The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-03-26
HALLUCINATIONS.
SOME or THE CURIOUS EXAMPLES
RECORDED IN HISTORY.

The Lives Of Many Great Men Have been
Influenced by Visions Frequently They
Have Been Prophetic; ut Other Times
They Have Caused Tragedies.
The importance Of the part played by
dominant Authorizations in the history
Of the world can scarcely be overrated.
Julius Caesar. Napoleon Bonaparte. Soc
rates, Luther. Ignatius Loyola. are but
few Of the great men whose lives Were
intimately entwined with ruling delu-
sions. In these cases the illusions seem
10 have been persistent and not TO have
been produced by any voluntary effort
on the part Of the seer. On the other
hand. Talma could walk on to the stage
and after staring at the brilliant and
applauding audience for few seconds
would see nothing but rows Of grinning
skeletons. In this he seems to have fore
stalled Herr Roentgen, for the skeletons
were in the exact positions Of the men,
hers Of the audience and changed their
pastures with every variation Of their
positions 1t was to this grisly "house"
that the great actor delivered some Of
his grandest histrionic efforts.
Goethe, as might be expected, called
up pleasanter and more peaceful visions.
At will he could see a flower in the Gen.
ter Of his visual field He thus described
it: This flower does not for moment
preserve Its form; it is generally decom-
posed, and from its interior are born
other flowers with colored, or sometimes
green, petals. These are not natural
flowers, but fantastic. nevertheless regu-
lar, figures, such Us the roses Of sculp-
tors"
The capacity for thus producing at
will lovely object had. however, the
disadvantage described by Abercrombie
in his famous Inquiry Concerning the
Intellectual Powers" that they were
not as a rule dismissible at pleasure.
Blake, after studying model seated in
a chair, could continue seeing her clearly
when the chair was empty. This must
have been an economical way Of hiring
a subject by the hour and would be an
acceptable talent in these days of highly
feed models. The CHASTITY case described
by Sir Walter Scott of the man who
knew that he was dying, and knew
equally well that there was nothing
whatever the matter with him, is per-
haps too familiar to need more than
passing mention. The black cat that
this luckless man saw was, TO use his
own words, mo household cat, but q
bubble Of the elements which has nc
existence. This animal was as COM
pick in form as the seer's metaphor, for
it would turn suddenly into a court
become o skeleton. This man showed nc
symptoms Of insanity and was fully
aware Of the unreality Of what he saw,
which must greatly have added to the
persistent misery Of his condition.
An old gentleman described by the
late DR.. Elan had power Of conjurine
up, often without voluntary effort, two
or more charming dancing girls, and the
antics Of these nymphs continued unit
sleep came TO the rescue. The old fellow
was Of particularly pious and proper
turn Of mind, SO that their gratuitous
ballet was presumably wasted on him.
Nicolai Of Berlin, very level headed
savant, was troubled for two months
with the vision Of corpse. The hallu
cination lasted as a rule exactly eigh,
minutes, and the body was apparently
always steady Mt uniform distance o.
about ten feet from the observer.
This trouble supervened suddenly
after violent quarrel in which Nicola
had been engaged. Ultimately thu
corpse and all the poor mans other de
Illusions were driven back to their owl
sphere by the prosaic attacks Of leeche
ON the temples This treatment wa
also most effective in dispelling the vi
sions Of certain clergyman in Hamp
shire late in the last century. He habit
ually engaged in personal encounter
with the devil, until the leeches drov
the foul fiend out Of his visual field
DR.. Bostock. the psychologist, saw tn
heads Of his friends Sin relief, lik
medallions Curiously enough, h
could never conjure up their bodies.
The great Napoleon was as is gen
orally known, invariably attended by
star This story was implicitly believes
at the time, and it is said to have beef
FIRST related by General Rapp. who. ol
visiting the knonarch's tent at night
found Bonaparte excitedly pointing +
a corner Of the tent, crying: do yo
see that-my star? 1t is shining ther
before your At the period Of the ref
ormation wrestling with the evil ON
in propria persona was by no means a
uncommon exercise. Luther severa
times INDUCED in these combats. MI
Lecky tells us Of the young monk VIII
rushed up to SITS Pachonius an
palamon in the desert and told ther
txcitedly Of the beautiful woman VIII
had tempted him in his cell and, "hay
ing worked her purpose, had vanishe
miraculously in the air, leaving hir
half dead upon the ground. The stor
! goes ON to say that the young moni
I with wild shrek, broke away fror
I his sanity listeners - and rushc
! across the desert till he arrived at tn
next village and there leaped into tn
! open furnace Of the public baths an
: paricbad IN tho f7ayuoa ~