Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1895-01-05
GHOSTS IN ENGLAND.
They Are ns Numerous Now ns They Wore
In kcott'a nnv.

They Arc ns humorous Now as They Wore
In Soott's Day.
Ghosts enjoy "a curious popularity in
England to-day. Years ago they fell
into unmerited disfavor, and for a CEN
tury and half they battled with scant
success against that arrogant wave of
reason and common sense which chilled
the fair field of poetry, swept romance
from the land, and left the somber
glades of superstition tenantless and
bare of every horror. From time to
time, indeed, the exiled ghosts, like
the exiled gods of Olympus, strove to
regain their lost ascendancy; but there
was something pitifully vulgar about
their trivial triumphs. Apparitions
whose modest mission was to sell a
volume of dull sermons upon death, or
to stir up clamorous mob in Cock
lane, could scarcely aspire to a digni-
fled position in the spirit world. Even
their local coloring, though it lent
them a transient estimation with the
public told against them in the end;
for the city streets and that highly
vaunted bulwark of the nation, the
great respectable middle class are not
harmonious accessories of the super
natural. AS for the educated people,
who now reverently await each new
development of the impossible, theirs
was different attitude 100 years ago.
Men who read Pope and Swift and
Addison, whose heads were clear, whose
hearts were bold, whose faith was
limited, and whose digestions defied
high living, could ill attune their
/ 60 Jo ~ 1r,.,n,.s ,f
medieval ghost lore. THE deevil never
appears to man that's so frightened
aforehaun out o. his seven Senses" says
the Ettrick Shepherd; and he lived in
Scotland, where skcpticisln failed to
attain the easy supercilious composure
of her English sister; in Scotland, where
the exiled fairies and witches shared
with the exiled Stuarts tie just affec-
tion of loyal race.
There is little doubt that Sir Walter
was secretly enamored of the supersti-
tion which he affected to disregard,
and which the stupid prejudices of his
day would not permit him to enjoy
in peace. What can be more pathetic
than the contrast between his robust
denials and his quick, half-smothered
|
well he tells the tale of the apparition
seen by Lord Londonderry-the naked
child who emerged from the dying en-
bers of the CRATE, and who like Faust's
terrible hound, increased in size as he
approached the curtained and recessed
bed. Lord Londonderry, Scott ex-
plains somewhat peev shly was the
only man he knew to whom "a verita-
BILE ghost had ever appeared, and he is
burdened with the conviction that it
may be his duty to offer some eXplana-
tion of the mystery. AS for the super
natural element in his novels. it is al
most failure; not from lack of imag-
ination of vivid power, for the mingled
horror and humor and pathos of Wander
ing Willie's Tale have never been sur
passed, but because the atmosphere in
which he lived was unfavorable to the
full development of such lawless fan
cies. The White Lady of Avenel is one
of the tamest spirits in all fiction.
Good Protestants may have reioiced in
the soundness of her religious princi'
pies; but it is not the place of appari-
tions to be progressive and enlight'
ened. If thev know what is best for
Them, they will cling to the old order
for when it passes away it takes Their
strongest constituency along with it.
sometimes fear that modern ghosts are
being lured to their destruction by the
new semi-scientific methods of research
which beguile them with show of re
spect and little worthless notoricty
but which in the end will rob them ot
their heritage-that shadowy power
which has come down from the din
past to be bartcred away at last, like
Esau's birthright, for mess of pot
tage.-Atlantic.