The Arizona champion., 1890-12-27
GREAT MEMS ILLUSIONS.
Swift Said all men are mad
 in Some Degree.
EVIDENCE WHICH TENDS TO PROVE IT.
Poets, Philosophers, Soldiers, and Re-
 formers, Influenced by Them.

cred Sane-ln whlcn category Ine Senlle reader is included-are liable to halluci- nations, and it depends upon the extent to which we give way before, and believe in. the illusions of the brain, whether we walk abroad with our follies or are placed in a padded room.
 Byron often received visits from specter. but he knew it to be creation of the imagination. Pope saw an arm ap- parently come through the wall, and | made inuuiries after its owner, Goethe states that he one day saw the exact counterpart of himself coming toward l him. Ben Jonson spent the watches ot the night an interested spectator of a crowd of Tartars, Turks and Roman Catholics. who rose up and fought round his arm chair till sunrise Dr. Jonson heard his mother call his name in clear voice, though she was at the time in an other city And Sir Joshua Reynolds, leaving his house, thought the lamps were trees and the men and women bushes agitated by the breeze.
 Nicolai was alarmed at the appearance | of dead body which vanished and came again at intervals. This was followed by human faces, which came into the room, and after gazing upon him for while departed None of his friends was among the faces he saw. After enjoying a silent acquaintance with his visitors for some weeks, they began to speak. and he describes their conversa- | tion as brief and agreeable Such visl- itors would cause many to lose their reason, but Nicolai knew they were but the effects of indigestion.
 Bostock, the physiologist, saw similar | figures and faces. and after recovering from a momentary surprise, he set him self to study the habits and customs of his curious visitors. This he had ample op- portunity to do, as they remained with him three days and nights. There was one human face constantly before him | for twenty-four hours, the features and headgear as distinct as those of a living person, yet having no resemblance to any one he had ever known. Finally the phantom disappeared, to make way for troops of little human figures, which | disported themselves like fanticcini for l his entertainment
 The reason, says Connolly, that Nico- lai and Bostock did not become hopeless ly insane was because they never believed | in the reality of the visions. The effects of the illusions of some men have been felt in history. Religions have been founded on the words of men supposed to have been inspired, but who were merely suffering from form of madness which medical science calls ''ecstacy." Oliver Cromwell, lying sleepless on his couch, saw the curtains open and a gigan- tic woman appear, who told him he would become the greatest man in Eng land.
 1 In 1906 Gen. Rapp, having important news, entered the emperor's apartment unannounced, and found the great war rior in a rapt attitude, gazing at the cell ing. The general made an intentional poise, whereupon Napoleon seized his arm and said excitedly, Look up there! He looked and saw nothing. "Why," said the emperor, do you not see it? It is my star; it is before you beaming; it has never deserted me lsee it on every great occurrence urging me onward; it is an unfailing omen of success"
 Some men have been inspired to per severe in their life's work by self con- jured illusion. Loyola. lying wounded during the siege of Pampeluna, saw the Virgin, who encouraged him to prose cute his mission. Benvenuto Cellini, i'm prisoned at Rome, resolved to free him. self by self destruction, but was deterred by the apparition of young woman of wondrous beauty. whose reproaches turned him from his purpose. This spirit returned and consoled him on other occasions when he was low spirit ed Descartes was followed by an in visible person whose voice he heard urg- ing him to continue his researches after | truth.
 Many have fondly clung to their illu- sions, and though reasonable in most things have at least been distinctly mad in one. Tasso firmly believed that he had familiar genius, whose great de- light and chief recreation was to con verse with him. His friend, J. B. Man so, tried to persuade him of this illusion, whereupon the poet offered to introduce his unbelieving friend to the spirit. But though he often heard Tasso in conver- sation with the imaginary being, it never made itself visible to other eyes
 Few believe that Luther actually held warm discussion with an important parsonage from the other world, yet that he believed it himself we have his word, and he has even left on record some ac- count of the dispute, from which it would appear that his opponent is not so willy as we have been led to believe. At any rate he could not wind himself argu- mentatively round the sturdy priest. Ravaillac, while chanting the "Mis- erere" and "De Profundis," fondly be- lieved that the sounds he emitted were of the nature and had the full effect of a trumpet. Count Emmanuel Swedenborg believed that he had the privilege of in terviewing persons in the spirit world Jean Engelbrecht was under a similar impression. Zimmerman was for some time in constant fear of an imaginary enemy, whom he expected to arrive at any moment, break into and wreck his dwelling. ng.-London Standard.
 Leuwenhock by of microscopes observed spiders no bigger than grain of sand, which spun threads so fine that