Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-06-05

case, and vision of some departed friend
is conjured up out of realities indistinctly
seen, the effect on the mind will depend
greatly on the ideas entertained by the
victim of the illusion on the subject OF
ghosts and visions generally. A believer
| in ghosts will be too startled to inquire
further. II las happens in many instances
of the kind) he can retreat from the dread
presence, he will commonly do so, and re-
main satisfied ever after that he at least
has "seen ghost" And in this way,
doubt little, many veracious persons have
been led to add their evidence in favor of
the common notions about ghosts and
| visions.
| 1t is singular circumstance, however,
that sometimes several persons may be
deceived by an illusion such as we have
been considering. There is an instance
of this kind in book on the supernatural
which | read many years ago cannot
| at the moment recall the name. 1t dealt
with all forms of mental deception-mes-
| merism, witchcraft, necromancing, and so
on. In the part relating to visions, it cited
the case of Sir Walter Scott, who. soon
after the death of Byron, and while his
mind was dwelling on the painful circum-
stances Of that event, saw in the dusk of a
large room a vision of the poet which pre-
sently resolued itself into furniture. Then
came the case [ have in my thoughts. AS
nearly as | can remember, the story ran
thus: A gentleman who had lately lost
his wife, looking out of window in the
dusk of evening, saw her sitting in a
garden chair. He called one of his
daughters and asked her to look into the
garden. why she said, mother is
|
called, and she experienced the same illu-
sion. Then the gentleman went out into
the garden, and found that garden-dress
of his wife's had been placed over the seat
| in such position as to produce the illu-
! sion which had deceived himself and his
daughters.
| know of more curious instance
| where no explanation was ever found,
simply because the deceived persons were
too frightened to seek for one. In house
in Ireland a girl lay dying. Her mother
and father were with her; and her five Sis
tiers were praying for her in a neighbor-
ing room. This room was we'll lit, but
overhead there was skylight and the
dark sky beyond. One of the sisters
looking up towards this skylight, saw
there the face of her dying sister looking
sOrrowfully down upon them. She seized
another sister by the hand and pointed to
the skylight; and one after another the
sisters looked where she pointed. They
spoke no word: and in few moments
their father and mother called them to the
room where their sister had just died; but
when afterwards they talked together
about what had happened that night, it
was found that they had all seen the Wis
ion of the sorrowful face.
ram kah 1a ri IN l,aca o,J
many other instances of supposed visions,
is the utterly unreasonable nature of the
supposition actually made in the mind of
the ghost-seer In the stories where a
ghost appears for some useful purpose, as
to show where treasure has been conceal
ed or to reveal the misdeeds of some per
son still living, the mind does not reject
the event as altogether unreasonable
though the circumstances may be land
commonly are) sufficiently preposterous.
But one can conceive no reason whatever
why departed wife and mother should
make her appearance in a garden chair on
a dusky evening, and still less why the
vision of a dying sister should look down
through skylight 1t is singular that on
this account alone the mind does not re-
ject the illusion in such cases.
Among the most perplexing circum-
stances in the common beliefabOut ghosts,
are the accepted ideas about ghostly habili-
ments. For instance, why should so many
ghosts be clothed in white9 If the answer
is that grave-clothes are white, we may in
quire what a ghost wants with grave
clothes? 1t might as we'll refuse to appear
without a coffin. And then, many ghosts
have appeared in their habit as they lived
If we inquire what is the real conception
in the ghost-seer's mind as to the nature of
the vision, we find a difficulty in under
standing what idea is formed by the real
believer in ghosts respecting the vestments
in which spirits make their appearance.
This is an old difficulty. In fact, it has
probably occurred to every one who has
thought over ghost story. So soon as we
come to the description of the ghosts
vestments, there is always a hitch in the
story For my own part, must have been
a very small child indeed, when l first
pondered over the question, Who made
the ghosts clothes?
Of course there is no difficulty in the
c@ of those who believe only in ghostly
apfaritions as phantoms of the brain.
Here distinction must be drawn [ am
not speaking of those who regard such
apparitiOns as either due to a diseased &C
ton of the brain Or to the power of fancy
in forming from real objects, indistinctly
seen, the picture of a departed friend; but
of those who look on visions of the dead
as produced by supernatural impressions
on the brain. Those who think that at
the will of the dead vision may be caused
to appear, can Of course understand that
this vision would either be clothed in the
garb which had been worn during life, or
in grave-clothes, or in such other dress as
suited the circumstances under which the
vision appeared. But this view is not Or
dinarily adopted by those who regard APP
partitions as supernatural phenomena.
They commonly regard the phantom as
something really existent in the place
where it is apparently seen. The dead
person is there in some form; some essen
tial entity representing him has the power
to transport itself from the place of the
departed into the presence of the living:
1t must be admitted that there is some
thing particularly hideous in long -horn-
ed face | remember an instance where
the sudden appearance of such face, or
what | took to be such, caused me de-
gree of discomfort certainly not justified
by the occasion. Singularly enough, the
event belongs to the period of my life to
which | have already referred; and may
as we'll note that at no time either before
or since have |, even for a moment land
against the will of the mind), mistaken
commonplace objects for either spirit of
health" or goblin damn'd"
Al Al !