The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-02-28
Miscellany
a GHOST story.


Translated from Heines 'Picture's Of 9'a'e''a
Something very strange happeg-d 10 me me
the night that | passed in GosT' : "a" nt
never think of it without terro;a am ,itS
naturally 1imid, but am as aa a'u - noeS II
as an Austrian spy. What, ' tna,,, caoI;,,o .
come from the intellect, aro,,ed with H.
These questions had of, a. ~ WIN Df'
Saul Ascher when We ! Ionn ti,o ao ,, ~
al at Berlin, where He alwaTs mans mdT ID
the habit of dinngo hocaTeo H''mntil,',a
that ne learso !; a % be fearful. reason only
we peio nowar iot feeling. While l ate and
drank veil demonstrated, without inter-
rnnt;on - superiority of reason. Toward
,ha anI,of his demonstration he always
inokcat his watch, and always finished
- Reason is the highest principle"
Jason. When hear this word, l always
zee DR.. Saul Ascher with his abstract legs,
with his narrow transcendental grey tight
fitting coat, and his harsh, freezing cold face,
that might have served for the diagrams in a
manual OF geometry. This man, neatly sixty
years old, was personiied straight line. In
striving after the positive, the poor man had
philosophical out of life everything divine.
all sunshine, all faith and all beauty. and
nothing was LETT to him but the cold, positive
grave. He had special dislike to the Ap-
polo Belvidere and to Christianity Against
the latter he wrote pamphlet, showing its
unreaSonaoleness and untenabeness Once
l visited this doctor of reason at his own
house, where l found beautiful girl with
him, tor reason does not forbid endowment.
When went to visit him again, his servant
Sald, THE Dr., has just died." / felt very lit
tie more than if he had said, '.the DR.. has
gone out.
But 10 return to Goslar "The highest
principle is reason !" / said soothingly to my
q c / pliD1had into IaI Int; Il.
me. had just read in Varnhagen Won Enses
German Tales, that trightlul story of the son
whom his father is going 10 murder, and who
is warned in the night by the ghost of his
mother. The wonderful recital of this tale
moved me so much, that while reading it |
shivere1 with inward horror. Ghost stories
are apt to excite shuddering feeling, when
lAey are read on journey, and especially at
night in city, in house, in room where
one has never before been. One cannot help
thinking how many dreadful things NAV have
taken place on this very spot where you are
lying. Besides the moon was shining myste-
riously in the room, uncalled-for shadows
were moving on the wall, and when | sat
up In bed TO look around me, / saw
There is nothing more ghostly than accident
ally to see by moonlight, ones own face in a
mirror. AT the same time heavy yawnino
clock struck SO long and SO slowly. that after
the twelfth stroke felt sure full twelve hours
must have passed, and that it must begin
again to strike twelve. Between the eleventh
and the last stroke another clock was heard.
very quick, shrewishly shrill, perhaps angry
at the tediousness of it's neighbor. When
both iron tongues were silent and death like
stiffness reigned in the house, / suddenly
heared in the entry before my chamber a
stumbling and shufling like the unsteady
walk OF man. At last my door opened and
the dead DIR. Saul Aseher walked in. A cold
sweat covered me, trembled like an aspen
leaf and hardly dared to look at the ghost.-
He looked as usual, the same transeenden-
a-gray tight fitting coat; the same abstract
legs, and the same mathematical face: but the
face was more yellow than it used TO be. and
the mouth which used to make two angles of
% l-2 degrees was pinched, and the circle of
the eyes had greater radius. He approach
ed me, and said in friendly tone and in his
usual deliberate speech: Do not be afraid.
and do not THINK that / am ghost. 1t is a
deluslon OF your Imagination If you think
you see me as ghost. What is ghost?
Can you give me the definition of one? Can
you deduce for me the condition of the nossi-
bility Of ghost. What logical connection
with reason has such an apparition? Reason,
L say, reason" and here the'ghost began an
analysis of reason. quoted Rants ''critique of
pure reason" explained the problematical
belief in spirits, added one syloeism to an
other, and ended with the logical decision
that there are no ghosts. Meanwhile cold
sweat ran down my back, my teeth clatterei
like castanets, and out OF the terror of my
soul | nodded unconditional acquiescence to
every proposition by which the spectre doctor
proved the absurdity of all fear of ghosts, and
demonstrated it so eagerly that once in alb
sent mindedness, he drew from his pocket a
handful OF worms instead of his gold watch,
and noticing his mistake put them back in
his pocket with ludicrously anxious haste
!" Reason is the highest" there the clock struck
one and the ghost vanished.