The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-03-09
SPECTRE MANIFESTATIONS.
LOOKING INTO SOME MYSTERIES OF THE
REALM OF DREAMS.

DR.. Hilbert has shown that spectres
are nothing more than ideas or the recol-
lected images of the mind, which, in
certain states of bodily indisposition,
have been rendered more vivid than ac-
tual impressions, and that the pictures of
the minds eye" are more vivid than the
pictures of the body's eyee Sir David
Brewster, in his Natural Magic" goes
further than this, and shows that the
"mind's eye" is actually the .body's eye,
and that the retina is the common tablet
on which both classes of impressions are
painted, and by means of which they re-
ceive their visual existence under the
same optical laws. He thinks that this
is not only true in the case of spectral
illusions, but that it holds good of all
ideas recalled by the memory or created
by the imagination, and that it may be
regarded as the fundamental law in the
science of pneumatology.
Robert Dale Owen in his "Footfalls on
the Boundary of Another World" tells a
marvellous story of condolences that one
can hardly believe were brought about
by no other agency than chance. Mr..
Owen says that the story was commune
Gated to him in July, 1859, by Captain j.
S. Clark, of the schooner John Hallock,
then lying at Rutgers Slip, who had it
direct from Mr.. Bruce himself. He adds
that the John Hallock was then trading
between New York and Santiago, Cuba.
Mr.. Robert Bruce, born at Torbay, in
the south of England, and there bred up
to sea-faring life, in 1928, when about 80
years old, was first mate on a bark trad
ing between Liverpool to st. John, n.
B. On one of her voyages, bound west
ward, being then five or six weeks out,
and having neared the eastern portion of
the banks of Newfoundland, the captain
and mate had been on deck at noon, TAX
ins an observation of the sun; after
which they both descended to calculate
their days work. The cabin, small one,
was Immediately at the stern of the ves-
sci, and the short stairway descending to
it ran athwartships. Immediately oppo-
site to this stairway, just beyond small
square landing, was the mates state
room; and from that landing there were
two doors, close to each other, the one
opening aft into the cabin, the other
fronting the stairway into the state-room.
THE VISION.
The desk was in the forward part of
the room, close to the door so that any
one sitting at it and looking over his
shoulder could see into the cabin. The
mate, absorbed in his calculations, which
did not result as he expected, varying
considerably from the dead reckoning,
had not noticed the Captains motions.
Having completed his calculations, he
called out, without locking around, II
make our latitude and longitude so and
so. Can that be right? How is yours :"
AS there was no reply, he repeated his
question, glancing over his shoulder and
seeing, as he thought, the Captain busy
writing on his slate. Still no answer
Thereupon he arose and, as he fronted
the cabin door, the figure he had mis-
taken for the Captain, raised its head and
disclosed to the astonished mate the
features of an entire stranger. Bruce
was not coward; but, as he met that
fixed gaze looking upon him in grave
silence, and became assured that 1t was
no one whom he had ever seen, it was
too much for him he rushed up to the
deck in such evident alarm that it in
stantly attracted the Captains attention.
"Why, Mr.. Bruce" said the latter
"what in the world is the matter with
you?'
"The matter, sir? Who is that atyour
dcsk?"
"No one, that I know Of"
"But there is, sir; there's stranger
there"
"a stranger! Why, man, you must be
dreaming. You must have seen the
steward there or the second mate. Who
else would venture down without Or
ders?"
'But, sir, he was sitting in your arm
chair fronting the door, writing on your
slate. Then he looked up in my face
and, if ever saw a man plainly and dis
tinctly in this world, | saw him."
"HimI Who?"
"God knows, sir; l don't. | saw a
man, and man J. never in my life saw
before"
"You must be going crazy, Mr. Bruce.
\ stranger, and we nearly SIX weeks
out
81 know, sir, but then I saw him."
'.Go down and see who it is"
Rrucn hositotnd s'f never WaS Il be-