Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-06-18
One Kind of Ghosts.


One Kind of Ghosts.
Mental philosophers tell us Of excited
| conceptions and apparitions. These con-
| captions may be those received through
any one of the senses, though oftenest
those of sight. The appearances may not
| only be of things real, but unreal; III fact,
any conception we have may become SO
vivid as to be referred to something ex-
ternal. Not only angels and departed
spirits may appear to come up before us,
but mountains, rivers, armies-in short,
every idea which we may derive from
| sense. Persons have sometimes been thus
afflicted for days, having the streets, their
stores and even their bed-chambers filled
with phantasms. An instance is given by
| DR.. Upham of case in Kingston-on-Hull,
where a shop-keeper was haunted by q
great variety of specters, and so real did
they appear that he found it difficult to
| tell which were his real customers and
which were the phantasms of his own
mind. Many other cases might be noted,
all showing very plainly that the mind
may be thoroughly deceived, referring,
with the most positive belief, to some ex-
ternal cause conceptions which may have
| no foundation whatever without it. Such
conceptions thus become false percep-
! lions, and can not be refuted save by rea-
| soning They are the result of disease,
such as a disorder of the optic nerve, or
| fever or inflammation of the brain. But
| the disease may sometimes be very slight,
so that the patient would hardly own
| that he was ill.
Now, the question arises, may not this
| nervous state explain the ghosts or super
natural appearances which men have
sometimes supposed they saw7 Can it
not be that their conceptions, taking upon
themselves supernatural form, as they
| often do, especially among superstitious
people, became SO vivid as to become ap-
pard& perceptions?
The writer when a very small boy, one
night slept with another child in room
usually occupied by girl living with the
family, but who had gone to her own
home mile or two away to stay over
| night. In the course OF the night the
writer awoke, and on looking toward the
door, saw it flung wide open, although he
knew he had been careful to shut it. He
saw the girl walk in, apparently having
on night-dress, and advance toward the
side of the bed. His first supposition was
that she had come home in the night, and
though startled, he felt no fear. Accord
ingly, he called her by name On this the
figure re Gated, ane passing behind the
foot Of the bed disappeared in the dark
ness. The impression then was that she
was going to play some trick; but as mill
utes passed away and she did notreappear,
the writer became exceedingly frightened,
for it must be remembered that it was all
as real to him as it is that he is now writ
ing During all this time other images
appeared at the door, ugly faces thrusting
themselves in and then disappearing. He
awoke his bed-fellOw, who could see moth
ing except something yellow" which
afterward turned out to be the bed-post.
Both screamed as loudly as possible for
help, but nobody heard. Finally they
both thrust their heads down among the
pillows, and after time went to sleep.
The point to be made here is, that the
writer was not dreaming, but was wide
awake and sat up in bed, and that these
scenes were perfectly real. On another
, occasion, when he saw horse standing
by the bedside, and again Newfoundland
dog, and at still another time when he
saw magnificent flower rise up toward
the ceiling, the impression was different,
for reason at once, taking the former ex-
perience as basis, refuted the apparent
: perceptions. But suppose he had been
alone that night, and it had been some de-
ceased person whom he had seemed to see,
especially if she had died that night,
which supposition might very easily have
been the fact, would any person at all SUI
perstitious have doubted for a moment
that it was the dead person?
You will not be surprised that since
then the writer has not had the most I'M
bounded confidence either in the evidence
of the senses or in the visions of the dying;
Morte obta quales fama est votare fguras.'
! Nor will you fail to see how he has often
accounted for the supernatural appear
ances which many have so positively
affirmed that they have seen. Would it
| not have been simply natural and to have
been expected that srperstitious family
would take the vision of beautiful flower
rising up and disappearing to be pre-
monition Of the death of some one of the
children? Yet in this case it was nothing
more than the effect of disease, which,
+ though slight, as far as the appearances
could indicate or the feelings Of the person
f himself testify, was yet real and powerful
J enough to produce a disordered mental
! action which directly affirmed the
r presence OF that which did not exist
at all. Not that everything above and
5 beyond nature is to be rejected; not that
: disembodied spirits have not at times pre-
sented themselves, and warning been sent
e back from the eternal world to those who
t linger here; but that there is a false super
natural the direct product of nervous dis
3 ease; and there should be the utmost
caution in crediting the statements of
those who profess even honestly to have
, seen or heard the inhabitants of heaven or
; hell; for, as we have seen, all the wonder
full appearances which they honestly sup
= pose themselves to see may be nothing but
! excited conceptions.-T. c. Mofat, an
chronological Journal for Jane.
: FRIGHTENED ORAToRs.-For the en-
J enlargement OF all who fear an audience
we reprint the following from Hawthorle's
: English Note Book" Bulwer and a Ger
! tam DR.. - were talking together about
public speaking, and the Doctor said he