The Western news., 1903-08-12
HA1ILUC1NATlONS.
eOME OF THE CURIOUS ExAMpt Es
RECORDED IN HISTORY.

Influenced by Visions Frequently The,
Have Been Prophetic; 1t Other Time.
They Have Caused Tragedies.
The importance of the part played by
dominant hallucinations in the histor,
OF the world can scarcely be overrated
Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Soc.
rates. Luther, Ignatius Loyola, are bu,
rev OF the great men whose lives were
intimately entwined with ruling delu.
slons In these cases the illusions seen,
to have been persistent and not to have
been produced by any voluntary effort
on the part Of the seer. On the othe,
hand, Talma could walk on to the stage
and after staring at the brilliant and
applauding audience for q few seconds
would see nothing but rows of grinnine
skeletons. In this he seems to have fore
stalled Herr Roentgen, for the skeletons
were in the exact positions Of the mem
bers OF the audience and changed thei,
postures with every variation of thei,
positions TWAS 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 flower in tho CEN
ter Of his visual field. He thus described
1t: "This flower does not for a 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 as the roses Of sculp-
tors"
The capacity for thus producing al
will lovely object had. however, tho
disadvantage described by Abercrombic
in his famous Inquiry Concerning the
Intellectual Powers" that they were
not as a rule dismissible at pleasure.
Blake, after studying model seated in
achair, could continue seeing her clearly
when the chair was empty. This must
have been an economical way of hiring
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 a
bubble Of the elements which has no
existence. This animal was as COM
pick in form as the seer's metaphor, for
II would turn suddenly into q court
usher, and the usher in his turn would
teccme skeleton. This man showed no
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 conjuring
up, often without voluntary effort, two
or more charming dancing girls. and the
antics of these nymphs continued until
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 eight
minutes. and the body was apparently
always steady at uniform distance OF
about ten feet from the observer.
This trouble supervened suddenly
after violent quarrel in which Nicclai
had been engaged. Ultimately the
corpse and all the poor mans other de-
lus1ons were driven back to their own
sphere by the prosaic attacks Of leeches
On the temples This treatment was
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 encounters
with the devil, until the leeches drove
the foul fiend out of his visual field.
Or. Bostock, the psychologist, saw the
heads Of his friends ''in relief, like
medallions. Curiously enough, he.
could never conjure up their bodies.
The great Napoleon was, as is gen.
orally known, invariably attended by 3
star. This story was implicitly believed
at the time. and it is said to have beer
first related by General Rapp. who, eli
visiting the monarch's tent at night,
found Bonaparte excitedly pointing te
a corner Of the tent. crying: "Do you
see that-my star? It is shining there
before you'll" At the period OF the ref
ormation wrestling with the evil ont
in prcpria persona was by no means al
uncommon exercise. Luther several
times indulged in these combats. Mr.
Lecky tells US Of the young monk who
rushed up to Sta Pachonius and
Palmmcn in the desert and told them
excitcdly of the beautiful woman who
had tempted him in his cell and, "hay-
ing worked her purpose, had vanished
miraculously in the air, leaving him
half dead upon the ground. The story
gees on to say that the young monk,
with a wild shriek, broke away from
ois sanity listeners and rushed
,erc.;s the desert till he arrived at the
next village and there leaped into the
open furnace Of the public baths and
perished in the flames"
Gazette was reported to have habit