Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1869-11-11

that thew correspond to the firms adop
ted by popular belief from familiar paiut
ings and sculptures The witches 0
Lorraine, who professea to !. familiar
with devils. wer questioned ieularly
ss 10 tie appearance Of these ahxlsby NJ
Rsmy, the commissioner for taseIr 'triaGs =
They had simply realiz d them by tn
rude aIleHorical painting and sculpture o
.hs. SaIs'adie. ages. 'Tney said they were
black-fa,ed, with sunk but fiery eyes
their mouths wide and smelling of SUI
phur, their han Is hairy, wieh c'aws, their
feet horny and cIoven The cloven foo,
comes of tradition that the devil was in
! the habit Of appearing to the Jews in the
form Of a hairv goat Saints, when they
appear, correspond in the same way with
the conventional form of church painting
ami sculpture Visions seen Ia the ec-
stacies af saints themselves were common
ly trua visions Natural, as results of an
ovor5trained mind in wasted and often
tortured body. TIE visions seen BY the
diving may be explained also by tho con-
dition of the body in the last stare of
many diseases, when the commonness of
spectral dalusions has given rise to a
strong faith in our frequent visible COM
mun'on with angels ana departed spirits
in the hour of death.
Next 10 sight, hearing is the sense most
Frequently impos d on. aud ~ sound IS 50
commonly imagined az the cill o. tamll-
lar compqnion. Dr. Johnson fancled he
heard his mother c2ll ''Sam," when she
was hundred miles away, and was mTch
disappointed when nothing ensuad That
call bv fami lar voice was frequent
experience OF the present writer. 1t was
commonly a home voice, and a loud, clear
and abrupt monosvllabic call But he
h 3 heard the voice Of a brother miles
awav. sreaking as from behind his shou-
der in a country college library, and turn
ed to answer in voice Itself 50 insensi-
bly subiuel to harmony with the impress
sion. as considerably to surprise fellow
student who was sanding near But the
dclusions Of hearing wore, in this case,
not confined to voices the sound of OPEN
ing doors within The bedroom at night,
when thcra was no door opened, and 9TH
er such tr ks on the ear, were also not
uncommon, bur these Chough not the
sudden vnic,s, which seemed to be CON
nectcd with some momentarv leap Of the
blood. as il the sensation that one has
sometimes when going to sleep, Of falling
suddenly with=a great iolD were always
TO be exrlqinca by traceable relation to a
thought within the mind.
Next to hearing, touch is saiftSbe the
sense most frequently imposed tn; as
when people have fancied themselves beat
en- by invisible or visible fcn1~, and falt
pain from it The present
writer can remember in his own ghostly
experience but one dclusjon Of the sense
Of touch. It wasassociatc1 with dclu4ou
of hearing, ana repeated nightly for a
week or ton daya. Sometime, the sense
Of smell is deceived, as whom the spectral
>i-ht Of demon is joined to spectral
small Of rimstonc. Considering how Of
ren people are saying that they fancy
they smell" something. one might think
play upon this : nsc to be mere common
than ii is. Least liable to deIusion is said
To be the sanse Of taste. Thus, a luu2tic
by Sir Walter Scott, tancied
ais porridge dinner to consist of every
dclicacv, but complained that everything
he ate tasted Of porrIdge.