Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-06-02
GHOSTS S.
Mass of Testimony That Commands
Respect.

Are there such things as ghosts?
The incredulity with which the ques
ton is often asked is paralleled by
the passionate belief with which the
affirmative answer is often stated.
That there are apparitions is grant
ed even by the most sceptical in
Testigators. But, whereas the i'm
pressionable seer of ghosts believes
they are supernatural, the colder sci
enlist says they are nothing but hui
lucinations. Frank Podmore, the
English ghost hunter has much
to say Of the attendant circumstances
in most ghost seeing, circumstances
which do much to weaken the value
of the testimony of the seer. Al
most invariably there are mysterious
noises, by which the witness is put
in a state of nervous alarm. Then
comes the vision, which often takes
terrifying form. Is the ghost seer
viewing something objective and ex-
ternal or is he merely contemplating
an image created by his own imagin-
alton? Of the good faith of many
people who say they have seen ghosts
there can be no question; but Mr.
Podmore shakes his head as to their
credibility
And yet, when the testimony OF
people who believe they have seen
ghosts has been attenuated to the
utmost, people will still believe. Sci
oOpo roo1- 5ieorOdi+ ov-;6o1co. blJ+ If
| cannot prove that ghosts do not ex-
list. Throughout the ages there is
cumulative mass of testimony which,
though it does not amount to proof,
yet commands shuddering respect.
The sternest materialism will not
eliminate from peoples minds that
| credence in the unknown and the I'M
| demonstrate which has been handed
down to them from the beginning OF
| time
Plato himself accepted the exist
ence of ghosts, and he makes Soc
rates explain their frequenting of
| graveyards. These ghosts, says the
great Athenian, long to reenter the
body in which they could crafty
their desires. 1t is hopeless, but
memory tortures them with vain af-
lection for the 1eshly abode in
which they formerly dwelt Shake
speare is full of allusiens to the
dwellers in the realm of shadows.
But he, too, knows the meaning OF
philosophic doubt; for he makes
Hamlet wonder whether the image
of his father may not be some coin
age of his fancy. He hesitates be-
tween contrary opinions, but inclines
toward belief in the supernatural.
He says to his friend:
There are more things in heaven and
earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in thy philosophy
From Shakespeare's day to now
we have advanced in one particular.
We know more of the composition OF
the brain and the susceptibilities or
nervous tissue. We are assured TO-
day that man may honestly believe
he sees a ghost, and yet see nothing
|
in his own brain. But as to the eX-
| istence or non-existence of ghosts,
we are as ignorant as the ancient
Egyptian Or the modern redskin. Rea-
son learnedly as we may, we cannot
eradicate from our mind that vague
feeling half fear, half hope, that
ghosts may be- Sir Thomas Browne
touches on this matter with charac-
teristic quaintness. Some people, he
says, hope to see a ghost that they
may be persuaded of the immortality
of the soul But he adds that the
devil will never let them see one;
for that would be to turn them away
from himself-Rocheste Post Ex-
press.