging them on, are the sounds by which they recognise that thetroop is passing from one castle to the other; and at a spot which was formerly a
blacksmith’s, but is now a carpenter’s, the invisible lord of Rodenstein still stops to havehis horse shod. Mr. Wirth copied several of the depositions out of the court records, andthey are brought down to June, 1764. This is certainly a strange story; but it is not much
more so than that of the black man, which I know to be true.
During the seven years’ war in Germany, a drover lost his life in a drunken squabble on
the high road. For some time there was a sort of rude tombstone, with a cross on it, to markthe spot where his body was interred; but this has long fallen, and a milestone now fills its
place. Nevertheless, it continues commonly asserted by the country people, and also by
various travellers, that they have been deluded in that spot by seeing, as they imagine,
herds of beasts, which, on investigation, prove to be merely visionary. Of course, many
people look upon this as a superstition; but a very singular confirmation of the story
occurred in the year 1826, when two gentlemen and two ladies were passing the spot in a
post-carriage. One of these was a clergyman, and none of them had ever heard of thephenomenon said to be attached to the place. They had been discussing the prospects of theminister, who was on his way to a vicarage, to which he had just been appointed, when they
saw a large flock of sheep, which stretched quite across the road, and was accompanied bya shepherd and a long-haired black dog. As to meet cattle on that road was nothinguncommon, and indeed they had met several droves in the course of the day, no remark wasmade at the moment, till, suddenly, each looked at the other and said, “What is become ofthe sheep?” Quite perplexed at their sudden disappearance, they called to the postillion tostop, and all got out in order to mount a little elevation and look around; but still unable todiscover them, they now bethought themselves of asking the postillion where they were,when, to their infinite surprise, they learned that he had not seen them. Upon this, they badehim quicken his pace, that they might overtake a carriage that had passed them shortly
before, and inquire if that party had seen the sheep; but they had not.
Four years later, a postmaster, named J⁠——, was on the same road, driving a carriage,in which were a clergyman and his wife, when he saw a large flock of sheep near the same
spot. Seeing they were very fine wethers, and supposing them to have been bought at a
sheep-fair that was then taking place a few miles off, J⁠—— drew up his reins and stopped
his horse, turning at the same time to the clergyman to say, that he wanted to inquire theprice of the sheep, as he intended going next day to the fair himself. While the minister was
asking him what sheep he meant, J⁠—— got down and found himself in the midst of theanimals, the size and beauty of which astonished him. They passed him at an unusual rate,
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while he made his way through them to find the shepherd, when, on getting to the end of
the flock, they suddenly disappeared. He then first learned that his fellow-travellers had notseen them at all.
Now, if such cases as these are not pure illusions, which I confess I find it difficult tobelieve, we must suppose that the animals and all the extraneous circumstances areproduced by the magical will of the spirit, either acting on the constructive imagination of
the seers, or else actually constructing the ethereal forms out of the elements at its
command, just as we have supposed an apparition able to present himself with whatever
dress or appliances he conceives; or else we must conclude these forms to have somerelation to the mystery called PALINGNESIA, which I have previously alluded to,although the motion and change of place render it difficult to bring them under thiscategory. As for the animals, although the drover was slain, they were not; and therefore,
even granting them to have souls, we can not look upon them as the apparitions of theflock. Neither can we consider the numerous instances of armies seen in the air to beapparitions; and yet these phenomena are so well established that they have been accounted
for by supposing them to be atmospherical reflections of armies elsewhere, in actual
motion. But how are we to account for the visionary troops which are not seen in the air,but on the very ground on which the seers themselves stand, which was the case especiallywith those seen in Havarah park, near Ripley, in the year 1812? These soldiers wore awhite uniform, and in the centre was a personage in a scarlet one.
After performing several evolutions, the body began to march in perfect order to thesummit of a hill, passing the spectators at the distance of about one hundred yards. Theyamounted to several hundreds, and marched in a column, four deep, across about thirty
acres; and no sooner were they passed, than another body, far more numerous, but dressedin dark clothes, arose and marched after them, without any apparent hostility. Both parties
having reached the top of the hill, and there formed what the spectators called an L, they
disappeared down the other side, and were seen no more; but at that moment a volume ofsmoke arose like the discharge of a park of artillery, which was so thick that the men could
not, for two or three minutes, discover their own cattle. They then hurried home to relate
what they had seen, and the impression made on them is described as so great, that they
could never allude to the subject without emotion.
One of them was a farmer of the name of Jackson, aged forty-five; the other was a ladof fifteen, called Turner: and they were at the time herding cattle in the park. The scene
seems to have lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, during which time they were quite inpossession of themselves, and able to make remarks to each other on what they saw. They
were both men of excellent character and unimpeachable veracity, insomuch that nobody
who knew them doubted that they actually saw what they described, or, at all events,
believed that they did. It is to be observed, also, that the ground is not swampy, nor subject
to any exhalations.
About the year 1750, a visionary army of the same description was seen in theneighborhood of Inverness, by a respectable farmer, of Glenary, and his son. The number oftroops was very great, and they had not the slightest doubt that they were otherwise thansubstantial forms of flesh and blood. They counted at least sixteen pairs of columns, andhad abundance of time to observe every particular. The front ranks marched seven abreast,
and were accompanied by a good many women and children, who were carrying tin cansand other implements of cookery. The men were clothed in red, and their arms shonebrightly in the sun. In the midst of them was an animal—a deer or a horse, they could not
distinguish which—that they were driving furiously forward with their bayonets. The
younger of the two men observed to the other that every now and then the rear ranks were
obliged to run to overtake the van; and the elder one, who had been a soldier, remarked thatthat was always the case, and recommended him, if he ever served, to try and march in thefront. There was only one mounted officer: he rode a gray dragoon horse, and wore a goldlaced hat and blue hussar cloak, with wide, open sleeves, lined with red. The two spectators
observed him so particularly, that they said afterward they should recognise him anywhere.
They were, however, afraid of being ill-treated, or forced to go along with the troops,
whom they concluded had come from Ireland, and landed at Kyntyre; and while they wereclimbing over a dike to get out of their way, the whole thing vanished.
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Some years since, a phenomenon of the same sort was observed at Paderborn, in
Westphalia, and seen by at least thirty persons, as well as by horses and dogs, as was
discovered by the demeanor of these animals. In October, 1836, on the very same spot,
there was a review of twenty thousand men; and the people then concluded that the former
vision was a second-sight.
A similar circumstance occurred in Stockton forest, some years ago; and there are manyrecorded elsewhere—one especially, in the year 1686, near Lanark, where, for several
afternoons, in the months of June and July, there were seen, by numerous spectators,
companies of men in arms, marching in order by the banks of the Clyde, and othercompanies meeting them, &c., &c.; added to which there were showers of bonnets, hats,
guns, swords, &c., which the seers described with the greatest exactness. All who were
present could not see these things, and Walker relates that one gentleman, particularly, wasturning the thing into ridicule, calling the seers “damned witches and warlocks, with thesecond-sight!”—boasting that “the devil a thing he could see!”—when he suddenly
exclaimed, with fear and trembling, that he now saw it all; and entreated those who did notsee, to say nothing—a change that may be easily accounted for, be the phenomenon ofwhat nature it may, by supposing him to have touched one of the seers, when the faculty
would be communicated like a shock of electricity.
With regard to the palinganesia, it would be necessary to establish that these objects
had previously existed, and that, as Oetinger says, the earthly husk having fallen off, “thevolatile essence had ascended perfect in form, but void of substance.”
The notion supported by Baron Reichenbach, that the lights seen in churchyards andover graves are the result of a process going on below, is by no means new, for Gaffarillus
suggested the same opinion in 1650; only he speaks of the appearances over graves and inchurchyards as shadows, ombres, as they appeared to Billing; and he mentions, casually, asa thing frequently observed, that the same visionary forms are remarked on ground wherebattles have been fought, which he thinks arise out of a process between the earth and thesun. When a limb has been cut off, some somnambules still discern the form of the member
as if actually attached.
But this magical process is said to be not only the work of the elements, but also
possible to man; and that as the forms of plants can be preserved after the substance isdestroyed, so can that of man be either preserved or reproduced from the elements of his
body. In the reign of Louis XIV., three alchemists, having distilled some earth taken fromthe cemetery of the Innocents, in Paris, were forced to desist, by seeing the forms of men
appearing in their vials, instead of the philosopher’s stone, which they were seeking; and aphysician, who, after dissecting a body, and pulverizing the cranium (which was then an
article admitted into the materia medica), had left the powder on the table of his laboratory,
in charge of his assistant, the latter, who slept in an adjoining room, was awakened in thenight by hearing a noise, which, after some search, he ultimately traced to the powder—in
the midst of which he beheld, gradually constructing itself, a human form! First appeared
the head, with two open eyes, then the arms and hands, and, by degrees, the rest of theperson, which subsequently assumed the clothes it had worn when alive! The man was, ofcourse, frightened out of his wits—the rather, as the apparition planted itself before thedoor, and would not let him go away till it had made its own exit, which it speedily did.
Similar results have been said to arise from experiments performed on blood. I confess I
should be disposed to consider these apparitions, if ever they appeared, cases of genuine
ghosts, brought into rapport by the operation, rather than forms residing in the bones or
blood. At all events, these things are very hard to believe; but seeing we were not there, I
do not think we have any right to say they did not happen; or at least that some phenomena
did not occur, that were open to this interpretation.
It is highly probable that the seeing of those visionary armies and similar prodigies is asort of second-sight; but having admitted this, we are very little nearer an explanation.
Granting that, as in the above experiments, the essence of things may retain the forms of
the substance, this does not explain the seeing that which has not yet taken place, or which
is taking place at so great a distance, that neither Oetinger’s essence nor the superficial
films of Lucretius can remove the difficulty.
It is the fashion to say that second-sight was a mere superstition of the highlanders, andthat no such thing is ever heard of now; but those who talk in this way know very little ofhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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the matter. No doubt, if they set out to look for seers, they may not find them; suchphenomena, though known in all countries and in all ages, are comparatively rare, as wellas uncertain and capricious, and not to be exercised at will: but I know of too many
instances of the existence of this faculty in families, as well as of isolated cases occurringto individuals above all suspicion, to entertain the smallest doubt of its reality. But thedifficulty of furnishing evidence is considerable: because, when the seers are of thehumbler classes, they are called impostors and not believed; and when they are of thehigher, they do not make the subject a matter of conversation, nor choose to expose
themselves to the ridicule of the foolish; and consequently the thing is not known beyond
their own immediate friends. When the young duke of Orleans was killed, a lady, residing
here, saw the accident, and described it to her husband at the time it was occurring inFrance. She had frequently seen the duke, when on the continent.
Captain N⁠—— went to stay two days at the house of Lady T⁠——. After dinner,
however, he announced that he was under the necessity of going away that night, nor could
he be induced to remain. On being much pressed for an explanation, he confided to some ofthe party that, during the dinner, he had seen a female figure with her throat cut, standing
behind Lady T⁠——’s chair. Of course, it was thought an illusion, but Lady T⁠—— was nottold of it, lest she should be alarmed. That night the household was called up for the
purpose of summoning a surgeon—Lady T⁠—— had cut her own throat!
Mr. C⁠——, who, though a Scotchman, was an entire skeptic with regard to the secondsight, was told by a seer whom he had been jeering on the subject, that, within a month, he(Mr. C⁠——) would be a pall-bearer at a funeral; that he would go by a certain road, butthat, before they had crossed the brook, a man in a drab coat would come down the hill andtake the pall from him. The funeral occurred, Mr. C⁠—— was a bearer, and they went by theroad described; but he firmly resolved that he would disappoint the seer by keeping the pall
while they crossed the brook; but shortly before they reached it, the postman overtook
them, with letters, which in that part of the country arrived but twice a week, and Mr.
C⁠——, who was engaged in some speculations of importance, turned to received them—at
which moment the pall was taken from him, and on looking round, he saw it was by a manin a drab coat!
A medical friend of mine, who practised some time at Deptford, was once sent for to agirl who had been taken suddenly ill. He found her with inflammation of the brain, and theonly account the mother could give of it was, that shortly before, she had run into the room,
crying, “Oh, mother, I have seen Uncle John drowned in his boat under the fifth arch of
Rochester bridge!” The girl died a few hours afterward; and, on the following night, theuncle’s boat ran foul of the bridge, and he was drowned, exactly as she had foretold.
Mrs. A⁠——, an English lady, and the wife of a clergyman, relates that, previous to her
marriage, she with her father and mother being at the seaside, had arranged to make a few
days’ excursion to some races that were about to take place; and that the night before they
started, the father having been left alone, while the ladies were engaged in their
preparations, they found him, on descending to the drawing-room, in a state of considerable
agitation—which, he said, had arisen from his having seen a dreadful face at one corner ofthe room. He described it as a bruised, battered, crushed, discolored face, with the two eyes
protruding frightfully from their sockets; but the features were too disfigured to ascertain if
it were the face of any one he knew. On the following day, on their way to the races, anaccident occurred; and he was brought home with his own face exactly in the condition hehad described. He had never exhibited any other instance of this extraordinary faculty, andthe impression made by the circumstance lasted the remainder of his life, which was
unhappily shortened by the injuries he had received.
The late Mrs. V⁠——, a lady of fortune and family, who resides near Loch Lomond,possessed this faculty in an extraordinary degree, and displayed it on many remarkableoccasions. When her brother was shipwrecked in the channel, she was heard to exclaim,“Thank God, he is saved!” and described the scene with all its circumstances.
Colonel David Steward, a determined believer in what he calls the supernatural, in his
book on the highlanders, relates the following fact as one so remarkable, that “credulous
minds” may be excused for believing it to have been prophetic. He says that, late in an
autumnal evening of the year 1773, the son of a neighbor came to his father’s house, andsoon after his arrival inquired for a little boy of the family, then about three years old. He
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was shown up to the nursery, and found the nurse putting a pair of new shoes on the child,
which she complained did not fit. “Never mind,” said the young man, “they will fit him
before he wants them”—a prediction which not only offended the nurse, but seemed at the
moment absurd, since the child was apparently in perfect health. When he joined the party
in the drawing-room, he being much jeered upon this new gift of second-sight, explainedthat the impression he had received originated in his having just seen a funeral passing thewooden bridge which crossed a stream at a short distance from the house. He first observeda crowd of people, and on coming nearer he saw a person carrying a small coffin, followed
by about twenty gentlemen, all of his acquaintance, his own father and a Mr. Stewart being
among the number. He did not attempt to join the procession, which he saw turn off into thechurchyard: but knowing his own father could not be actually there, and that Mr. and Mrs.
Stewart were then at Blair, he felt a conviction that the phenomenon portended the death ofthe child: a persuasion which was verified by its suddenly expiring on the following night;—and Colonel Stewart adds that the circumstances and attendants at the funeral wereprecisely such as the young man had described. He mentions, also, that this gentleman was
not a seer; that he was a man of education and general knowledge; and that this was thefirst and only vision of the sort he ever had.
I know of a young lady who has three times seen funerals in this way.
The old persuasion that fasting was a means of developing the spirit of prophecy, isundoubtedly well founded, and the annals of medicine furnish numerous facts which
establish it. A man condemned to death at Viterbo, having abstained from food in the hopeof escaping execution, became so clairvoyant, that he could tell what was doing in any partof the prison; the expression used in the report is that he “saw through the walls:” this,however, could not be with his natural organs of sight.
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 somecountries 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.
In the great plague at Basle, which occurred toward the end of the sixteenth century,
almost everybody who died called out in their last moments the name of the person thatwas to follow them next.
Not long ago, a servant girl on the estate of D⁠——, of S⁠——, saw with amazement five
figures ascending a perpendicular cliff, quite inaccessible to human feet; one was a boy
wearing a cap with red binding. She watched them with great curiosity till they reached thetop, where they all stretched themselves on the earth, with countenances expressive of great
dejection. While she was looking at them they disappeared, and she immediately related
her vision. Shortly afterward, a foreign ship, in distress, was seen to put off a boat with four
men and a boy: the boat was dashed to pieces in the surf, and the five bodies, exactly
answering the description she had given, were thrown on shore at the foot of the cliff,which they had perhaps climbed in the spirit!
How well what we call clairvoyance was known, though how little understood, at theperiod of the witch persecution, is proved by what Dr. Henry More says in his “Antidote
against Atheism”:—“We will now pass to those supernatural effects which are observed in them that are
bewitched or possessed; and such as foretelling things to come, telling what such and such
persons speak or do, as exactly as if they were by them, when the party possessed is at one
end of the town, and sitting in a house within doors, and those parties that act and confer
together are without, at the other end of the town; to be able to see some and not others; toplay at cards with one certain person, and not to discern anybody else at the table besidehim; to act and talk, and go up and down, and tell what will become of things, and what
happens in those fits of possession; and then, as soon as the possessed or bewitched party isout of them, to remember nothing at all, but to inquire concerning the welfare of those
whose faces they seemed to look upon just before, when they were in their fits;”—a state
which he believes to arise from the devil’s having taken possession of the body of themagnetic person, which is precisely the theory supported by many fanatical persons in ourown day. Dr. More was not a fanatic: but these phenomena, though very well understood by
the ancient philosophers, as well as by Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Cornelius Agrippa, Jacob
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Behmen, a Scotch physician (called Maxwell) who published on the subject in theseventeenth century, and many others, were still, when observed, looked upon as the effects
of diabolical influence by mankind in general.
When Monsieur Six Deniers, the artist, was drowned in the Seine in 1846, after his
body had been vainly sought, a somnambule was applied to, in whose hands they placed aportfolio belonging to him; and being asked where the owner was, she evinced great terror,
held up her dress as if walking in the water, and said that he was between two boats, under
the Pont des Arts, with nothing on but a flannel waistcoat: and there he was found.
A friend of mine knows a lady who, early one morning—being in a natural state ofclairvoyance without magnetism—saw the porter of the house where her son lodged ascend
to his room with a carving-knife, go to his bed where he lay asleep, lean over him, thenopen a chest, take out a fifty-pound note, and retire. On the following day, she went to her
son and asked him if he had any money in the house; he said, “Yes, I have fifty pounds:”
whereupon she bade him seek it, but it was gone. They stopped payment of the note; but
did not prosecute, thinking the evidence insufficient. Subsequently, the porter being taken
up for other crimes, the note was found crumpled up at the bottom of an old purse
belonging to him.
Dr. Ennemoser says that there is no doubt of the ancient Sibyls having been clairvoyant
women, and that it is impossible so much value could have been attached to their books,
had not their revelations been verified.
A maid-servant residing in a family in Northumberland, one day last winter was heard
to utter a violent scream immediately after she had left the kitchen. On following her toinquire what had happened, she said that she had just seen her father in his night-clothes,with a most horrible countenance, and she was sure something dreadful had happened tohim. Two days afterward there arrived a letter, saying he had been seized with delirium
tremens, and was at the point of death; which accordingly ensued.
There are innumerable cases of this sort recorded in various collections, not to mention
the much more numerous ones that meet with no recorder; and I could myself mention
many more, but these will suffice—one, however, I will not omit, for, though historical, it
is not generally known. A year before the rebellion broke out, in consequence of which
Lord Kilmarnock lost his head, the family were one day startled by a scream, and on
rushing out to inquire what had occurred, they found the servants all assembled, inamazement, with the exception of one maid, who they said had gone up to the garrets tohang some linen on the lines to dry. On ascending thither, they found the girl on the floor,
in a state of insensibility; and they had no sooner revived her than, on seeing Lord
Kilmarnock bending over her, she screamed and fainted again. When ultimately recovered,
she told them that while hanging up her linen, and singing, the door had burst open and hislordship’s bloody head had rolled in. I think it came twice. This event was so well known at
the time, that on the first rumors of the rebellion, Lord Saltoun said, “Kilmarnock will lose
his head.” It was answered, “that Kilmarnock had not joined the rebels.” “He will, and will
be beheaded,” returned Lord Saltoun.
Now, in these cases we are almost compelled to believe that the phenomenon is purely
subjective, and there is no veritable outstanding object seen; yet, when we have taken
refuge in this hypothesis, the difficulty remains as great as ever; and is to me much moreincomprehensible than ghost-seeing, because in the latter we suppose an external agency
acting in some way or other on the seer.
I have already mentioned that Oberlin, the good pastor of Ban de la Roche, himself aghost-seer, asserted that everything earthly had its counterpart, or antitype, in the otherworld, not only organized, but unorganized matter. If so, do we sometimes see these
antitypes?
Dr. Ennemoser, in treating of second-sight—which, by the way, is quite as well known
in Germany, and especially in Denmark, as in the highlands of Scotland—says, that as innatural somnambulism there is a partial internal vigilance, so does the seer fall, while
awake, into a dream-state. He suddenly becomes motionless and stiff: his eyes are open,
and his senses are, while the vision lasts, unperceptive of all external objects; the vision
may be communicated by the touch, and sometimes persons at a distance from each other,but connected by blood or sympathy, have the vision simultaneously. He remarks, also,
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that, as we have seen in the above case of Mr. C⁠——, any attempt to frustrate the fulfilmentof the vision never succeeds, inasmuch as the attempt appears to be taken into the account.
The seeing in glass and in crystals is equally inexplicable; as is the magical seeing of
the Egyptians. Every now and then we hear it said that this last is discovered to be an
imposition, because some traveller has either actually fallen into the hands of an impostor—and there are impostors in all trades—or because the phenomenon was imperfectly
exhibited; a circumstance which, as in the exhibitions of clairvoyants and somnambulists,
where all the conditions are not under command, or even recognised, must necessarily
happen. But not to mention the accounts published by Mr. Lane and Lord Prudhoe,
whoever has read that of Monsieur Léon Laborde must be satisfied that the thing is anindisputable fact. It is, in fact, only another form of the seeing in crystals, which has been
known in all ages, and of which many modern instances have occurred among
somnambulic patients.
We see by the forty-fourth chapter of Genesis that it was by his cup that Joseph
prophesied: “Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth?”
But, as Dr. Passavent observes, and as we shall presently see, in the anecdote of the boy
and the gipsy, the virtue does not lie in the glass nor in the water, but in the seer himself,
who may possess a more or less developed faculty. The external objects and ceremonies
being only the means of concentrating the attention and intensifying the power.
Monsieur Léon Laborde witnessed the exhibition, at Cairo, before Lord P⁠——’s visit;
the exhibitor, named Achmed, appeared to him a respectable man, who spoke simply of his
science, and had nothing of the charlatan about him. The first child employed was a boy
eleven years old, the son of a European; and Achmed having traced some figures on thepalm of his hand, and poured ink over them, bade him look for the reflection of his own
face. The child said he saw it; the magician then burnt some powders in a brazier, and badehim tell him when he saw a soldier sweeping a place; and while the fumes from the brazier
diffused themselves, he pronounced a sort of litany. Presently the child threw back hishead, and screaming with terror, sobbed out, while bathed in tears, that he had seen adreadful face. Fearing the boy might be injured, Monsieur Laborde now called up a little
Arab servant, who had never seen or heard of the magician. He was gay and laughing, andnot at all frightened; and the ceremony being repeated, he said he saw the soldier sweeping
in the front of a tent. He was then desired to bid the soldier bring Shakspere, Colonel
Cradock, and several other persons; and he described every person and thing so exactly as
to be entirely satisfactory. During the operations the boy looked as if intoxicated, with hiseyes fixed and the perspiration dripping from his brow. Achmed disenchanted him byplacing his thumbs on his eyes. He gradually recovered, and gayly related all he had seen,
which he perfectly remembered.
Now this is merely another form of what the Laplanders, the African magicians, and the
Schaamans of Siberia, do by taking narcotics and turning round till they fall down in a stateof insensibility, in which condition they are clear-seers, and besides vaticinating, describe
scenes, places, and persons, they have never seen. In Barbary they anoint their hands with ablack ointment, and then holding them up in the sun, they see whatever they desire, like theEgyptians.
Lady S⁠—— possesses somewhat of a singular faculty, naturally. By walking rapidlyround a room several times, till a certain degree of vertigo is produced, she will name toyou any person you have privately thought of or agreed upon with others. Her phrase is: “Isee” so and so.
Monsieur Laborde purchased the secret of Achmed, who said he had learned it fromtwo celebrated scheicks of his own country, which was Algiers. Monsieur L. found it
connected with both physics and magnetism, and practised it himself afterward with perfectsuccess; and he affirms, positively, that under the influence of a particular organization andcertain ceremonies, among which he can not distinguish which are indispensable and which
are not, that a child, without fraud or collusion, can see, as through a window or peep-hole,
people moving, who appear and disappear at their command, and with whom they holdcommunication—and they remember everything after the operation. He says: “I narrate,
but explain nothing; I produced those effects, but can not comprehend them; I only affirm
in the most positive manner that what I relate is true. I performed the experiment in various
places, with various subjects, before numerous witnesses, in my own room or other rooms,
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persons, places, and scenes, could by no possibility be feigned.”Moreover, Baron Dupotet has very lately succeeded in obtaining these phenomena in
Paris, from persons not somnambulic selected from his audience,—the chief difference
being that they did not recollect what they had seen when the crisis was over.
Cagliostro, though a charlatan, was possessed of this secret, and it was his great successin it that chiefly sustained his reputation; the spectators, convinced he could make children
see distant places and persons in glass, were persuaded he could do other things, whichappeared to them no more mysterious. Dr. Dee was perfectly honest with regard to his
mirror, in which he could see by concentrating his mind on it; but, as he could notremember what he saw, he employed Kelly to see for him, while he himself wrote down therevelations: and Kelly was a rogue, and deceived and ruined him.
A friend of Pfeffel’s knew a boy, apprenticed to an apothecary at Schoppenweyer, who,
having been observed to amuse himself by looking into vials filled with water, was asked
what he saw; when it was discovered that he possessed this faculty of seeing in glass,which was afterward very frequently exhibited for the satisfaction of the curious. Pfeffelalso mentions another boy who had this faculty, and who went about the country with asmall mirror, answering questions, recovering stolen goods, &c. He said that he one day
fell in with some gipsies, one of whom was sitting apart and staring into this glass. The
boy, from curiosity, looked over his shoulder and exclaimed that he saw “a fine man who
was moving about;” whereupon the gipsy, having interrogated him, gave him the glass;“for,” said he, “I have been staring in it long enough, and can see nothing but my own
face.”
It is almost unnecessary to observe that the sacred books of the Jews and of the Indians
testify to their acquaintance with this mode of divination, as well as many others.
Many persons will have heard or read an account of Mr. Canning and Mr. Huskisson
having seen, while in Paris, the visionary representation of their own deaths in water, as
exhibited to them by a Russian or Polish lady there: as I do not, however, know what
authority there is for this story, I will not insist on it here. But St. Simon relates a very
curious circumstance of this nature, which occurred at Paris, and was related to him by theduke of Orleans, afterward regent. The latter said that he had sent on the preceding evening
for a man, then in Paris, who pretended to exhibit whatever was desired in a glass of water.
He came, and a child of seven years old, belonging to the house, being called up, they badeher tell what she saw doing in certain places. She did; and as they sent to these places andfound her report correct, they bade her next describe under what circumstances the kingwould die, without, however, asking when the death would take place.
The child knew none of the court, and had never been at Versailles; yet she describedeverything exactly—the room, bed, furniture, and the king himself, Madame de Maintenon,
Fagon, the physician, the princes and princesses—everybody, in short, including a child,wearing an order, in the arms of a lady whom she recognised as having seen; this was
Madame de Ventadour.
It was remarkable that she omitted the dukes de Bourgogne and Berry, andMonseigneur, and also the duchess de Bourgogne. Orleans insisted they must be there,
describing them; but she always said “No.” These persons were then all well, but they died
before the king. She also saw the children of the prince and princess of Conti, but notthemselves—which was correct, as they also died shortly after this occurrence.
Orleans then wished to see his own destiny; and the man said, if he would not befrightened he could show it to him, as if painted on the wall; and after fifteen minutes ofconjuration, the duke appeared, of the natural size, dressed as usual, but with a couronne
fermée or closed crown on his head, which they could not comprehend, as it was not that ofany country they knew of. It covered his head, had only four circles, and nothing at the top.
They had never seen such a one. When he became regent, they understood that that was theinterpretation of the prediction.
In connection with this subject, the aversion to glass frequently manifested by dogs iswell worthy of observation.
When facts of this kind are found to be recorded or believed in, in all parts of the world,from the beginning of it up to the present time, it is surely vain for the so-called savants todeny them; and, as Cicero justly says in describing the different kinds of magic, “What we
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have to do with is the facts, since of the cause we know little. Neither,” he adds, “are we to
repudiate these phenomena, because we sometimes find them imperfect, or even false, any
more than we are to distrust that the human eye sees, although some do this very
imperfectly, or not at all.”
We are part spirit and part matter: by the former we are allied to the spiritual world andto the absolute spirit; and as nobody doubts that the latter can work magically, that is, by
the mere act of will—for by the mere act of will all things were created, and by its constantexertion all things are sustained—why should we be astonished that we, who partake of theDivine nature and were created after God’s own image, should also, within certain limits,partake of this magical power? That this power has been frequently abused, is the fault of
those who, being capable, refuse to investigate, and deny the existence of these and similar
phenomena; and, by thus casting them out of the region of legitimate science, leave them tobecome the prey of the ignorant and designing.
Dr. Ennemoser, in his very learned work on magic, shows us that all the phenomena ofmagnetism and somnambulism, and all the various kinds of divination, have been known
and practised in every country under the sun; and have been intimately connected with, andindeed may be traced up to the fountain-head of every religion.
What are the limits of these powers possessed by us while in the flesh—how far they
may be developed—and whether, at the extreme verge of what we can effect, we begin to
be aided by God or by spirits of other spheres of existence bordering on ours—we know
not; but, with respect to the morality of these practices, it suffices that what is good in act
or intention, must come of good; and what is evil in act or intention, must come of evil:
which is true now, as it was in the time of Moses and the prophets, when miracles andmagic were used for purposes holy and unholy, and were to be judged accordingly. God
works by natural laws, of which we yet know very little, and, in some departments of his
kingdom, nothing; and whatever appears to us supernatural, only appears so from ourignorance; and whatever faculties or powers he has endowed us with, it must have been
designed we should exercise and cultivate for the benefit and advancement of our race: nor
can I for one moment suppose that, though like everything else, liable to abuse, thelegitimate exercise of these powers, if we knew their range, would be useless, much lesspernicious or sinful.
Of the magical power of will, as I have said before, we know nothing; and it does notbelong to a purely rationalistic age to acknowledge what it can not understand. In all
countries men have arisen, here and there, who have known it, and some traces of it havesurvived both in language and in popular superstitions. “If ye have faith as a grain ofmustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence,’ and it shall remove; andnothing shall be impossible to you. Howbeit, this kind goeth not out but by prayer andfasting.” And, veuillez et croyez—will and believe—was the solution Puységur gave of his
magical cures; and no doubt the explanation of those affected by royal hands is to be foundin the fact that they believed in themselves; and having faith, they could exercise will. But,
with the belief in the divine right of kings, the faith and the power would naturally expire
together.
With respect to what Christ says, in the above-quoted passage, of fasting, numerous
instances are extant, proving that clear-seeing and other magical or spiritual powers are
sometimes developed by it.
Wilhelm Krause, a doctor of philosophy and a lecturer at Jena, who died during theprevalence of the cholera, cultivated these powers and preached them. I have not been able
to obtain his works, they being suppressed as far as is practicable by the Prussian
government. Krause could leave his body, and, to all appearance, die whenever he pleased.
One of his disciples, yet living, Count von Eberstein, possesses the same faculty.
Many writers of the sixteenth century were well acquainted with the power of will, andto this was attributed the good or evil influence of blessings and curses. They believed it to
be of great effect in curing diseases, and that by it alone life might be extinguished. That,
subjectively, life may be extinguished, we have seen by the cases of Colonel Townshend,
the dervish that was buried, Hermotinus, and others: for doubtless the power that could
perform so much, could, under an adequate motive, have performed more: and since allthings in nature, spiritual and material, are connected, and that there is an unceasing
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our organisms, it is possible to conceive that the power which can be exerted on our own
organism might be extended to others: and since we can not conceive man to be an isolated
being—the only intelligence besides God—none above us and none below—but must, on
the contrary, believe that there are numerous grades of intelligences, it seems to follow, ofcourse, that we must stand in some kind of relation to them, more or less intimate; nor is it
at all surprising that with some individuals this relation should be more intimate than withothers. Finally, we are not entitled to deny the existence of this magical or spiritual power,
as exerted by either incorporated or unincorporated spirits, because we do not comprehend
how it can be exerted; since, in spite of all the words that have been expended on thesubject, we are equally ignorant of the mode in which our own will acts upon our own
muscles. We know the fact, but not the mode of it.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

434

CONCLUSION.

Of the power of the mind over matter, we have a remarkable example in the numerous
well-authenticated instances of the stigmata. As in most cases this phenomenon has beenconnected with a state of religious exaltation, and has been appropriated by the Roman
church as a miracle, the fact has been in this country pretty generally discredited, but
without reason. Ennemoser, Passavent, Schubert, and other eminent German physiologists,
assure us that not only is the fact perfectly established, as regards many of the so-called
saints, but also that there have been indubitable modern instances, as in the case of theecstaticas of the Tyrol, Catherine Emmerich (commonly called the Nun of Dulmen), MariaMorl, and Domenica Lazzari, who have all exhibited the stigmata.
Catherine Emmerich, the most remarkable of the three, began very early to havevisions, and to display unusual endowments. She was very pious; could distinguish thequalities of plants, reveal secrets or distant circumstances, and knew people’s thoughts; butwas, however, extremely sickly, and exhibited a variety of extraordinary and distressing
symptoms, which terminated in her death. The wounds of the crown of thorns round herhead, and those of the nails in her hands and feet, were as perfect as if painted by an artist,and they bled regularly on Fridays. There was also a double cross on her breast. When the
blood was wiped away, the marks looked like the puncture of flies. She seldom took any
nourishment but water; and, having been but a poor cow-keeper, she discoursed, when in
the ecstatic state, as if inspired.
I am well aware that on reading this, many persons who never saw her, will say it was
all imposture. It is very easy to say this; but it is as absurd as presumptuous to pronounce
on what they have had no opportunity of observing. I never saw these women either; but I
find myself much more disposed to accept the evidence of those who did, than of those
who only “do not believe, because they do not believe.”
Neither Catherine Emmerich nor the others made their sufferings a source of profit, nor
had they any desire to be exhibited—but quite the contrary. She could see in the dark as
well as the light, and frequently worked all night at making clothes for the poor, without
lamp or candle.
There have been instances of magnetic patients being stigmatized in this manner.
Madame B. von N⁠—— dreamed one night that a person offered her a red and a white rose,and that she chose the latter. On awaking she felt a burning pain in her arm, and by degrees
there arose there the figure of a rose perfect in form and color. It was rather raised above
the skin. The mark increased in intensity till the eighth day, after which it faded away, andby the fourteenth was no longer perceptible.
A letter from Moscow, addressed to Dr. Kerner, in consequence of reading the accountof the “Nun of Dulmen,” relates a still more extraordinary case. At the time of the French
invasion, a Cossack having pursued a Frenchman into a cul de sac—an alley without anoutlet—there ensued a terrible conflict between them, in which the latter was severely
wounded. A person who had taken refuge in this close and could not get away, was sodreadfully frightened, that when he reached home, there broke out on his body the verysame wounds that the Cossack had inflicted on his enemy!
The signatures of the fœtus are analogous facts; and if the mind of the mother can thus
act on another organism, why not the minds of the saints, or of Catherine Emmerich, on
their own? From the influence of the mother on the child, we have but one step to that
asserted to be possible between two organisms not visibly connected for the difficulty
therein lies, that we do not see the link that connects them, though doubtless it exists. Dr.
Blacklock, who lost his eyesight at an early period, said that, when awake, he distinguishedpersons by hearing and feeling them; but when asleep, he had a distinct impression ofanother sense. He then seemed to himself united to them by a kind of distant contact, which
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pervading ether, or be purely dynamic, that the intertraction exists between both organicand inorganic bodies, is made evident wherever there is sufficient excitability to render theeffects sensible.
Till very lately, the powers of the divining-rod were considered a mere fable; yet, that
this power exists, though not in the rod, but in the person that holds it, is now perfectly wellestablished. Count Tristan, who has written a book on the subject, says that about one inforty have it, and that a complete course of experiments has proved the phenomenon to beelectric. The rod seems to serve, in some degree, the same purpose as the magical mirror
and conjurations, and it is also serviceable in presenting a result visible to the eye of thespectator. But numerous cases are met with, in which metals or water are perceived beneaththe surface of the earth, without the intervention of the rod. A man, called Bleton, from
Dauphiny, possessed this divining power in a remarkable degree, as did a Swiss girl, called
Katherine Beutler. She was strong and healthy, and of a phlegmatic temperament, yet sosusceptible of these influences that, without the rod, she pointed out and traced the courseof water, veins of metal, coal-beds, salt-mines, &c. The sensations produced weresometimes on the soles of her feet, sometimes on her tongue, or in her stomach. She neverlost the power wholly, but it varied considerably in intensity at different times, as it did
with Bleton. She was also rendered sensible of the bodily pains of others, by laying her
hand on the affected part, or near it; and she performed several magnetic cures.
A person now alive, named Dussange, in the Maçonnés, possesses this power. He is a
simple, honest man, who can give no account of his own faculty. The Abbés Chatelard andParamelle can also discover subterraneous springs; but they say it is effected by means of
their geological science. Monsieur D⁠——, of Cluny, however, found the faculty of
Dussange much more to be relied on. The Greeks and Romans made hydroscopy an art;
and there are works alluded to as having existed on this subject, especially one by
Marcellus. The caduceus of Mercury, the wand of Circe, and the wands of the Egyptian
sorcerers, show that the wand or rod was always looked upon as a symbol of divination.
One of the most remarkable instances of the use of the divining-rod, is that of Jacques
Aymar.
On the 5th of July, 1692, a man and his wife were murdered in a cellar at Lyons, andtheir house was robbed. Having no clew whatever to the criminal, this peasant, who had thereputation of being able to discover murderers, thieves, and stolen articles, by means of thedivining-rod, was sent for from Dauphiny. Aymar undertook to follow the footsteps of theassassins, but he said he must first be taken into the cellar where the murder wascommitted. The procurator royal conducted him thither; and they gave him a rod out of thefirst wood that came to hand. He walked about the cellar, but the rod did not move till hecame to the spot where the man had been killed. Then Aymar became agitated, and his
pulse beat as if he were in a high fever; and all these symptoms were augmented when heapproached the spot on which they had found the body of the woman. From this, he, of his
own accord, went into a sort of shop where the robbery had been committed; thence heproceeded into the street, tracing the assassin, step by step, first to the court of thearchbishop’s palace, then out of the city, and along the right side of the river. He was
escorted all the way by three persons appointed for the purpose, who all testified thatsometimes he detected the traces of three accomplices, sometimes only of two. He led theway to the house of a gardener, where he insisted that they had touched a table and one ofthree bottles that were yet standing upon it. It was at first denied; but two children, of nineor ten years old, said that three men had been there, and had been served with wine in thatbottle. Aymar then traced them to the river where they had embarked in a boat; and, what isvery extraordinary, he tracked them as surely on the water as on the land. He followed themwherever they had gone ashore, went straight to the places they had lodged at, pointed out
their beds, and the very utensils of every description that they had used. On arriving at
Sablon, where some troops were encamped, the rod and his own sensations satisfied himthat the assassins were there; but fearing the soldiers would ill treat him, he refused topursue the enterprise further, and returned to Lyons. He was, however, promised protection,and sent back by water, with letters of recommendation. On reaching Sablon, he said they
were no longer there; but he tracked them into Languedoc, entering every house they had
stopped at, till he at length reached the gate of the prison, in the town of Beaucaire, where
he said one of them would be found. They brought all the prisoners before him, amounting
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to fifteen; and the only one his rod turned on was a little Bossu, or deformed man, who had
just been brought in for a petty theft. He then ascertained that the two others had taken theroad to Nimes, and offered to follow them; but as the man denied all knowledge of themurder, and declared he had never been at Lyons, it was thought best that they should
return there; and as they went the way they had come, and stopped at the same houses,
where he was recognised, he at length confessed that he had travelled with two men who
had engaged him to assist in the crime. What is very remarkable, it was found necessarythat Jacques Aymar should walk in front of the criminal, for when he followed him hebecame violently sick. From Lyons to Beaucaire is forty-five miles.
As the confession of the Bossu confirmed all Aymar had asserted, the affair now createdan immense sensation; and a great variety of experiments were instituted, every one ofwhich proved perfectly satisfactory. Moreover, two gentlemen, one of them the controllerof the customs, were discovered to possess this faculty, though in a minor degree. They
now took Aymar back to Beaucaire, that he might trace the other two criminals; and hewent straight again to the prison-gate, where he said that now another would be found. On
inquiry, however, it was discovered that a man had been there to inquire for the Bossu, but
was gone again. He then followed them to Toulon, and finally to the frontier of Spain,
which set a limit to further researches. He was often so faint and overcome with theeffluvia, or whatever it was that guided him, that the perspiration streamed from his brow,and they were obliged to sprinkle him with water to prevent his fainting.
He detected many robberies in the same way. His rod moved whenever he passed overmetals or water, or stolen goods; but he found that he could distinguish the track of amurderer from all the rest, by the horror and pain he felt. He made this discovery
accidentally, as he was searching for water. They dug up the ground, and found the body ofa woman that had been strangled.
I have myself met with three or four persons in whose hands the rod turned visibly; andthere are numerous very remarkable cases recorded in different works. In the Hartz, there isa race of people who support themselves entirely by this sort of divination; and as they arepaid very highly, and do nothing else, they are generally extremely worthless anddissipated.
The extraordinary susceptibility to atmospheric changes in certain organisms, and thefaculty by which a dog tracks the foot of his master, are analogous facts to those of thedivining-rod. Mr. Boyle mentions a lady who always perceived if a person that visited hercame from a place where snow had lately fallen. I have seen one who, if a quantity ofgloves are given her, can tell to a certainty to whom each belongs; and a particular friend of
my own, on entering a room, can distinguish perfectly who has been sitting in it, provided
these be persons he is familiarly acquainted with. Numerous extraordinary stories areextant respecting this kind of faculty in dogs.
Doubtless not only our bodies, but all matter, sheds its atmosphere around it; thesterility of the ground where metals are found is notorious; and it is asserted that, to somepersons, the vapors that emanate from below are visible, and that, as the height of themountains round a lake furnishes a measure of its depth, so does the height to which thesevapors ascend show how far below the surface the mineral treasures or the waters lie. The
effect of metals on somnambulic persons is well known to all who have paid any attention
to these subjects; and surely may be admitted, when it is remembered that Humboldt has
discovered the same sensibility in zoophytes, where no traces of nerves could be detected;
and, many years ago, Frascatorius asserted that symptoms resembling apoplexy weresometimes induced by the proximity of a large quantity of metal. A gentleman is mentioned
who could not enter the mint at Paris without fainting. In short, so many well-attested casesof idiosyncratic sensibilities exist, that we have no right to reject others because they
appear incomprehensible.
Now, we may not only easily conceive, but we know it to be a fact, that fear, grief, andother detrimental passions, vitiate the secretions,[9] and augment transpiration; and it isquite natural to suppose that, where a crime has been committed which necessarily aroused
a number of turbulent emotions, exhalations perceptible to a very acute sense may for sometime hover over the spot; while the anxiety, the terror, the haste, in short, the generalcommotion of system, that must accompany a murderer in his flight, is quite sufficient tohttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/54532/54532-h/54532-h.htm

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account for his path being recognisable by such an abnormal faculty, “for the wicked flee
when no man pursueth.” We also know that a person perspiring with open pores is more
susceptible than another to contagion; and we have only to suppose the pores of Jacques
Aymar so constituted as easily to imbibe the emanations shed by the fugitive, and we see
why he should be affected by the disagreeable sensations he describes.
The disturbing effect of odors on some persons, which are quite innoxious to others,
must have been observed by everybody. Some people do actually almost “die of a rose inaromatic pain.” Boyle says that, in his time, many physicians avoided giving drugs tochildren, having found that external applications, to be imbibed by the skin, or by
respiration, were sufficient; and the homeopaths occasionally use the same means now. Sir
Charles Bell told me that Mr. F⁠——, a gentleman well known in public life, had only tohold an old book to his nose to produce all the effects of a cathartic. Elizabeth Okey was
oppressed with most painful sensations when near a person whose frame was sinking.
Whenever this effect was of a certain intensity, Dr. Elliotson observed that the patient
invariably died.
Herein lies the secret of amulets and talismans, which grew to be a vain superstition,
but in which, as in all popular beliefs, there was a germ of truth. Somnambulic persons
frequently prescribe them; and absurd as it may seem to many, there are instances in which
their efficacy has been perfectly established, be the interpretation of the mystery what it
may. In a great plague which occurred in Moravia, a physician, who was constantly among
the sufferers, attributed the complete immunity of himself and his family to their wearing
amulets composed of the powder of toads, “which,” says Boyle, “caused an emanation
adverse to the contagion.” A Dutch physician mentions, that in the plague at Nimeguen, thepest seldom attacked any house till they had used soap in washing their linen. Whereverthis was done it appeared immediately.
In short, we are the subjects, and so is everything around us, of all manner of subtle andinexplicable influences: and if our ancestors attached too much importance to these illunderstood arcana of the night-side of nature, we have attached too little. The sympathetic
effects of multitudes upon each other, of the young sleeping with the old, of magnetism onplants and animals, are now acknowledged facts: may not many other asserted phenomenathat we yet laugh at be facts also, though probably too capricious in their nature—by which
I mean, depending on laws beyond our apprehension—to be very available? For I take it,that as there is no such thing as chance, but all would be certainty if we knew the whole ofthe conditions, so no phenomena are really capricious and uncertain: they only appear so to
our ignorance and shortsightedness.
The strong belief that formerly prevailed in the efficacy of sympathetic cures, canscarcely have existed, I think, without some foundation: nor are they a whit more
extraordinary than the sympathetic falling of pictures and stopping of clocks and watches,of which such numerous well-attested cases are extant that several learned German
physiologists of the present day pronounce the thing indisputable. I have myself heard ofsome very perplexing instances.
Gaffarillus alludes to a certain sort of magnet, not resembling iron, but of a black-andwhite color, with which if a needle or knife were rubbed, the body might be punctured or
cut without pain. How can we know that this is not true? Jugglers who slashed andcauterized their bodies for the amusement of the public were supposed to avail themselvesof such secrets.
How is it possible for us, either, to imagine that the numerous recorded cases of the
Blood Ordeal, which consisted in the suspected assassin touching the body of his victim,
can have been either pure fictions or coincidences? Not very long ago, an experiment of afrightful nature is said to have been tried in France on a somnambulic person, by placing on
the epigastric region a vial filled with the arterial blood of a criminal just guillotined. The
effect asserted to have been produced was the establishment of a rapport between thesomnambule and the deceased which endangered the life of the former.
Franz von Baader suggests the hypothesis of a vis sanguinis ultra mortem, andsupposes that a rapport or communio vitæ may be established between the murderer and his
victim; and he conceives the idea of this mutual relation to be the true interpretation of thesacrificial rites common to all countries, as also of the Blutschuld, or the requiring bloodfor blood.
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With regard to the blood ordeal, the following are the two latest instances of it recorded
to have taken place in this country; they are extracted from “Hargrave’s State Trials:”—“Evidence having been given with respect to the death of Jane Norkott, an ancient andgrave person, minister of the parish in Hertfordshire where the murder took place, being
sworn, deposed, that the body being taken up out of the grave, and the four defendants
being present, were required each of them, to touch the dead body. Okeman’s wife fell
upon her knees, and prayed God to show token of her innocency. The appellant did touchthe body, whereupon the brow of the deceased, which was before of a livid and carrion
color, began to have a dew, or gentle sweat on it, which increased by degrees till the sweat
ran down in drops on the face, the brow turned to a lively and fresh color, and the deceased
opened one of her eyes and shut it again, and this opening the eye was done three several
times; she likewise thrust out the ring, or marriage finger, three times, and pulled it inagain, and blood dropped from the finger on the grass.
“Sir Nicholas Hyde, the chief justice, seeming to doubt this evidence, he asked thewitness who saw these things besides him, to which he, the witness, answered, ‘My lord, I
can not swear what others saw, but I do believe the whole company saw it; and if it had
been thought a doubt, proof would have been made, and many would have attested withme. My lord,’ added the witness, observing the surprise his evidence awakened, ‘I am
minister of the parish, and have long known all the parties, but never had displeasureagainst any of them, nor they with me, but as I was minister. The thing was wonderful tome, but I have not interest in the matter, except as called on to testify to the truth. My lord,
my brother, who is minister of the next parish, is here present, and, I am sure, saw all that I
have affirmed.’ ”
Hereupon, the brother, being sworn, he confirmed the above evidence in every
particular, and the first witness added, that having dipped his finger into what appeared tobe blood, he felt satisfied that it was really so. It is to be observed, that this extraordinary
circumstance must have occurred, if it occurred at all, when the body had been upward of amonth dead; for it was taken up in consequence of various rumors implicating theprisoners, after the coroner’s jury had given in a verdict of felo de se. On their first trial,
they were acquitted, but an appeal being brought, they were found guilty and executed. It
was on this latter occasion that the above strange evidence was given, which, being taken
down at the time by Sir John Maynard, then sergeant-at-law, stands recorded, as I haveobserved, in Hargrave’s edition of “State Trials.”
The above circumstances occurred in the year 1628, and in 1688 the blood ordeal wasagain had recourse to in the trial of Sir Philip Stansfield for parricide, on which occasion
the body had also been buried, but for a short time. Certain suspicions arising, it wasdisinterred and examined by the surgeons, and, from a variety of indications, no doubt
remained that the old man had been murdered, nor that his son was guilty of his death.
When the body had been washed and arrayed in clean linen, the nearest relations andfriends were desired to lift it and replace it in the coffin; and when Sir Philip placed his
hand under it, he suddenly drew it back, stained with blood, exclaiming, “Oh, God!” andletting the body fall, he cried, “Lord, have mercy upon me!” and went and bowed himself
over a seat in the church, in which the corpse had been inspected. Repeated testimonies are
given to this circumstance in the course of the trial; and it is very remarkable that Sir John
Dalrymple, a man of strong intellect, and wholly free from superstition, admits it as anestablished fact in his charge to the jury.
In short, we are all, though in different degrees, the subjects of a variety of subtle
influences, which, more or less, neutralize each other, and many of which, therefore, we
never observe; and frequently when we do observe the effects, we have neither time nor
capacity for tracing the cause; and when in more susceptible organisms such effects are
manifested, we content ourselves with referring the phenomena to disease or imposture.
The exemption, or the power, whichever it may be, by which certain persons or races areenabled to handle venomous animals with impunity, is a subject that deserves much more
attention than it has met with; but nobody thinks of investigating secrets that seem rather
curious than profitable; besides which, to believe these things implies a reflection on one’s
sagacity. Yet, every now and then, I hear of facts so extraordinary, which come to me fromundoubted authority, that I can see no reason in the world for rejecting others that are notmuch more so. For example, only the other day, Mr. B. C⁠——, a gentleman well known in
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Scotland, who has lived a great deal abroad, informed me, that having frequently heard of
the singular phenomenon to be observed by placing a scorpion and a mouse together undera glass, he at length tried the experiment; and the result perfectly established what he had
been previously unable to believe. Both animals were evidently frightened, but the scorpion
made the first attack, and stung the mouse, which defended itself bravely, and killed thescorpion. The victory, however, was not without its penalties, for the mouse swelled to an
unnatural size, and seemed in danger of dying from the poison of its defeated antagonist,
when it relieved itself and was cured by eating the scorpion, which was thus proved to be
an antidote to its own venom; furnishing a most interesting and remarkable instance of
isopathy.
There is a religious sect in Africa, not far from Algiers, who eat the most venomous
serpents alive, and certainly, it is said, without extracting their fangs. They declare they
enjoy the privilege from their founder. The creatures writhe and struggle between theirteeth; but possibly, if they do bite them, the bite is innocuous.
Then, not to mention the common expedients of extracting the poisonous fangs, or
forcing the animal by repeated bitings to exhaust their venom, the fact seems too wellestablished to be longer doubted, that there are persons in whom the faculty of charming,or, in other words, disarming serpents, is inherent, as the psylli and marsi of old, and thepeople mentioned by Bruce, Hassequist, and Lempriere, who were themselves eyewitnesses of the facts they relate. With respect to the marsi, it must be remembered, that
Heliogabalus made their priests fling venomous serpents into the circus when it was full ofpeople, and that many perished by the bites of these animals, which the marsi had handledwith impunity. The modern charmers told Bruce that their immunity was born with them;and it was established beyond a doubt, during the French expedition into Egypt, that thesepeople go from house to house to destroy serpents, as men do rats in this country. They
declare that some mysterious instinct guides them to the animals, which they immediately
seize with fury and tear to pieces with their hands and teeth. The negroes of the Antilles
can smell a serpent which they do not see, and of whose presence a European is quite
insensible; and Madame Calderon de la Barca mentions, in her letters from Mexico, somesingular cases of exemption from the pernicious effects of venomous bites; and further
relates, that in some parts of America, where rattlesnakes are extremely abundant, they
have a custom of innoculating children with the poison, and that this is a preservative fromfuture injury. This may or may not be true; but it is so much the fashion in these days to set
down to the account of fable everything deviating from our daily experience, that travellers
may repeat these stories for ages before any competent person will take the trouble ofverifying the report. However, taking the evidence altogether, it appears clear that there
does exist in some persons a faculty of producing in these animals a sort of numbness, or
engourdissement, which renders them for the time incapable of mischief; though of thenature of the power we are utterly ignorant, unless it be magnetic. The senses of animals,
although generally resembling ours, are yet extremely different in various instances; andwe know that many of them have one faculty or another exalted to an intensity of which wehave no precise conception. Galen asserted, on the authority of the marsi and psylli
themselves, that they obtained their immunity by feeding on the flesh of venomous
animals: but Pliny, Elian, Silius Italicus, and others, account for the privilege by attributing
it to the use of some substance of a powerful nature, with which they rubbed their bodies;and most modern travellers incline to the same explanation. But if this were the elucidationof the mystery, I suspect it would be easily detected.
It is observable that in all countries where a secret of this sort exists, there is always
found some custom which may be looked upon as either the cause or the consequence ofthe discovery. In Hindostan, for example, in order to test the truth of an accusation, thecobra capello is flung into a deep pot of earth with a ring; and if the supposed criminal
succeeds in extracting the ring without being bitten by the serpent, he is accounted
innocent. So the sacred asps in Egypt inflicted death upon the wicked, but spared the good.
Dr. Allnut mentions that he saw a negro in Africa touch the protruded tongue of a snakewith the black matter from the end of his pipe, which he said was tobacco-oil. The effects
were as rapid as a shock of electricity. The animal never stirred again, but stiffened, andwas as rigid and hard as if it had been dried in the sun.
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It is related of Machamut, a Moorish king, that he fed on poisons till his bite became
fatal and his saliva venomous. Cœlius Rhodiginus mentions the same thing of a woman
who was thus mortal to all her lovers; and Avicenna mentions a man whose bite was fatalin the same way.
The boy that was found in the forest of Arden, in 1563, and who had been nourished bya she-wolf, made a great deal of money for a short time, after he was introduced to civilized
life, by exempting the flocks and herds of the shepherds from the peril they nightly ran ofbeing devoured by wolves. This he did by stroking them with his hands, or wetting themwith his saliva, after which they for some time enjoyed an immunity. His faculty was
discovered from the circumstance of the beasts he kept never being attacked. It left him,
however, when he was about fourteen, and the wolves ceased to distinguish him from otherhuman beings.
However, my readers will, I think, ere now have supped full with wonders, if not withhorrors—and it is time I should bring this book to a conclusion. If I have done no more, I
trust I shall at least have afforded some amusement; but I shall be better pleased to learn
that I have induced any one, if it be but one, to look upon life and death, and the mysteries
that attach to both, with a more curious and inquiring eye than they have hitherto done. I
can not but think that it would be a great step if mankind could familiarize themselves with
the idea that they are spirits incorporated for a time in the flesh; but that the dissolution of
the connection between soul and body, though it changes the external conditions of theformer, leaves its moral state unaltered. What a man has made himself, he will be; his stateis the result of his past life, and his heaven or hell is in himself. At death we enter upon a
new course of life, and what that life shall be depends upon ourselves. If we have provided
oil for our lamps, and fitted ourselves for a noble destiny and the fellowship of the great
and good spirits that have passed away, such will be our portion; and if we have misused
our talent, and sunk our souls in the sensual pleasures or base passions of this world, weshall carry our desires and passions with us, to make our torment in the other—or perhaps
be tethered to the earth by some inextinguishable remorse or disappointed scheme, likethose unhappy spirits I have been writing about—and that perhaps for hundreds of years;
for, although they be evidently freed from many of the laws of space and matter, while
unable to leave the earth, they are still the children of time and have not entered into
eternity. It is surely absurd to expect that because our bodies have decayed and fallen away,or been destroyed by an accident, that a miracle is to be wrought in our favor, and that themiser’s love of gold, or the profligate’s love of vice, is to be immediately extinguished, andbe superseded by inclinations and tastes better suited to his new condition! New
circumstances do not so rapidly engender a new mind here, that we should hope they will
do so there: more especially as, in the first place, we do not know what facilities ofimprovement may remain in us; and in the second, since the law that like seeks like must
be undeviating, the blind will seek the blind, and not those who could help them to light.
I think, too, that if people would learn to remember that they are spirits, and acquire thehabit of conceiving of themselves as individuals, apart from the body, that they would not
only be better able to realize this view of a future life, but they would also find it much lessdifficult to imagine, that, since they belong to the spiritual world on the one hand, quite asmuch as they belong to the material world on the other, that these extraordinary faculties,
which they occasionally see manifested by certain individuals, or in certain states, may
possibly be but faint rays of those properties which are inherent in spirit, thoughtemporarily obscured by its connection with the flesh—and designed to be so, for the
purposes of this earthly existence. The most ancient nations of the world knew this,although we have lost sight of it, as we learn by the sacred books of the Hebrews.
According to the Cabbalah, “Mankind are endowed by nature, not only with the facultyof penetrating into the regions of the supersensuous and invisible, but also of working
magically above and below, or in the worlds of light and darkness. As the Eternal fills theworld, sees, and is not seen, so does the soul (N’schamach) fill the body, and sees without
being seen. The soul perceives that which the bodily eye can not. Sometimes a man isseized suddenly with a fear, for which he can not account, which is because the souldescries an impending misfortune. The soul possesses also the power of working with theelementary matter of the earth, so as to annihilate one form and produce another. Even by
the force of imagination, human beings can injure other things; yea, even to the slaying of a
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there have in all times existed men endowed with powers, in a greater or less degree, towork good or evil; for, to be a virtuoso in either, requires a peculiar spiritual vigor: thence,such men as heroes and priests in the kingdom of Tumah (the kingdom of the clean andunclean). “If a man therefore sets his desires on what is godly, in proportion as his efforts
are not selfish, but purely a seeking of holiness, he will be endowed, by the free grace ofGod, with supernatural faculties; and it is the highest aim of existence, that man should
regain his connection with his inward, original source, and exalt the material and earthly
into the spiritual.” The highest degree of this condition of light and spirit is commonly
called “the holy ecstasy,” which is apparently the degree attained by the ecstatics of the
Tyrol.
I am very far from meaning to imply that it is our duty, or in any way desirable, that weshould seek to bring ourselves into this state of holy ecstasy, which seems to involve somederangement of the normal relations between the soul and body; but it is at least equallyunwise in us to laugh at, or deny it or its proximate conditions, where they really exist. It
appears perfectly clear that, as by giving ourselves up wholly to our external and sensuous
life, we dim and obscure the spirit of God that is in us—so, by annihilating, as far as in us
lies, the necessities of the body, we may so far subdue the flesh as to loosen the bonds ofthe spirit, and enable it to manifest some of its inherent endowments. Ascetics and saints
have frequently done this voluntarily; and disease, or a peculiar constitution, sometimes
does this for us involuntarily: and it is far from desirable that we should seek to produce
such a state by either means, but it is extremely desirable that we should avail ourselves of
the instruction to be gained by the simple knowledge that such phenomena have existed
and been observed in all ages; and that thereby our connection with the spiritual world may
become a demonstrated fact to all who choose to open their eyes to it.
With regard to the cases of apparitions I have adduced, they are not, as I said before,
one hundredth part of those I could have brought forward, had I resorted to a few of thenumerous printed collections that exist in all languages.
Whether the view I acknowledge myself to take of the facts be or not the correct one—whether we are to look to the region of the psychical or the hyperphysical for the
explanation—the facts themselves are certainly well worthy of observation; the more so, as
it will be seen that, although ghosts are often said to be out of fashion, such occurrences
are, in reality, as rife as ever: while, if these shadowy forms be actually visiters from thedead, I think we can not too soon lend an attentive ear to the tale their reappearance tells us.
That we do not all see them, or that those who promise to come do not all keep tryst,
amounts to nothing. We do not know why they can come, nor why they can not; and as fornot seeing them, I repeat, we must not forget how many other things there are that we donot see: and since, in science, we know that there are delicate manifestations which can
only be rendered perceptible to our organs by the application of the most delicate
electrometers, is it not reasonable to suppose that there may exist certain susceptible ordiseased organisms, which, judiciously handled, may serve as electrometers to the healthy
ones?
As my book is designed as an inquiry, with a note of interrogation I characteristicallybid adieu to my readers.
C. C.
[9]

In the “Medical Annals,” a case is recorded of a young lady whose
axillary excretions were rendered so offensive, by the fright and horror
she had experienced in seeing some of her relations assassinated inIndia, that she was unable to go into society.

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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
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