The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-20

field. DR.. Bostock. the psychologist,
saw the heads of his friends 'in reliet
like medallions," Curiously enough ne
could never conjure up their bodies
The great Napoleon was, as Is gene
rally known, invariably attended by
star. This story was implicitly pc
lieved at the time, and it is said to have
been first related by General Rapp,
who, on visiting the monarch's tent at
night, found Bonaparte eXcitedly point
ing to corner of the tent, crying, do
you see that? My star! 1t is shining
there before you!" At the period of
the Reformation, Wrestling with the evil
one in propria persona was by no
means an uncommon exercise Luther
| several times INDUCED in these COM
bats. Mr.. Leclly tells us of the young
monk who rushed up to Saints Pachon-
ius and Palaemon in the desert, and
told them excitedly of the beautiful wo-
man who had tempted him in his cell,
and, having worked her purpose" had
vanished miraculously in the air, leav-
ing him half dead upon the ground
The story goes on to say that the young
| lllolih WITH d VIII SHIlth piOhC away
from his sanity listeners and
rushed across the desert till he arrived
at the next village, and there leaped
into the open furnace of the public
baths and persisted in the flames"
| Gazette was reported to have habitu-
ally dreamed with his eyes open, so
that at the dinner party, when he sud
denly said that he saw Condorcet, who
was one of the guests, in prison, and
taking poison to avoid the headman's
axe, nobody paid much attention. The
event, however, happened within two
years under the precise circumstances
described La Harpe's graphic descrip-
ton of this repetition of the Feast of
BelshaZzar is too long for quotation,
but thoroughly deserves to be read.
Lycanthropy-or the illusion of the
Were-wolf-and yampyrism were mat
ters of current belief in the Middle
Ages. Boismont states that vampyr-
ism can be traced in Talmudic wri-
tings; but in this it seems probable that
his Imagination found hidden meanings
where none was intended. In the early
part of the present century a peasant
in the east of France, the home of the
| NGlS-WOlNCS PAL eACeiiClCCs w eo Gil
flicted with an Unsuitable appetite for
carrion, more especially human remains
in an advanced state of decomposition.
A similar case was reported in the Lam
Get in the late forties of the present
century. In this instance the ghoul
was a French soldier. Such instances
las this must of necessity have i'm
pressed the superstitious peasants with
the idea of the human wolf" and
from this conception to the seeing of a
man-wolf was but a short step. The
Fata Morgana and many other visual
authorizations have been traced direct
ly to peculiar combinations of light
rays; while the state Of the atmosphere
is undoubtedly responsible for those
phenomena known as mirages.
The present writer once observed a
peculiar phenomenon, in the form of a
cone of light which passed each night
across darkened room. There was al
first no perceptible cause for its appear
ance It was found, however, to result
from the image of a candle flame pass
ing window in the house on the oppo-
site side of the street. A flaw in the
glass Of the window refracted the rays
would have been impossible had the
glass been in plane. In fact, lens
was thus formed which by a strange
coincidence corresponded with similar
formation in the opposite window
, Many ghosts" might doubtless be laid
by the careful examination Of windows
A fog is grand manufacturer Of imag-
mary visitors from the spirit world
More especially is this so at sea, an6
, wonderful are the stories graveiy told
by fishermen of sea serpents and Other
, queer cattle The influence Of halluci
, nations on the mind is often very last
ing, even after their causes have beer
physically explained. Possibly the
shock of the original vision causes some
obscure change in the cerebral func
tions, or more probably the will ha:
, something to do with it. One does no
like ones ghostly swan to turn out tt
be nothing but a feshly goose, and ONT
hugs the delusion, even against one.
, common sense. The study and separa
: ton of the various kinds Of illusions
and Authorizations would form valua
BILE contribution indeed to our knowl
r edge Of the history and evolution O
/ moral ideas.