llJ^*' -^z "Jsajiu jui ,o# ,5MEIINIVER% AVlOSANCa% 5 L-ZTi^v r» **- ao ^OF'CAUF0R(^ **? I I ^"^ ■si ^OFCAllfORfe ^llIBRARYQc. ^OFCAllfO^. c~» ^ >— 'P I' £? ■p .^\^E•^)NIVtRS'/A AjclOSAI s .^WEUNIVER% in-J^ '- aa ^ 1^.. SKETCHES OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF APPARITIONS ; OR, AN ATTEMPT TO TRACE SUCH ILLUSIONS TO THEIR PHYSICAL CAUSES. By SAMUEL HIBBERT, M.D. F.R.S.E. SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY OF SCOTTISH ANTIQUARIES, &c. &c. &c- -^— — " r the name of truth. Are ye fantastical, or that Indeed Which outwardly ye show?" — Macbeth. THE SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED. EDINBURGH : PUBLISHED BY OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE-COURT ; AND GEO. B. WHITTAKER, I^ONDON. 1825. ENTERED IN STATIONERS' HA1,L. rniNTED BY OLIA'EH & HOYD. TO SIR WALTER SCOTT OF ABBOTSFORD, BART. PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, &c. &c. &c. SlH, Among the pages of your various works, are many incidental notices of early and prevailing superstitions, from the perusal of which I have often experienced a more than common degree of interest, on account of their intimate connexion with the history of the Human Blind. You have, indeed, yourself occa- sionally adverted to the importance of investigating the mental principles to which certain popular illusions may be referred : in most respectfully, therefore, inscribing to you this little volume, in which such an attempt has been made, I beg that it may be considered as a sincere testimony of gratitude for the pleasure and advantage which I have frequently derived from your literary labours. I have the honour to be. Sir, Your most obedient and Very faithful servant, S. HIBBERT, M.D. Edinburgh, 29th March, 1825. PREFACE. In the winter of 1823, I had the honour of read- ing an Essay on Spectral Impressions to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Whatever interest it ex- cited was rather due to the subject, than to the degree of success with which a theory of appari- tions could possibly be discussed in the limits of a short paper. This consideration, therefore, among others, has given rise to the present volume. The plan of this work may now be briefly stated : — In the first place, a view is given of the various opinions, ancient as well as modern, which have been entertained on the subject of apparitions. The hypothesis, however, which I have myself pre- ferred, is, that apparitions are nothing more than ideas, or the recollected images of the mind, which have been rendered more vivid than actual im- pressions. vi PREFACE. An explanation is next rendered of the parti- cular morbid affections with which the production of phantasms is often connected. It is also pointed out, that in many ghost-stories of a supposed supernatural character, the ideas, which by disease are rendered so unduly intense as to induce spectral illusions, may be traced to such fantastical objects of prior belief as are incor- porated in the various systems of superstition, which for ages have possessed the minds of the vulgar. But if apparitions are really to be considered as ideas equalling or exceeding in vividness actual impressions, there ought to exist some important and definite laws of the mind which have given rise to this undue degree of vividness. These laws, accordingly, form the subject of a long investiga- tion. Another object of this dissertation was to have established, that, in every luidue excitement of our feelings, (as, for instance, when ideas be- come more vivid than actual impressions) the ope- rations of the intellectual faculty of the mind sustain corresponding modifications, by which the efforts of the jvidgmcnt arc rendered propor- tionally incorrect. But ihc reason which I assign PREFACE. vii for being obliged to suspend such an intention, is, " that an object of this nature cannot be attempted but in connexion with ahiiost all the phenomena of the human mind. To pursue the inquiry, there- fore, any farther, would be to make a dissertation on apparitions the absurd vehicle of a regular sys- tem of metaphysics." This work is not addressed to any particular class of readers. As we live in an age exceeded by no previous one for the desire of information, and as there is a general interest excited on the subject of apparitions, which are properly regarded as un- explained phenomena, I have not thought fit to fashion this discourse to the exclusive taste either of metaphysicians or physiologists ; but, on the contrary, have so endeavoured to treat it, that, without any previous study of the sciences which it involves, it may be fully understood. Yet the reader ought by no means to flatter himself, that he will be enabled to comprehend the laws which give rise to phantasms without any mental exertion on his own part. The phenomena, which for ages have puzzled the most learned men in the world, are not to be thus easily dealt with. I shall, lastly, remark, that the illustrations viii PREFACE. which appear in the course of this work are not more numerous than the treatise requires ; my ob- ject being not only to render the principles that I have inculcated as intelligible as possible, but to direct the attention of the reader less to the vulgar absurdities which are blended with ghost-stories, than to the important philosophical inferences that are frequently to be deduced from them. The subject of apparitions has, indeed, for centuries, occupied the attention of the learned ; but seldom without reference to superstitious speculations. It is time, however, that these illusions should be viewed in a perfectly different light ; for, if the conclusions to which I have arrived be correct, they are calcu- lated, more than almost every other class of mental phenomena, to throw considerable light upon cer- tain important laws connected with the physiology of the human mind. S. H. CONTENTS. PART I. SKETCHES OF CERTAIN OPINIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, WHICH HAVE BEEN ENTERTAINED ON THE SUBJECT OF APPARITIONS. Page Chap. I. The Opinions entertained regarding the Credibility of Ghost-Stories, . . _ 3 II. TheReferenceof Apparitions to Hallucinations, &c. 15 III. The Opinions entertained that a Ghost was a ma- terial Product, sui Generis, - 18 IV. The Opinions entertained that Ghosts were exter- nal Ideas, or Astral Spirits, . _ 25 V. The Opinions entertained that Ghosts were attri- butable to Fancy or Imagination, - 31 VI. The Opinions which attribute the supposed In- fluence of Fancy to the direct Operations of the Soul, - _ . . 38 VII. The Notions entertained that Ideas, by their Ac- tion on the Nerves, gave rise to Spectral Im- pressions, _ . _ 44 VIII. The Opinions that Spectral Impressions were the Result of a false Judgment of the Intellect, 46 IX. The Devil supposed to be a Cause of Ghosts, 48 PAKT II. THE PARTICULAR MORBID AFFECTIONS WITH WHICH THE PRODUCTION OF PHANTASMS IS OFTEN CONNECTED. Chap. I. The Pathology of Spectral Illusions, - 61 II. Spectral Illusions resulting from the highly. excit- ed States of particular Temperaments, - 72 b X CONTENTS. Page Chap. III. Spectral Illusions arising from the Hysteric Tem- perament, - - - 81 IV. Spectral Illusions occurring from Plethora ; for in- stance, from the Neglect of accustomed periodi- cal Blood-letting, _ « . 86 V. The Spectral Illusions which occasionally occur as Hectic Sjrmptoms, - - - 91 VI. Spectral Illusions from Febrile and Inflammatory Affections, ... 94 VII. Spectral Illusions arising from Inflammation of the Brain, _ . - 99 VIII. Spectral Illusions arising from a highly-excited State of Nervous Irritability acting generally on the System, - - - 112 IX. The Spectral Illusions of Hypochondriacks, 117 X. Certain less frequent Morbid Sources of Spectral Illusions, - - - 119 PART III. PROOFS THAT THE OBJECTS OF SPECTKAL ILLUSIONS ARE FREQUENTLY SUGGESTED BY THE FANTASTIC IMAGERY OF SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF. Chap. I. Explanation of the Mode in which the Ideas which are suggested by various Popular Superstitions become recalled in a highly-vivified State, so as to constitute the Imagery of Spectral Illusions, 125 II. Remarks on the Apparitions of Good Spirits, re- corded in Popular Narratives, - 138 III. General Remarks on the Apparitions connected with Demonology, - - 160 IV. General Remarks on the Apparitions of Departed Spirits, - - ... 191 PART IV. AN ATTEMPT TO INVESTIGATE THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. CuAP. I. General Object of the Investigation which follows, 241 II. Indications aftbrded by Mental Excitements, that Organs of Sensation arc the Medium through which past Feelings are renovated, - 244 CONTENTS. Xi Page Chap. III. The various Degrees of Excitement, of which Ideas, or the renovated Feelings of the Mind, are susceptible, _ . _ 258 IV. An Inquiry into those Laws of Mental Conscious- ness which give rise to the Illusions of Dreams, 272 V. Phantasms may arise from Ideas of which the Mind might otherwise have been either con- scious or unconscious, - - 282 VI. The Effect of jMorbific Excitements of the Mind when heightened by the vivifying Influence of Hope and Fear, - . _ 295 VII. The Illusions which Hope and Fear are capable of exciting independently of the Co-operation of Morbific Causes, - - . 305 VIII. Mental Excitements distinguished as partial or general, - - . . 311 IX. General JMental Excitements considered as the Result of Morbific Causes co-operating with moral Agents, - - . 315 X. The frequent EflTect of general Morbific Excite- ments in rendering the Mind unconscious either of pleasurable or painful Feelings, - 319 XI. The Influence of any prevailing moral Disposition may be so increased by a Morbific Excitement, as to be productive of Spectral Impressions of a corresponding Character, - . 323 XII. When moral Agents which exert a pleasurable In- fluence are heightened in their Effects by the Co-operation of .Morbific Excitements of a si- milar pleasurable Quality, the Mind may be rendered totally unconscious of opposite or pain- ful Feelings, ... 340 XIII. When moral Agents which exert a painful In. fluence are heightened in their ElTects by the Co-operation of Morbific Excitements of a simi. lar painful Quality, the Mind may be rendered totally unconscious of opposite or pleasurable Feelings, - . _ - 347 XIV. Proofs that, during intense Excitements of the Mind, no less than during Syncope and Sleep, the Causes which exclusively act upon Organs of Sensation eventually extend their vivifying Influence to the Renovation of past Feelings, 353 XV. When Morbific Causes of Mental Excitement ex- ert to their utmost Extent their stimulating xii CONTENTS. Page Powers, they often change the Quality of their Action, as from Pleasure to Pain, or from Pain to Pleasure, - - - 3GI Chap. XVI. When Causes act acutely upon Organs of Sensa- tion, and are unremittingly prolonged, they oc- casionally change the Quality of their Action ; as, for instance, from Pain to Pleasure. Ideas likewise partake of this Change of Excitement, 367 PART V. SLIGHT KEMAB.KS ON THE MODIFICATIONS WHICH THE IN- TELLECTUAL FACULTY OFTEN UNDERGOES DURING IN- TENSE EXCITEMENTS OF THE MIND, - . 377 PART VI. SUMMARY OF THE COMPARATIVE DEGREES OF FAINTNESS, VIVIDNESS, OR INTENSITY SUBSISTING BETWEEN SENSA- TIONS AND IDEAS, DURING THEIR VARIOUS EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. Introduction, . . _ . . 39^ Chap. I. The various Excitements and Depressions connect. ed with the Sleeping and Dreaming States, 393 II. The Order of Phenomena observable in extreme Mental Excitements, when Sensations and Ideas are conjointly rendered more vivid, - 409 III. The Images of Spectral Impressions differ from those of Dreams in being much more vivid, 429 NOTES, . . . _ . 441 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. Formula (contained in a Tabular View) of the various compa- rative Degrees of Faintness, Vividness, or Intensity, supposed to subsist between Sensations and Ideas, when conjointly excited or depressed, — to face page 392. AVood Cut of Grotesque Carvings over the Door of the Cheetham Library, IManehester, — illustrative of the Demonology of the Middle Ages, — tofaccjpage 172. PART I. SKETCHES OF CERTAIN OPINIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, WHICH HAVE BEEN ENTERTAINED ON THE SUBJECT OF APPARITIONS. PART I. CHAPTER I. THE OPINIONS ENTERTAINED KEGARDING THE CREDI- BILITY OF GHOST-STORIES. " We thinke that to be a lie, which is written, or rather fa- tliered upon Luther; to wit, that he knew the devill, and was verie conversant with him, and had eaten nianie bushels of salt and made jollie good cheere with him ; and that he was confuted, in a disputation with a real divell, about the abolishing of private masse." — Scofs Discovery of Witchcrajt. To give a regular history of the various opinions en- tertained in successive ages relative to apparitions,' v/ould form the copious subject of a large volume ; a selection of them, therefore, is all that will be here attempted. There is perhaps no age of history in which the idle attempts to reconcile the wild incidents of spectral impressions have not induced many learned people to 4 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED reject the Avhole, or most of thenij as fabulous, or as the coinage of rank impostors. Hence, probably, the ridicule which apparitions incurred from Lucian, and hence the doubt which, in the 16th century, Reginald Scot entertained relativ'e to Martin Luther's visions, a few of which were certainly fabrications. It is, in- deed, certain, that many stories of apparitions are either gross forgeries, or are attributable to the tricks of jugglers. The devils which Benvenuto Cellini saw, when he got into a conjurer's circle, are, by IMr Roscoe, the learned translator of his life, referred to the effects of a magic-lantern. Granting, however, that this was the case, the excited state of Cellini's mind would greatly contribute to aid the deception practised upon him.* It must thus be instantly kept in view, that how- ever numerous ghost-stories may be, there are com- paritively few which are to be depended upon. If they had their origin in true spectral illusions, they are, at the same time, grossly exaggerated, while other narratives are nothing more than the device of rank impostors. As specimens of this dubious kind of vi- sions may be adduced, the popular narratives pub- lished in the commencement of the 18th century, one of which relates, how one Mr John Gairdner, minister near to Elgin, " fell into a trance on the 10th of January 1717j and lay as if dead, to the sight and appearance of all spectators, for the space of two days; and being put in a coffin, and carried to his parish, in order to be buried in the church-yard ; and when " See Note 1st at the end of the volume. REGARDING APPARITIONS. 6 going to put him in his grave, he was heard to make a noise in his coffin, and it being opened, he was found alive, to the wonderful astonishment of all there present ; being carried home and put in a warm bed, he in a little time coming to himself, related many strange and amazing things which he had seen in the other world." Another choice production of this kind narrates, " how Blr Richard Brightly, minister of the gospel near Salcraig, at several times heard heavenly music when at prayer, when many persons appeared unto him in white raiment ; also how, on the 9th of August, at night, as he was praying, he fell into a trance, and saw the state of the damned in everlasting torment, and that of the blessed in glory ; and being then warned of his death by an angel, how he after- wards ordered his coffin and grave to be made, and invited his parishioners to hear his last sermon, which he preached the Sunday following, having his coffin borne before him, and then declared his visions ; — and how he saw Death riding in triumph on a pale horse, — of the message he had given him to warn the in- habitants of the wrath to come, and of his dying in the pulpit when he had delivered the same ; lastly, of his burial, and of the harmonious music that was heard in the air during his interment ;" the truth of all which was certified by the signatures of jMr Wil- liam Parsons, two ministers, and three other honest men. A third pamphlet describes what " was re- vealed to William Rutherford, farmer in the Merse, by an angel which appeared inito him as he was praying in his corn-yard, who opened up to him strange visions unknown to the inliabitants of the 6 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED earth, with the dreadful wrath that is coming on Britain, with an eclipse of the gospel, and the great death that shall befall many, who shall be suddenly- snatched away before these things come to pass ; also the glorious deliverance the church will get after these sad times are over ; with the great plenty that will follow immediately thereafter, with the conver- sion of the heathen nations, and with meal being sold for four shillings a boll : — the truth of all this being attested by the minister of the parish, and four honest men who were eye and ear-witnesses."* Truly ridiculous as such pretended visions are, and unworthy of the smallest degree of attention, there are however some narratives on record, which require a more serious notice. Of this kind is the curious accovnit written many years ago by Nicolai, the fa- mous bookseller of Berlin, — a narrative which Dr Ferrier very properly characterizes as " one of the ex- treme cases of mental delusion which a man of strong- o judgment has ventured to report of himself." It is, indeed, a case which affords correct data for investi- gations relative to the belief in apparitions ; on which account I shall take the liberty of transcribing the narrative in this essay, however frequently it may have appeared before the public. " Individuals who pretend to have seen and heard spirits are not to be persuaded that their apparitions were simply the creatures of their senses. You may tell them of the impositions that are frequently prac- • Preface to the Memorials by the Rev. Mr Robert Law, edited hy Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. Edinburgh, A.D. 181S. 8 REGARDING APPARITIONS. 7 tised, and the fallacy which may lead us to take a spirit of our imagination by moonlight for a corpse. We are generally advised to seize the ghosts, in which case it is often found that they are of a very corporeal nature. An appeal is also made to self-deception, be- cause many persons believe they actually see and hear where nothin bours dwelling in the opposite side of the street, did distinctly hear as well the bellowing as the voice j and some of them were awaked with the vehemency there- of. But the artificer said, that in this he foiind solace, because the bishop, of whom he had it, did admonish him, that if any of them from whom the blood was extracted should die, in the time of its putrefaction, his spirit was wont often to appear to the sight of the artificer, with pertubation. Also forthwith, upon Saturday following, he took the retort from the fur- nace, and broke it with the light stroak of a little key, and there, in the remaining blood, found the perfect representation of an human head, agreeable in face, eyes, nostrils, mouth, and hairs, that wei*e somewhat thin, and of a golden colour."* • Regarding this narrative, Webster adds, — " There were naany ocular witnesses, as the noble person. Lord of Bourdalone, the chief secretary to the Duke of Guise ; and he [Find] had this re- lation from the Lord of Menanton, living in that house at the same time, from a certain doctor of physic, from the owner of the house* and many others." J, IIEGARUING APPAIIITIONS. 25 CHAPTER IV. THE OPINIONS ENTERTAINED THAT GHOSTS WERE EXTERNAL IDEAS^ OR ASTRAL SPIRITS. 3Iost willing Spirits, that promise noble service." SnAKSPEARp. The notions taught in the middle ages regarding the Soul was, that it pervaded the whole of the body, being-^, indeed, the active principle of assimilation, upon which " the attraction, the retention, the decoction, and the preparation" of the particles of food which were intro- duced into the body, ultimately depended. The pro- per seat of this principle, however, was the brain, a particular department of which formed its closet. This closet the Cartesians conceived to be situated in the pineal gland. TJie five Senses were regarded by the early meta- physicians as nothing more than '^ liortcrs' to the Soul ; they brought to '' her" the forms of outward things, but were not able themselves to discern them ; such forms or ideas were then subjected to the various in- tellectual operations of the rational Soul or mind. According to this view, ideas, which were originally considered as the actual forms of objects, were stored up by the Memory, and liable to be recalled. This doctrine was probably derived from Aristotle, who had some notion of impx-essions or images remaining after the impressing cause had ceased to act, and that 2Q OPINIONS ENTERTAINED these images, even during sleep, were recognised by the intellectual principle of man. Such was the metaphysical view entertained for many centuries respecting ideas, — not that they were mere states of the immaterial mind, but that they were absolute forms or images presented to the Soul or Mind. It was, therefore, not a very difficult con- jecture, after the memorable experiment of Palin- genesy, tliat the apparition of the rose, which had been induced by its saline particles being sublimed, was truly the proper idea of the rose, or that the ap- parition, induced in a similar manner after an animal body had been decomposed, was the proper idea of the animal. These, then, were the external ideas of objects, or astral spirits, as they were also named, that were well calculated to .solve many natural phe- nomena. For instance, when it was reported that a shower of frogs had taken place, philosophers con- tended that it was nothing more than a shower of ideas. Dr Webster's explanation of astral spirits is as follows : — " If," says he, " the experiment be certainly true, that is averred by Borellus^ Kircher, GafFarel, and others (who might be ashamed to affirm it as their own trial, or as ocular witnesses, if not true), that the figures and colours of a plant may be perfectly repre- sented, and seen in glasses, being by a little heat raised forth of the ashes. Then (if this be true) it is not only possible, but rational, that animals, as well as plants, have their ideas or figures existing after the gross body or parts be destroyed, and so these apparitions are but only those astral shapes and figures. But also there are shapes and apparitions of men, that must of ne- REGARDING APPARITIONS. 2? cessity prove, that these corporeal souls, or astral spirits, do exist apart, and attend upon, or are near the blood or bodies." It is evident that this notion of astral spirits was little different from the Lucretian view, that appari- tions were films given off from all bodies. But Dr Webster and other philosophers pushed this doctrine still farther, so as to render it truly pneumatological. They even had in view the division which the ancients made of the substance of the body, when they con- ferred upon it more souls than one. The views of the Romans and Greeks were, that different souls might be possessed by every individual, as a rational soul derived from the gods, and a sentient one originating in the four elements ; or that even three souls might subsist in one person ; in which case different material tenements were allotted to these spiritual principles. For the first soul, a mortal or crustaceous body was provided ; for the second soul, a divine, ethereal, and luciform organization; and for the third, an aerial, misty, or vaporous body. The soul which was at- tached to the crustaceous system hovered about it after death. We shall now see how much Dr Webster and others were indebted to the ancients for the view that they took of three essential and distinct parts of man. " It is most evident," says this Vv'riter, " that there are not only three essential and distinct parts in man, as the gross body, consisting of earth and water, which at death returns to the earth again ; the sensitive and corporeal soul or astral spirit, consisting of fire and air, that at death Avandereth in the air, or near the body ; 28 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED and the immortal and incorporeal soul, that immedi- ately returns to God that gave it ; but also, that after death they all three exist separately, the soul in im- mortality, and the body in the earth, though soon consuming ; and the astral spirit, that wanders in the air, and, without doubt, doth make those strange ap- paritions, motions, and bleedings." Mr Webster now illustrates his case by a very strik- ing account of a spectral impression, in which the astral spirit of a murdered man is supposed to have retained all the cogitations impressed upon the mind at the hour of death, along with the faculties of con- cupiscibility and irascibility, by which it was com- pelled to seek for its revenge. " About the year of our Lord 1623 or 24, one Fletcher of Rascal, a town in the North Riding of Yorkshire, near unto the forest of Gantress, a yeoman of good estate, did marry a young lusty woman from Thoi'nton Brigs, who had been formerly kind with one Ralph Raynard, who kept an inn within half-a- mile from Rascal, in the high-road-way betwixt York and Thirske, his sister living with him. This Raynard continued in unlawful kist with the said Fletcher's wife, who, not content therewith, conspired the death of Fletcher, one Mark Dunn being made privy, and hired to assist in the murther. Which Raynard and Dunn accomplished upon the ]May-day, by drowning Fletcher, as they came all three together from a town called Huby ; and acquainting the wife with the deed, she gave them a sack therein to convey the body, which they did, and buried it in Raynard's backside or croft, where an old oak- root had been REGARDING APPARITIONS. 29 stubbed up, and sowed mustard-seed upon the place, thereby to hide it. So they continued their wicked course of lust and drunkenness, and the neighbours did much wonder at Fletcher's absence; but his wife did ex- cuse it, and said, that he was but gone aside for fear of some writs being served upon him. And so it continued until about the 7th day of July, when Raynard going to Topcliffe fair, and setting up his horse in the stable, the spirit of Fletcher, in his usual shape and habitj did appear unto him, and said, — ' Oh, Ralph, repent, repent, for my revenge is at hand !' and ever after, until he was put in the gaol, it seemed to stand be- fore him, whereby he becam.e sad and restless ; and his own sister, overhearing his confession and relation of it to another person, did, through fear of her own life, immediately reveal it to Sir William Sheffield, who lived in Rascal, and was a justice of peace. Whereupon they were all three apprehended and sent to the gaol at York, where they were all three con- demned, and so executed accordingly, near to the place where Raynard lived, and where Fletcher was buried, the two men being hung up in irons, and the woman buried under the gallows. I have recited this story punctually as a thing that hath been very much fixed in my memory, being then but young ; and as a certain truth, I being (with many more) an ear- witness of their confessions, and an eye-witness of their execvitions ; and likewise saw Fletcher when he was taken up, where they had buried him in his cloaths, which were a green fustian doublet pinkt vipon white, gray breeches, and his walking-boots, and brass spurrs without rowels," 30 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED We may now attend to Dr Webster's explanation of the foregoing case, agreeably to his notion of astral spirits : — " Some will say there was no extrinsic ap- parition to Raynard at all, but that all this did only arise from the guilt of his own conscience, which re- presented the shape of Fletcher in his fancy. But then, why was it precisely done at that time, and not at any others ? it being far from the place of the murther, or the place where they had buried Fletcher, and nothing there that might bring it to his remem- brance more than at another time ; and if it had only arisen from within, and appeared so in his fancy, it had been more likely to have been moved when he was in, or near his croft, where the murthered body of Fletcher lay. But certain it is, that he affirmed that it was the shape and voice of Fletcher, as assu- redly to his eyes and ears as ever he had seen or heard him in his life. And if it were granted that it was only intrinsic, yet that will not exclude the Divine Power, which doubtless at that time did labour to make him sensible of the cruel murther, and to re- mind him of the revenge approaching. And it could not be brought to pass either by the devil or Fletcher's soul, as we have proved before ; and therefore, in reason, we conclude that either it was wrought by the Divine Power, to shew his detestation of murther, or that it was the astral or sydereal spirit of Fletcher seeking revenge for the murther." * * Webster on Witchcraft, p. 297. KEGAPvDlXG APPARITIONS. 31 CHAPTER V. THK OPINIONS ENTERTAINED THAT GHOSTS WEUK ATTRIBUTABLE TO FANCY OR IMAGINATION. " Horatio says, 'tis but our Phantasy." — Hamlet. The early metaphysicians conceived, that the five Senses that brought to the Soul apprehensions of touch, vision, hearing, smelling, and taste, were under the intermediate control of a personified moderator, named Common Sense, by the means of whom all differences of objects were discerned. The Soul, through the medium of this ministering principle, who dwelt in the fore-part of the brain, not only learned the forms of the outward things brought to " her" by the Senses, but was enabled to make still farther distinctions, in which she was greatly superior to Common Sense. Common Sense knew nothing but differences ; the Soul knew essences ; Common Sense knew nothing but circumstances ; the Soul knew substances ; Common Sense recognised differences of sound ; the Soul resolved concords. A second ministering principle to the Soul was Memory, who kept a storehouse in the back-part of the brain, where all the species, ideas, or images of objects, Avhich the external Senses had industriously collected, were treasured up. A third ministering principle to the Soul was 32 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED Phantasy, (Fancy), or Imagination, whose seat was the middle cell of the brain. Phantasy retained ob- jects brought by the Senses, examined more fully such species or ideas of objects as were perceived by Com- mon Sense, arranged them, recalled the ideas which Memory had stored up, and compounded all things which were different in their kind, black and white, great and small. When Phantasy, " the handmaid of the Soul," as this principle was called, had finished her compounds, she committed them to the care of Memory, in whose storehouse much was remembered, much forgotten. Such was the office of Phantasy, whose influence, when it began to be acknowledged, entirely changed the views which had been entertained regarding ghosts. " 'Tis but our Phantasy," was the explana- tion given by Horatio of the ghost of Hamlet's father. It will be therefore interesting, to inquire in what manner Phantasy, (or, in more modern language. Fancy) was enabled to induce this illusion. It was supposed, that while Common Sense and the five subordinate Senses were subject to laws of re- straint, as in sleep. Fancy was always woi'king day and night, as was evident from our dreams. But the labours of this industrious handmaid were always corrected by the overruling principle of the Soul. The Soul, by means of the faculty of Wit, looked into the result of Fancy's labours, and was then enabled to abstract shapes of things, to perceive the forms of in- dividual objects, to anticipate, to compare, to know all universal essences or natures, as well as cause and effect. By the faculty of Reason, she moved from 6 REGARDING APPARITIONS. 33 step to step, and in her progress rated objects accord- ingly. By the faculty of Understanding, she stood fixed on her ground, and apprehended the truth. By the faculty of Opinion, she lightly inclined to any one side of a question. By the faculty of Judgment, she could define any particular principle. By the faculty of Wisdom, she took possession of many truths. Now all this labour the Soul could not accomplish, unless Fancy, her handmaid, was obedient to the faculty of reason. But Fancy was not always to be thus controlled, the cause of which it will now be necessary to investigate. It was next conceived, that the blood was subjected to great heat in the heart, where it was purified, and enabled to throw off delicate fumes named Animcd Spirits. A set of nerves then formed the medium through which the Animal Spirits were conducted to the brain. They were there apprised by Fancy of the forms of all objects, and of their good or ill quali- ty j upon which they returned to the heart, the seat of the affections, with a corresponding report of what was going on. If the report was good, it induced love, hope, or joy ; if the contrary, hatred, fear, and grief But, frequently, there was what Burton calls Icesa imagiiiatio, or an ill Imagination or Fancy, which sometimes misconceiving the nature of sensible ob- jects, would send off such a number of spirits to the heart, as to induce this organ to attract to itself more humours in order to " bend itself" to some false ob- ject of hope, or to avoid some unreasonable cause of fear. When this was the case, melancholic, sanguine, choleric, and other humours too tedious to be men- c 34 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED tionedj were drawn into the heart — more animal spirits were concocted by heat, and these, ascending into the brain, perplexed Fancy by their number and diversity. She then became impatient of subordina- tion, and no longer obeyed the faculty of Reason. Falling to work, in the most irregular manner, upon the ideas which Memory had stored up, she would produce the wildest compounds of sensible objects, such as we detect in the fictions of poets and painters, the chimeras of aerial castle-builders, and Xhe false shows (as they were anciently named) of our waking visions.* " Fracastorius," says Burton, " referres all extasies to this force of imagination, such as lye whole dayes together in a trance : as that priest whom Cel- sus speaks of, that could separate himselfe from his senses when he list, and lye like a dead man, voide of life and sense. Cardcm brags of himselfe, that he could doe as much, and that when iiee list. Many times such men, when they come to themselves, tell strange things of heaven and hell, what visions they have scene. These apparitions reduce all those tales of witches progresses, dauncing, riding, transmuta- tions, operations, &c. to the force of imagination and the divell's illusions." Such was the popular view once entertained of the cause of apparitions. " It is all fancy or imagination !" is, indeed, the common explanation given of ghosts at * This view has, in some little degree, pervaded Mr Locke's system. " The dreams of sleeping men," he remarks, " are all made up of the waking man's ideas, though, for the most part, oddly put together." REGARDING APPARITIONS. 35 the present day, not only by the vulgar, but even by the physiologist and the metaphysician. But Dr Brown, in the view which he has taken of supersti- tious impressions, has very properly noticed more cor- rect principles concerned with the production of spectral illusions ; but still there is an unnecessary introduction of the \fox(\. fancy, that, in this case, ar- bitrarily refers to some very curious laws, of which this able metaphysician has not given any explana- tion, but which he has considered in another part of his work, as meriting more attention than has hither- to been paid to the subject. " What brighter colours the fears of superstition give to the dim objects perceived in twilight, the in- habitants of the village who have to pass the church- yard at any late hour, and the little students of ballad- lore, who have carried with them, from the nursery, many tales which they almost tremble to remember, know well. And in the second sight of this northern part of the island, there can be no doubt, that the ob- jects which the seers conceive themselves to behold, are truly more vivid as conceptions, than, but for the superstition and the melancholy character of the na- tives, which harmonize with the objects of this fore- sight, they would have been ; and that it is in conse- quence of this brightening effect of the emotion, as concurring with the dim and shadowy objects which the vapoury atmosphere of our lakes and valleys presents, that Fancy, relatively to the individual, becomes a lem- forary reality. The gifted eye, Avhich has once be- lieved itself favoured with such a view of the future, will, of course, ever after have a quicker foresight, and 36 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED more frequent revelations ; its own wilder emotion communicating still more vivid forms and colours to the objects which it dimly perceives." After these very general observations on the opinions long entertained regarding the power of Fancy or Imagination, I shall now proceed to notice other re- markable views, which, at different times, have been taken of the influence of this personified principle of the mind. Van Helmont supposed that the power of Fancy was not merely confined to the arrangement and com- pounding of forms brought into the brain through the medium of the Senses, but that this principle or facility of the Soul was invested with the power of creating for herself ideas independently of the Senses. Thus, he conceived, that as every man has been a partaker of the image of the Deity, he has power to create, by the force of his Fancy or Imagination, cer- tain ideas or entities of his own. Each conceived idea clothes itself in a species, or form, fabricated by Fancy, and becomes a seminal and operative entity subsisting in the midst of that vestment. Hence the influence of Fancy or Imagination upon the forms of offspring. " Ipsam speciem quam animus effigiat, foetui inducit." Another notion advocated by ancient metaphysi- cians was, that Fancy or Imagination could influence the Animal Spirits of others, so as to induce a corre- sponding influence on the heart, which was the seat of the affections. This opinion was maintained by Wierus, Paracelsus, Cardan, and others. '^ Why do REGARDING APPARITIONS. 37 witches and old women fascinate and bewitch chil- dren ?" asks Burton ; " but, as many think, the forcible Imagination of the one party moves and alters the spirits of the other." A very natural ex- planation is thus assigned for the effect of an evil eye. In a much later period, however, Lavater conceived that the Imagination had a still more powerful in- fluence, as it could operate on the minds of others much more directly than through the animal spirits. The Imagination of one individual could so act upon that of another individual, as to produce by this operation a vivid idea of the visible shape of the per- son from whom this influence had emanated. Thus, the Imagination of a sick or dying person, who deep- ly longs to behold some dear and absent friend, can so act upon the mind of the same friend as to produce an idea vivid enough to appear like a reality, and thus give rise to the notion of a phantasm. Nor is this operation of Fancy limited to space ; it can act at any distance, and even pierce through stone walls. When a sailor is in a storm at sea, and about to perish, liis powerful Imagination can so act upon the mind of any dear relative, whom he despairs of seeing again, as to produce on the mind of the same relative an idea of such intensity, as to form a proper spectre of the unfortunate mariner. This theory was no doubt supposed to be well cal- culated to explain many coincidences of ghost-stories, and it is certain, that there are on record many ghost- stories, which are in every respect worthy of such an explanation. 38 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED CHAPTER VI. THE OPINIONS WHICH ATTRIBUTE THE SUPPOSED IN- FLUENCE OF FANCY TO THE DIRECT OPERATIONS OF THE SOUL, " Mens sine pondere ludit." — Petronius. The opinion entertained in the middle ages respecting the Soul was, that it possessed an immaterial and im- mortal nature, and that it was endowed with such in- tellectual powers as wit, reason, understanding, opi- nion, judgment, and wisdom. No sooner, then, was this doctrine taught, than the attention of the learned became no less bent upon determining its connexion with the body, than in hazarding speculations regard- ing its occasional resumption of a human form after the body had mingled with its parent dust. It was owing, therefore, to this reason, that perfectly differ- ent views in time arose regarding the nature of ap- pai'itions. The first supposed indication of the Soul's existence was the exercise of her faculties upon the innate ideas, or intuitive truths, which she had received for her na- tural dowry. Other objects about which she was oc- cupied were the new apprehensions that were each moment conveyed to her through the medium of the five Senses. Upon the forms of things which IMemory REGARDING APPARITIONS. 39 had stored up, she was employed in her private closet of the brain, where she determined the present and past, foresaw things to come, doubted and selected, traced effects and causes, defined, argued, divided compounds, contemplated virtuous and vicious ob- jects, and reasoned upon general principles. But the result of her labours was not committed to Common Memory, but to another ministering principle named Intellectual Memory, where, in a separate storehouse, all acquired facts and general reasons were preserved, — these even remaining after death. The activity which the Soul was supposed to dis- play upon ideas, even during sleep, gave rise to nu- merous learned speculations. " Dreams," says Mr Addison," look like the relaxations and amusements of the soul when she is disencumbered of her machine; her sports and recreations when she has laid her charge asleep. The soul is clogged and retarded in her ope- rations, when she acts in conjunction with a companion that is so heavy and unwieldy in its motions. But in dreams," he adds, " she converses with numberless beings of her own creation, and is transported into ten thousand scenes of her own raising. She is her- self the theatre, the actor, and the beholder." The same view has been made the subject of Dr Young's reveries. But Sir Thomas Brown had previously ex- tended this notion much farther. " It is observed," he says, " that men sometimes, upon the hour of their departure, do speak and reason above themselves; for then the Soul, beginning to be freed from the liga- ments of the body, begins to reason like herself, and to discourse in a strain above mortality." 40 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED Such was the idea which prevailed regarding the activity of the Soul, when unfettered by the dull and lethargic matter of which the body was composed. In comparing, then, the operations of the Soul or Mind with those attributed by other metaphysicians to her handmaid. Fancy or Imagination, it will be perfectly evident that they are in every respect the same. Indeed, the subordinate principle of Fancy had been only invented by pneumatologists, in order to give a superior character of excellence to the un- aided operations of the Soul. If any thing went wrong with our thoughts, — if wild and ill-assorted perceptions, — if monsters, ghosts, and different chi- meras arose, instead of regular and well-arranged ideas, — it was not the fault of the Soul, but of her wayward servant. Fancy. The different vapours sent from the heart, the seat of good or ill affections, could not injure the pure nature of the Soul, but might, very naturally, have an untoward effect upon her handmaid. Fancy. In short, there could not be loesa anima, but there might be Icesu imaginatio. And when many metaphysicians were led to suppose that dreams were less attributable to Fancy than to the unaided activity of the Soul, they could not start this hypothesis without advancing arguments at the same time to shew, that such phenomena were rational, though far above all human comprehension ; that they were truly worthy the pure character of the Soul, and of the divining faculty which, through this medium, she exercised. '' In dreams," says Addison, " it is wonderful to remark with what sprightliness and alacrity the Soul exerts herself The slpw of speech REG AUDI NG APPARITIONS. 41 make unpremeditated harangues, or converse readily in languages that they are but little acquainted with. The grave abound in pleasantries, the dull in repar- tees and points of wit." * But Sir Thomas Brown, to whom Addison refers for a similar opinion, had far exceeded this view. His words are these : — " Were my memory as faithful as my reason is fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams ; and this time also would I choose for my devotions ; but our grosser memories have then so little hold on our understand- ings, that they forget the story, and can only relate to our awakened soids a confused and broken tale of that that has passed." This is indeed a very curious view, — not ill calculated to explain the true origin of a few of the speculations entertained by the celebrated author himself of the reJigio medici. Nor can I help suspecting that some of the conjectures on the mind and its organs, which are inculcated at the present day, might have been no less studied in dreams, — that physiologists might have forgotten some con- necting links of them when they awoke, and that, if there should be any imperfection in the doctrines which may have been derived from this source, it is owing to a part only of the vision having been re- membered, so that, in the place of a well-arranged system, we are presented with what Sir Thomas Brown would style " a confused and broken tale."t It thus appears, that the power assigned to the Soul, or to her handmaid. Fancy, was inconceivably great. With regard to Fancy in particular, I have shewn * Spectator, No 487. t Ibid. 42 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED how it was at length argued, that this principle had not merely the power of compounding ideas or images from the less complicated forms that were either brought to her directly by the Senses, or that were recalled from the storehouse of Memory, but that she had even the independent power of creating to herself new ideas of her own ; that metaphysicians did not even then place limits to their speculations, conceiv- ing that the Fancy of one individual could so operate on the Soul of another, as to produce upon the mind that was passive a regular idea ; and, if the action was very intense, a vivid phantasm. No investiga- tion, therefore, could now remain, but to ascertain if Imagination or Fancy had not some influence upon external particles of matter, as well as upon the minds of others. It was accordingly debated in the schools, — if Imagination could not move external objects ? Thus, the evil eye of a witch, which could cause hay- stacks to be burnt, cattle to be killed, or corn blighted, might, with greater reason, be assigned to the power of Fancy, when heightened in its virulence by perni- cious vapours sent from the heart, the seat of the af- fections ; and, on the same principle, might be ex- plained the effect affirmed to have happened when a pretty woman was in a vapourish mood, the glance of whose eyes was said to have shivered a steel mirror. The last speculation entertained was, that the effects attributed to Fancy might be performed by the Soul herself In the days of Leibnitz, there were some notions entertained by this philosopher with regard to matter and mind, which gave rise to an opinion that Souls immediately after deatli passed into new IIEGARDING APPAllITIONS. 43 and more attenuated bodies. But the puzzle was, how the resemblance could take place between the new body and the old one ? The answer was, that there were certain harmonic movements which sub- sisted between the Soul and the particles of the new body ; that the Soul, agreeably to the affections which she had received during life, could not only give a corresponding similitude to the material form of a ghost, as of a miser, but impel it to such harmonic movements as would naturally lead to the place where the defunct's strong box had been deposited. Hence the reason why that spot, above all others, should be haunted. But another objection to this theory was an awkward one. It was asked. How the Soul could so influence the harmonic movements of matter as not only to possess herself of a new material form, but of the very night-gown or morning-dress that the body, during life, might have worn ? The objection has never been fairly answered. 44 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED CHAPTER VII THE NOTIONS ENTERTAINED THAT IDEAS, BY THEIB ACTION ON THE NERVES, GAVE RISE TO SPECTRAL. IMPRESSIONS. " By repercussion beams engender fire ; Shapes by reflection shapes beget ; The voice itself when stopp'd does back retire, And a new voice is made by it." — Cowley. When the Epicureans wished to explain the origin of dreams, they conceived that subtle images were either given off from other substances, or were spon- taneously formed ; — that these, after first penetrating the body, made corresponding impressions on the at- tenuated corpuscles of the material soul. This view differed from a later notion entertained regarding ideas in the following respect, — that ideas were mate- rial forms, not pervading the system from the exhala- tion of bodies, but regularly carried to the storehouse of Memory from unknown sources ; — the transporta- tion having been affected by means of the organs of Sense. In connexion with this view it was conceived, that the nerves upon which sensations depended might not only be affected by external agents, but that they might be impressed by internal causes, when the con- sequence would be, that liallucinations would arise. RKGARDING APPARITIONS. 45 Rays of lights for instance, impressing the optic nerve from without, would cause the sensation of yellow, while corrupt humours, as those of jaundice, by im- pressing the nerves from within, would have the self- same effect. The next inference was, that, as an idea was really material, and might be treasured up by the memory, it could, in some unknown manner, find its way to the nerves, and impress them after the manner of internal causes influencing the mind. " I shall suppose," says a learned metaphysician, " that I have lost a parent whom I have loved — whom I have seen and spoken to an infinity of times. Having perceived him often, I have consequently preserved the material figure and perception of him in the brain. For it is very possible and reconcileable to appeai*- ances, that a material figure, like that of my deceased friend, may be preserved a long time in my brain, even after his death. By some intimate, yet unknown relation, therefore, which the figure may have to my body, it may touch the optic or acoustic nerves. In the very moment, then, that my nerves are affected in the same manner that they formerly were when I saw or listened to my living friend, I shall be neces- sarily induced to believe that I really see or hear him as if he were present."* * Essay on vlpparitions, attributed to M. Meyer, professor of the university of Halle, a. d. 1748. 40 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED CHAPTER VIII. THE OPINIONS THAT SPECTRAL IMPRESSIONS WERE THE RESULT OF A FALSE JUDGMENT OF THE IN- TELLECT. " For the effect of judgment is oft the cause of fear." Cymbeline. An opinion was entertained, late in the seventeenth century, that ghosts might arise from the reasoning faculty of the soul being unable to judge between realities and ideas. If the notion regarding ideas had been the same as that of Dr Brown, namely, that they were nothing more than states of the mind, this last view would not have been very unexceptionable. But still it was much blended with erroneous notions regard- ing the intellectual powers of the Soul, which I have no inclination at present to combat. Suffice it to say, that by a modified condition of the intellectual power, called by the name of vitium suhrcptioius, it was con- ceived, that '' every thing of which a person had not a clear and distinct sensation, would not seem real ; and every thing that resembled, in a certain mode, a certain idea or image, was precisely the same thing as that idea." But we have a much less distinct no- tion of this subtle metaphysical principle, than of the example which is given of it. " When the head," says a pneumatologist, is " filled with many stories which others liave related to us of the ghosts of REGARDING APPARITIONS. 47 monks, nuns, &c., we find a resemblance between that which we may perceive and such tales. A man is influenced by the second judgment, and he takes what he has perceived for a true apparition. Imagina- tion then heats him ; intense and terrible images present themselves to his mind ; the circulation of the blood is deranged, and he is affected with a frightful agitation. It is impossible to resist a fancy which, when it begins to wander, gives to simple ideas such a degree of force and clearness, that we take them for real sensations. A man may thus per- suade himself that he has seen and heard things which have only existed in his own head."* • This opinion is adverted to in ]\I. Bleyer's Treatise, to which I have in another place alluded. 48 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED CHAPTER IX. THE DKVIL SUPPOSED TO BE A CAUSE OF GHOSTS. Moret phantasiam et ita obfirmat vanis conceptibus. Austin, de Vit. Beat. All metaphysical, all physiological, and all chemical opinions, having been, by various philosophers, con- sidered as perfectly inadequate to the explanation of ghosts, it was asked, why the existence of them should not arise from the direct agency of the devil himself.-* Some pneumatologists maintained that the devil was a slender and an incomprehensible spirit, who reigned in a thousand shapes, and, consequently, might assume, if such were his pleasure, the form of an angel. They taught that unclean spirits insinu- ating themselves in the body, and mingling in its hu- mours, sported there with as much glee as if they had been inhaling the brightest region of the stars ; — that they go in and out of the body as bees do in a hive ; — and hence that melancholy persons are most subject to diabolical temptations. To this doctrine, tauo^ht by the learned clerkes of the 16th and 17th century, Hamlet evidently alludes, when he conceives that it might have been " a damned ghost" which he KEGARDING APPARITIONS. 49 had seen, or the result of some diabolical art operat- ing through the medium of his fanlasie or imagina- tion — -" The spirit that I have seen May be a devil ; and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape ; yea, and, perhaps, Out of my weakness, and my melancholy, (As he is very potent with such spirits,) Abuses me to damn me." Accordingly the regular plot of the drama turns upon the test to which the v^eracity of the apparition is submitted. The trial is satisfactory, and Hamlet declares that he will " take the ghost's word for a thousand pound." Such were the views which never failed at one time to excite the suspicion of persons labouring under spectral impressions ; and it is painful to con- template them as they arose in the minds of many eminent individuals, among whom was INIartin Luther. This astonishing man was evidently affected by some organic disease, owing to which, as well as to the ex- traordinary intellectual exertions to which his mind was stimulated during the progress of his wonderful work of reform, the usual state of his thought appears to have been at intervals materially disturbed. In the true spirit of the times, he contemplated his zeal- ous labours as opposed to the works of the devil, and was particularly inclined to attribute the illusions un- der which he laboured to the machinations of evil spirits. One anecdote to this effect I find thus stated : — " Luther has related of himself, that being 50 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED at prayer, contemplating how Christ hung on the cross and suffered for his sins, there appeared sudden- ly on the wall a bright shining vision, and therein ap- peared also a glorious form of our Saviour Christ, with his five wounds, steadfastly looking upon him, as if it had been Christ himself corporally. Now at the first sight he thought it had been some good revela- tion, yet presently recollected himself, and appre- hending some juggling of the devil, (for Christ, as Luther says, appeareth unto us in his word, and in a meaner and more humble fonii, even as he was hum- bled on the cross for us,) therefore, said he, I spake to the vision in this manner : ' Away, thou unfound- ed devil, I know no other Christ than he that was crucified, and who, in his word, is pictured and preached to me;' whereupon the image vanished, which was the very devil himself." The devil was also supposed to occasionally induce illusion by self- transformation, as the following cu- rious story, to be found in Captain Bell's Table-talk of Luther, sufficiently shews :— " A gentleman had a fine young wife, who died, and was also buried. Not long after^ the gentleman and his servant lying together in one chamber, his dead wife, in the night-time, approached into the chamber, and leaned herself upon the gentleman's bed, like as if she had been desirous to speak with him. The servant (seeing the same two or three nights, one after another), asked his master whether he knew, that every night a woman in white apparel came into his bed ? The gentleman said, ' No. I sleep soundly (said he), and see nothing.' When REGAllDING ArrAlUTIONS. 51 night approached, the gentleman, considering the same, laid waking in bed. Then the woman appeared unto him, and came hard to his bed-side. The gentle- man demanded who she was ? She answered, ' I am your wife.' He said, ' My wife is dead and buried.' She said, ' True, by reason of your swearing and sins I died ; but if you would take me again, and would also abstain from swearing one particular oath, which commonly you use, then would I be your wife again.' He said, * I am content to perform what you desire.' Whereupon his dead wife remained with him, ruled his house, laid with him, ate and drank with him, and had children together. Now it fell out, that on a time the gentleman had guests, and his wife, after supper, was to fetch out of his chest some banqueting- stufF; she staying somewhat long, her husband (for- getting himself), was moved thereby to swear his accustomed oath ; whereupon the woman vanished that instant. Now seeing she returned not again, they went up unto the chamber to see what was be- come of her. There they found the gown which she wore, half lying within the chest, and half without ; but she was never seen afterwards. ' This did the devil,' (said Luther) : ' he can transform himself into the shape of a man or woman.' " King James conceived, that the wraiths or simu- lacra of the Scottish Highlands were attributable to the devil. The following dialogue appears in his Demonology : — Phi. And what meane these kind of spirits, when they appcarc. in the shadow of a person newly dead, or to die, to his friends ? Ejii. AVhcn they appeare upon that occasion, they arc called 52 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED wraithes in our language. Amongst the Gentiles the divell used that much, to make them believe that it was some good spirit that appeared to them then, either to forewarne them of the death of their friend, or else to discover unto them the will of the defunct, or what was the way of his slaughter ; as it is written in the booke of the Histories prodigious. But some metaphysicians were not content with maintaining that the phantasms of profane history were attributable to the devil ; it was, indeed, a very favourite notion entertained by theologians, that the ghost of Samuel was nothing but an illusion caused by Satan to disturb the mind of Saul. Cowley, the poet, in his censure of those who blindly use their reason in divine matters, himself affords the best il- lustration of the false arguments against which his Philippic was directed : — " Sometimes their fancies they 'bove reason set, And fast, that they may dream of meat. Sometimes ill sp'rits their sickly souls delude, And bastard fomas obtrude. So Endor's wretched sorceress, altho' She Saul through his disguise did know, Yet "when the devil comes up disguis^d^ she cries. Behold ! the gods arise. This ridiculous explanation of the text of Holy Writ arose from the notion, that magicians, through the means of the devil, often induced spectral illu- sions, A curious illustration of the prevalence of this belief, which extended even to modern days, is given in the Memoirs of the Duke of Berwick. A French army encamped before Saragossa, in 1707j under the command of the Duke of Orleans: — REGAKDING APPAHTTIONS. 53 " The Count de la Puebla, to retain the people of Arragon in subjection as long as possible, and by that means to retard the progress of the Duke of Orleans, persuaded the inhabitants of Saragossa that the re- ports of the march of a fresh army from Navarre were false ; and even that the camp which they saw was nothing real, but only a phantom produced by magic; in consequence of which the clergy made a procession on the ramparts, and from thence exorcised tiie pre- tended apparitions. It is astonishing that the people were so credulous as to entertain this fancy, from which they were not undeceived till the next day, when the Duke of Orleans' light horse, having pur- sued a guard of horse of Puebla's briskly to the very gates of the city, cut off several of their heads there. Then indeed the citizens were alarmed, and the ma- gistrates appeared, to make their submission to his Royal Highness. I could not have believed what I have related, if I had not been assured of its truth at Saragossa by the principal people of the city." * A similar notion of the devil's power to raise ap- paritions was even a superstition in the Highlands, which was supposed to account for some of the phe- nomena of second sight. — " A woman of Stornbay," says Martin, " had a maid who saw visions, and often fell into a swoon ; her mistress was very much con- cerned about her, but could not find out any means to " This extract from the '' Memoires de Berwick" I quote from Dr Ferrier's translation of it, which is given in his excellent paper " on Popular Illusions." See Memoirs of the Philosophical So- ciety of Manchester, vol. iii. p. 79- 54 OPINIONS ENTEllTAINED prevent her seeing those things ; at last she resolved to pour some of the water used in baptism on her maid's face, believing this vf ould prevent her seeing any more sights of this kind. And accordingly she carried her maid with her next Lord's day, and both of them sat near the basin in which the water stood, and after baptism^ before the minister had concluded the last prayer, she put her hand in the basin, took up as much water as she could, and threw it on the maid's face ; at which strange action the minister and the con- gregation were equally surprised. After prayer, the minister inquired of the woman the meaning of such an unbecoming and distracted action ; she told him, it was to prevent her maid's seeing visions; and it fell out accordingly, for from that time she never once more saw a vision of any kind. This account was given me by Mr Morison, minister of the place, be- fore several of his parishioners, who knew the truth of it. I submit the matter of fact to the censure of the learned ; but, for my own part, I think it to have been one of Satan's devices, to make credulous people have an esteem for holy water."* There were again other views taken of Satan's in- fluence. It was supposed that the devil was a great natural philosopher. " Summus opticus et physicus" []est,] says Hoffman, " propter diuturnam experien- tiam."t But no one so well as Dr Bekker, in his "* Martin's Description of the Western Isles of Scotland. -|- " Di Diabole Potentia in Corpora." REGARDING APPARITIONS. 5;) Monde Enchante, has shewn what the devil can do by dint of his knowledge of the laws of nature. " I mean to speak of illusions, which Schottus, to- gether with Delrio and Molina, declares to be of three sorts ; those that are made by the change of the objects, those that are made by the change of the air, and those that happen by the change of the organs of the senses. " First, Illusions are made by the change of the object, when one thing is substituted instead of ano- ther that has been suddenly and imperceptibly snatch- ed away ; or when an object is presented to the eyes, in such a state and manner as that it produces a false vision ; or when any object made up of air, or of some other element, offers itself to the sight ; or, lastly, when there appears any thing composed of different matters mingled together, and so skilfully prepared, that what existed before receives thereby another form and figure. " Second, The change of the air is made by these ways, when the devil hinders, lest the object should pass through the air and hit our eyes ; when he dis- poses the air that is betwixt the object and the eye in such a manner that the object appears in another figure than really it is ; when he thickens the air to make the object appear greater than it is, and to hinder it from being seen in other places but the place he designs ; when he moves the air in the place through which the object is to hit the eye, that the object, going through that part of the air, may also be moved, and that its figure may be presented to the eye otherwise than it is ; and, lastly, when he mingles and confounds to- 56 OPINIONS ENTERTAINED gether several different figures, in order that in one only object there may appear many together. " Third, The organs of the senses are changed ; when they are either transferred from their places and altered ; when their humours and active particles are corrupted and thickened ; or when such a shining brightness passes before the eyes, that they are dazzled, so that it seems that a man raves waking.*' Such was the hypothesis of learned demonologists. Satan was considered as deeply versed in all material and vital phenomena, and as inducing spectral im- pressions by the application of those laws which he so well comprehended. — Hence the compliment which Hoffman and others have paid to his great talents and learning. But as divers moral reasons prevent me from joining in this eulogium, I shall pay no farther tribute to so distinguished a character, than by pre- senting to the gentle reader as faithful a portrait of him as I have been able to procure. It is from an ancient grotesque sculpture of the 1 6th century, which still graces the oaken pannels of the ancient seat of the Prestwiches of Lancashire, — an unfortunate family, whose property fell a sacrifice to their steady perse- verance in the cause of the royalists. A drawing of this curious design was very kindly undertaken for me by a friend, whose accurate and elegant sketches of the relics of past times have been frequently ac- knowledged by the antiquary. To " those gentle ones," therefore, that, in the language of our great bard, " will use the devil himself with courtesy," G REGARDING APPARITIONS. 57 the subjoined sketch is respectfully submitted. A more philosophical devil was perhaps never depict- ed : he not only appears to be well versed in the ab- struse metaphysics of the period in which he sat for his portrait, but seems to be in the very act of ex- pounding them ; and, since he has been regarded by very good authority as the efficient cause of all the phenomena in which we have been so seriously engag- ed, there cannot, surely, be any material impropriety in allowing him to grace the conclusion of the first part of these laborious lucubrations. " Claudite jam rivos." Ant-ietit SiiilptuTe at Holme-Hall, Lanca-•^ill^e. l-rum a l)i:,wing hy Captain Jones, 29th Regimeut. PART II. THE PARTICULAR MORBID AFFECTIONS WITH WHICH THE PRODUCTION OF PHANTASMS IS OFTEN CONNECTED. PART II. CHAPTER I. THE PATHOLOGY OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. " I lost all connexion with external things ; trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through my mind." — Sir Hutnphrci/ Davy OH the Effects of the Nitrons Oxide. Having explained certain divers opinions, ancient as well as modern, which have been entertained on the subject of apparitions, I ought, in due course, to state the particular notion which I may be inclined myself to adopt in the course of the present dissertation. Simply, then, it is the view to which I briefly advert- ed in the first chapter of this work, when treating of Nicolai's illusions ; namely, that apparitions are nothing viore than ideas, or the recollected images of the mind, which have been rendered as vivid as acttial impressiotis. This is a view, however, that by no means originates with myself; it has entered into the disquisitions of 62 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE numerous metaphysical and pathological writers of the present day, among whom I might enumerate Hartly, Ferrier, Crichton, and Brown. Having stated, then, this hypothesis, my next object will be to give a ge- neral view of such causes as are principally instru- mental in inducing those intense ideas which are cur- rently recognised by the vulgar under the name of apparitions or phantasms. This should lead me to consider the case of Nicolai in a medical point of view. But before this can be done, it will be necessary to lay down a few general principles connected with this subject, which have hitherto met with little or no at- tention from physiologists. These arise from the ex- planation of certain states of the sanguineous system, in which a remarkable connexion between such states and an undue vividness of mental feelings appears to be established. It must be admitted, however, that such an inqviiry is of extreme difficulty, and liable to innumerable sources of error, on which account a more than ordinary indulgence may be due to the attempt. The essential view of the mind which I have adopt- ed in preference to every other is that of the late much-lamented Professor of Moral Philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. Dr Brown, in considering the mind as simple and indivisible, conceives that every mental feeling is only the mind itself, existing in a certain state. In endeavouring then to obtain a correct notion of certain vital })roperties of the human frame, and of the relation which the immaterial principle of the mind may bear to them, I shall commence with that im- PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 63 portant fluid, the blood, which, from the peculiarity of its properties, has induced physiologists to main- tain its vitality. This inquiry, at the same time, may meet with some assistance from observations upon the effect of certain gases, Avhich, when introduced into the lungs, exert an influence over the blood. The pulse, for instance, of persons inhaling the nitrous oxide, though it may vary in different individuals with regard to strength or velocity, never fails to be increased in fulness ; which result would intimate, that the general volume of the circulating mass is, upon the application of a proper agent, susceptible of an increasing degree of expansion. On the other hand, in the earliest stage of the noxious influence of the febrile miasma, there is an evident diminution in the volume of the blood, as is indicated by a small contracted pulse, and an increasing constriction of the capillaries. Hence may be drawn the general conclusion, that the corpuscles of the vital fluid pos- sess within themselves an inherent dilatibility and con- tractility, by the alternate force of which they are ena- bled to act upon the elastic coats of the vessels of the human body. A more important observation, however, with regard to the very opposite effects of the gases alluded to yet remains to be stated. It would appear, that, with an increase of the volume of the circulating fluid, a ge- neral sense of pleasure is experienced. This fact is well illustrated in the delight expressed by the indi- viduals, Avho, a number of years ago, submitted them- selves to the experiments instituted with the view of ascertaining the effect of the nitrous oxide. The feel- 64 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE ings which they experienced are described under such terms as " pleasurable thrillings extending from the chest to the extremities," or " sublime emotions." On the contrary, when there is an increasing contrac- tion in the volume of the blood, indicated by a spas- tic disposition of the vessels sufficient to impede the general current of the circulating fluid, an opposite state of pain appears to be an invariable result. This ftict is proved in the distressing feelings experienced during the earliest symptoms arising from the epide- mic contagion of the febrile miasma. It is on these principles, then, that I would attempt to explain the nature of the sanguineous influence or energy, as it is exercised during the course of circu- lation. In considering, also, the mind as simple and indivisible, as well as existing in certain states, its re- lation to the human frame appears to be singularly manifested by some general correspondence with the quality and degrees of these actions of the blood. We have seen, for instance, that with the peculiar influen- cing condition of the circulating fluid, a tendency either to pleasurable or painful feelings is in a remark- able degree connected. Proofs, therefore, may now be advanced, that with the varying force of this influ- ence, the degree of intensity wliich takes place in the qualities of our mental states keeps a remarkable pace. Such evidence is afforded by a further reference to that singular compound, the nitrous oxide. When the effects of this gaseous inhalation were first tried, the general result was, that, in proportion as it influ- enced the circulation, sensations became more and more vivid. These were described under such terms PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 65 as '' An increased sensibility to touch/' — " A sense of tangible extension/' — " Visible impressions becom- ing more illuminated/' — " Luminous points arising to dazzle the vision" — " Hearing more acute, so that the smallest sound in the room was heard distinctly/' " Feelings of such delight as almost to destroy con- sciousness." At the same time, grateful recollections of an uncommon intensity passed rapidly through the mind. One individual, in attempting to describe his feelings, could only compare them to those which he had experienced when witnessing an heroic scene upon the stage. Another person could only refer for a de- scription of the state of his mind to the emotions raised within his breast, when, upon the occasion of the famous commemoration held at Westminster Ab- bey in honour of Handel, he heard seven hundred in- struments playing at one time. As a further conse- quence, also, of this increased degree of pleasure, time never failed to appear longer than as measured by a watch. These observations on the mental effects arisinir from a strong sanguineous influence, may be extend- ed by directing our attention, in the next place, to the febrile miasma, the primary action of which forms a direct counterpart to the salubrious agency of the nitrous oxide. At Cadiz and Malaga, this pernicious gas has been found possessing its greatest degree of virulence ; having been heightened in its effects by extraordinary heat and moisture, a stagnant atmos- phere, crowded multitudes, and the decomposition of human effluvia. In this state it has been received into the circulation, when the effect of the blood, thus 66 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE chemically altered, was to vivify mental impressions to no less a degree than if the nitrous oxide had been inhaled ; at the same time, the quality of the feelings, thus rendered more intense, was of an opposite and painful kind. There was a general soreness which pervaded the whole system, of such an acuteness, that the contact of the internal air, or a new change of temperature, became insupportable. There was a distressing leipyria, or coldness of the surface of the body and of the extremities, while the interior parts felt as they were scorched with a fire. A great anxiety prevailed about the prsecordia, while the images of the mind were rendered no less intense, being of such a painful description, and so increasing in their gloomy character, that they produced, as it was declared, an overwhelming dejection. Having thus discovered in the nitrous oxide and in the febrile miasma two most important agents capa- ble of affecting the quality of our mental feelings, we may lastly inquire into the effect which they can pro- duce when their excitation is carried to an extreme height. There are few of my readers, probably, who are not aware of the distinction which is always made between those states of the mind v/hich are induced when causes impressing our organs of sense are pre- sent, and those which occur as revivals of prior men- tal states ; the former being termed sensations, the latter ideas, or, more correctly, renovaled Jcelings. Sensations and renovated feelings differ essentially in nothing but degree. Thus, the latter arc less intense, less rivid, or fainter, than the former. This distinc- PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 67 tiou is acknowledged by all metaphysicians. Dr Brown, for instance, remarks, that " there is a ten- dency in the mind to renovations of feeling less vivid, indeed, than the original affections of sense when ex- ternal objects were present, but still so very similar to those primary states of the mind, as to seem almost copies of them in various degrees of vividness or faintness." This metaphysical view being stated, I shall now once more advert to the action of the nitrous oxide on our mental feelings, from which we learn, that when- ever sensations and ideas are simultaneously in- creased to a very great degree of vividness, the mind gradually becomes unconscious of all or most of its actual impressions, but more particularly of painful or disagreeable ones, while the recollected images of pleasurable thought, vivified to the height of sensa- tions, appear, as it were, to take their place. " When- ever the operation of this gas," remarks Sir Humphry Davy, " was carried to its greatest height, the plea- surable thrilling gradually diminished, the sense of pressure was lost, impressions ceased to be perceived, vivid ideas passed rapidly through the mind." On another occasion, this great chemist describes his feelings after the following manner : — " Immediately after my return from a long journey, being fatigued, I respired nine quarts of nitrous oxide, having been precisely thirty-three days without breathing any. The feelings were different from those I had expe- rienced on former experiments. After the first six or seven respirations, I gradually began to lose the perception of external things, and a vivid and intense 68 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE recollection of some former experiments passed through my mind, so that I called out. What an amazing con- catenation of ideas !" A third experiment by the same philosopher was perhaps attended with the most re- markable results. He was enclosed in an air-tight breathing box of the capacity of about nine cubic feet and a half, in which he allowed himself to be habitu- ated to the excitement of the gas, which was then carried on gradually. After having, therefore, been in this place of confinement an hour and a quarter, during which time no less a quantity than 80 quarts were thrown in, he adds, " The moment after I came out of the box, I began to respire 20 quarts of un- mingled nitrous oxide. A thrilling, extending from the chest to the extremities, was almost immediately produced. I felt a sense of tangible extension, highly pleasurable in every limb, my visible impressions were dazzling and apparently magnified. I heard distinctly every sound in the room, and was perfectly aware of my situation. By degrees, as the pleasur- able sensation increased, I lost all connexion with ex- ternal things ; trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through my mind, and were connected with words in such a manner, as to produce perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly-con- nected and newly-modified ideas. When I was awakened from this semi-delirious trance by Dr King-lake, who took the bag from my mouth, indig- nation and pride were the first feelings produced by the sight of the persons about me. IMy emotions were enthusiastic and sublime ; and for a moment I walked round the room, perfectly regardless of what PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 69 was said to me. As I recovered my former state of mind, I felt an inclination to communicate the dis- coveries I had made during the experiment. I en- deavoured to recall the ideas, — they were feeble and indistinct. One recollection of terms, however, pre- sented itself, and with the most intense belief and prophetic manner I exclaimed to Dr Kinglake, ' No- thing exists but thoughts, the universe is composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures, and pains.'" Such is the interesting detail of a very important physiological experiment made by one of the most ad- venturous as well as profound philosophers of the present age. The visionary world to which he was introduced, consisting of nothing more than the high- ly vivid and embodied images of the mind, and the singular laws by which such phantasms (if they may be so called) are governed, form, in fact, the real ob- ject of the present dissertation. A singular result, but varied by the opposite quality of pain, attends the incipient influence of the febrile miasma of Cadiz and IMalaga. Sensation and ideas are, as under the action of the nitrous oxide, simul- taneously vivified. The mind soon becomes insensi- ble to actual impressions, these being succeeded by a new world of ideas, ofthe most frightful kind. Horrid spectral images arise, the forerunner of a suddenly diminished degree of excitement, of total insensibility, or of death. Our inquiry will now perhaps be found not wholly devoid of interest. A pathological principle in this investigation has been established, that when sensa- tions and ideas are, from some peculiar state of the 70 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE sanguineous fluid, simultaneously rendered highly in- tense, the result is, that recollected images of thought, vivified to the height of actual impressions, constitute the states of the mind. As it has now, I trust, been sufficiently shewn, that an adequate cause of spectral illusions may arise from an undue degree of vividness in the recollected images of the mind, I shall, in the next place, investigate those moi'bid states of the body, by which such an effect may be induced. That ideas are not unfre- quently liable to be so excited as to eqiial in their in- tensity actual impressions, and thus to be mistaken for them, is a fact with which those who are in the habit of visiting the apartments of the sick cannot but be familiar. " From recalling images by an act of me- mory," remarks Dr Ferrier, " the transition is direct to beholding spectral objects which have been floating in the imagination ;" and," adds this physician, on another occasion, " I have frequently, in the course of my professional practice, conversed with persons Avho imagined that they saw demons, and heard them speak ; Avliich species of delusion admits of many gra- dations and distinctions, exclusive of actual insanity." This observation every medical practitioner will con- firm. I may also remark, that, in pursuing the patholo- gical inquiry in which we are engaged, our true course is at length rendered plain and direct. In judging from the operation of those peculiar gases, tlie nitrous oxide and febrile miasma, which, when inhaled, affect the composition of tlie blood, and, at the same time, exert a vivifying influence over the feelings of the PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 71 mind, it appears that our first proper object is to in- quire, if there are not many morbid conditions of the body in Avhich the blood, from its altered quality, may not produce the same consequences. In fact, the causes thus affecting the sanguineous system, may be considered as arising, in the first place, from here- ditary or constitutional taints of the blood ; 2dly, From the suppression of healthy or accustomed eva- cuations ; 3dly, From adventitious matters directly admitted into the composition of this fluid ; and, 4thly, From circumstances affecting the state of the circu- lating system through the medium of the nerves or brain. Lastly, I may be allowed to observe, that whenever such a vivifying influence can be proved to exist, no future difficulty will surely remain in ac- counting for the spectral illusions which must neces- sarily result, when ideas, from their high degree of excitement, are rendered as vivid as actual impres- sions. 72 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE CHAPTER II. SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS RESULTING FROM THE HIGHLY- EXCITED STATES OF PARTICULAR TEMPERAMENTS. " But that I would not Affect you with more sadness, I could shew ye A place worth view,^ Where people of all sorts, that have been visited With lunacies and follies, wait their cures. Here's fancies of a thousand stamps and fashions. Like flies in several shapes, buz round about yc, And twice as many gestures ; some of pity. That it would make you melt to see their passions ; And some as light again, that would content ye." Beaumont and Fletcheti. From the different mental dispositions observcable in mankind, we are entitled to expect, that in each individual of the human race, there may be a consti- tutional tendency to some one prevailing state of feelings, either distinctly pleasurable or distinctly painful. In the temperament, for instance, named sanguine, the influence of the blood is indicated by an increasing dilatation of the sanguineous vessels, or by the greater tendency of the }nilsc to strength and fulness, while the general mental disposition is of a PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 73 lively kind.* In the melancholic temperament, on the contrary, there appears to be an opposite quality of the circulating fluids which, by its influence, in- duces a constricting disposition of the vessels, and a corresponding proneness to gloomy thoughts, t Pinel has referred the symptoms, named maniacal, to a very highly-excited state of these two temperaments; and this view leads to the rational doubt which may be entertained, that the cause of mania is less de- pendent upon the condition of the nervous system, than upon some particular or morbid quality of the circulating fluid.J " If the blood be imperfectly elaborated," remarks a modern writer, '' or with a • " Homines tali constitutione prediti," remarks Dr Gregory, " prater solitum sentientes et irritabiles observantur, et pulsus habent solito frequentiores, et sanguinis motum liberrimum, et secretiones et excretiones fere copiosas, raro obstructas, et animum plerumque latum et hilarem, aliquando levem ; nam animi non sccus ac corporis varietates a temperamento saepe pendent." ■\ " Hoc temperamento prediti, animum habent gravem, saepe tristem, meditabundum, baud facile commovendum, quo semel commotus est afFcctus tenacissimum, in negotiis indefessum in studiis acutissimum, in amore ferventissimum, fidelissimum, ad poesin saepe aptum, in melancholiam et insaniam aliquando pro- clivem." — Grcgory''s Conspectus Mcdichue Tlieor. p. 229. % " The form of the cranium," observes Dr Good, " its thick, ness, and other qualities, — the meninges, the substance of the brain, the ventricles, the pineal gland, the commissures, the cere- bellum, — have all been analyzed in turn by the most dexterous and prying anatomists of England, France, Germany, and Italy, but with no satisfactory result. — Good's Siudy of Medicine, v. iii. p. 07. 74 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE disproportion of some of its constituent principles to the rest, the whole system partakes of the evil, and a diathesis or morbid habit is the certain consequence. And ' if it become once impregnated with a peculiar taint, it is wonderful to remark the tenacity with which it retains it, though often in a state of dor- mancy, or inactivity, for years, or even genera- tions."* From this view, therefore, which the writer takes of the influence of the sanguineous fluid, he is led to entertain the opinion, that there is no other part of the system which we ought to regard as the predisposing cause of such corporeal disorders as gout, struma, or phthisis, and even of mental affections, as of madness. On this subject, also, I shall beg leave to add, that, as the cause of the sanguine and melan- cholic temperaments in their highly-excited states, can only be referable to some peculiar state of the blood, I must regard the symptoms of such states to be those which are described under the general name oi mania. " The violence of maniacal paroxysms," says Pinel, " appears to be independent of the nature of the exci- ting cause, or to depend, at least, much more upon the consitution of the individual, or upon the different degrees of his physical and moral sensibility. Men of robust constitutions, of mature years, with black hair, and susceptible of strong and violent passions, appear to retain the same character when visited by this most distressing of human misfortunes. Their ordinary energy is augmented to outrageous fury. Violence, on the other hand, is seldom characteristic Good's Study of iMedicine, v. 2, p. 34. PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 75 of the paroxysms of individuals of more moderate passions, with brown or auburn hair. Nothing is more common than to see men with light-coloured hair sink into soothing and pleasurable reveries ; whereas it seldom or never happens that they become furious or unmanageable. Tlieir pleasing dreams are, however, at length overtaken by, and lost amidst the gloom of an incurable fatuity." From these remarks we are led to expect, that vivid feelings of a highly intense kind will be often found in those states wliich characterize mania. Pinel has accordingly declared, that, even during intervals of comparative calmness and reason, he has no where met, except in romances, with more fond husbands, more affectionate parents, more impassioned lovers, more pure and exalted patriots, than in an asylum for lunatics. Hence he argues, that persons of the great- est mental excitement, of the warmest passions, the most active imagination, the most acute sensibility, are chiefly prone to insanity.* When such, therefore, is the frequent mental condition of the maniacal patient, it will, in a theoretical point of view, be instructive once more to advert to the power of an agent, which is calculated above every other substance to illustrate the laws connected with the vividness of which our mental feelings are susceptible ; and in tracing its operation, when the sensations and ideas which it in- fluences are excited to an extreme degree of intensity, we may compare such a result with the state of mind • " A melancholy reflection,'' says Pinel, " but such as is cal- culatetl to call forth our best anil tenderest sympathies." 76 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE which subsists during the accession of the maniacal paroxysm. The institution of this comparison will^ at the same time, give strength to the opinion, that there exists in mania a sanguineous and constitutional influ- ence, analogous in its consequences to such as may be artificially produced by chemical agents affecting the composition of the blood. Thus I have before men- tioned, that Sir Humphry Davy, in relating the parti- cular feelings which he experienced during the excite- ment of the nitrous oxide, first noticed the increased acuteness of his sensations, which he desci'ibed under such terms, as " a sense of tangible extension, or of visible impressions being rendered dazzling, and ap- parently magnified." In pointing out, also, the pain- ful effect of the febrile miasma of Cadiz, it was ob- served, that the incipient indications of this influence were a general soreness over the body, or a sense of extreme cold or burning heat. It is curious then to remark, that by a similar increase of corporeal sensi- bility, though frequently represented under different forms, the earliest symptoms of an approaching ma- niacal paroxysm are frequently characterized. Pinel speaks of a patient whose vision was rendered so acute- ly sensible, that, in forming his judgment from the effects of the sun's light, he fancied that this luminary acted upon him at the distance of only four paces ; he also described a motion which he experienced in his head as resembling that of gurgling or boiling, I likewise find it recorded of another lunatic, who, al- though he could usually take large quantities of snuff without sneezing, yet, upon tlie approach of a pa- roxysm, had his sense of smell rendered so intense, PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 77 that he became convulsed with the slightest aroma, tics. With respect to the state of mental ideas, when they are by the same cause and under similar circum- stances affected, a proportionate degree of vividness is no less observable. Thus Sir Humphry Davy has observed of the commencing effect of the nitrous oxide, that vivid ideas of the most pleasing description rapid- ly passed through his mind, and that an intense recol- lection arose of some former experiments. It is re- markable also, that a patient cured by Dr Willis has, in the narrative of his own case, described a similar state of ideas as existing in mania. " I always," he relates, " expected with impatience the accession of the paroxysms, since I enjoyed during their presence a high degree of pleasure. They lasted ten or twelve hours. Every thing appeared easy to me. No ob- stacles presented themselves either in theory or prac- tice. My memory acquired upon a sudden a singular degree of perfection. Long passages of Latin authors recurred to my mind. In general, I have great diffi- culty in finding rhythmical terminations ; but then I could write in verse with as much facility as in prose." Such is the state of mind induced when the earlier stage of the interval of mental alienation is of a plea- surable kind : and, on the other hand, when it is of a painful description, symptoms are ushered in more re- sembling those which are induced by the febrile mias- ma ; the mind being distracted with recollections of the most gloomy character. It may be farther remarked, that the same analogy which I have traced continues to subsist in more ad- vanced indications of mania. It has been shewn, for 78 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE instance, that after the long-continued inhalation of the nitrous oxide, or in the more advanced state of the symptoms attending the baneful influence of the mi- asma of Cadiz, ideas, or the recollected images of the mind, acquire a degree of vividness equalling that of sensations. These are frequently no less the symptoms of mania after a paroxysm has attained its greatest height. Thus Pinel remarks, that a maniac conceived at different times that he had imaginary conferences with good and bad angels, and, according to the re- spective influences of their delusions, vi'as mild or furious, inclined to acts of beneficence, or roused to deeds of ferocity. In an early period of history, when insane people, as was formerly the case in England, found no asylum, they were ever, in their desultoi-y rambles, pursued by a vivid imagination with demons or furies. " We meet with such maniacs," says a cri- tical writer on the Jewish customs, " in the syna- gogues, or places of religious worship — we meet with them in towns and cities, where they were allowed to ramble uncontrolled. Being thought to be inhabited by demons, they were esteemed sacred persons, and regarded with religious awe and reverence." Shak- speare has well shewn, in the character of Edgar, that such was likewise the state of madmen in this country. " Who gives any thing to poor Tom ?" says the pre- tended demoniac, " whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through pond and whirlpool, over bog and quagmire ; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his poin-idge ; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inch'd bridges, ^ 7 rKODUCTI(3N OF SPECTllAL ILLUSIONS. 79 to course his own shadow for a traitor." This is no incorrect illustration of the state of a frenzied imagi- nation. There is no writer^ however^ that has been more successful than Burton iri elucidating from well-au- thenticated instances of spectral illusions, those highly- excited states of the sanguine and melancholic tem- peraments, which may be considered as maniacal. " Such as are commonly of a ruddy complexion and high-coloured," sa)'s this author, " are much inclined to laughter, witty and merry, conceited in discourse, pleasant, if they be not far gone, much given to music, dancing, and to be in women's company. They me- ditate wholly on such things, and think they see or hear plays, dancing, and such like sports, free from all fear and sorrow. Like him of Argus, that sat laughing all day long as if he had been at the theatre. Such another is mentioned by Aristotle, living at Abydos, a town of Asia Minor, that would sit, after the same fashion, as if he had been upon a stage, and sometimes act himself, sometimes clap his hands, and laugh as if he had been well pleased with the sight." The same writer remarks of another description of men, whose mental feelings have constitutionally a gloomy tendency, — " They are usually sad and soli- tary, and that continually and in excess ; moi-e than ordinary suspicious, more fearful, and have long, sore, and most corrupt imaginations ; cold and black, bash- ful, and so solitary, that they will endure no company. They dream of graves, still and dead men, and think themselves bewitched or dead. If the symptoms be extreme, they think tliey hear hideous noises, see and 80 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE talk with black men, and converse familiarly with devils, and such strange chimeras and visions, or that they are possessed by them, and that somebody talks to them, or within them." These illustrations of ma- nia will be at present sufficient for my purpose. It would indeed fill a volume to treat of the various mental illusions which may be referred to the same cause ; " See the strange working of dull melancholy ! Whose drossy thoughts, drying the feeble brain, Corrupts the sense, deludes the intellect. And in the soul's fair table falsely graves • Whole squadrons of phantastical chimeras, And thousand vain imaginations ; Making some think their heads as big as horses,— Some that th' are dead, — some that th' are turn'd to wolves." Old Comedy of Lingua. PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 81 CHAPTER in. SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS ARISING FROM THE HYSTERIC TEMPERAMENT. " O, how this mother swells up toward my heart ! Hysterica passio ! down, thou climbing sorrow, Thy element's below !" King Leah, Act 2, Scene 4. When the growth of the form is nearly completed, the circulating fluid necessary for the future support of the body is in superabundance, and unless corrected in the delicate system of the female, must, agreeably to the principles laid down, necessarily acquire a power of rendering unduly intense the feelings of the mind. Owing to this cause, then, arises what is named the hysteric temperament, which is so well described by Burton. " From hence," he remarks, " proceed a brutish kind of dotage, troublesome sleep, terrible dreams, a foolish kind of bashfulness in some, perverse conceits and opinions, dejection of mind, much discontent, and preposterous judgment. They are apt to loathe, dislike, disdain, to be weary of every object. Each thing almost is tedious to them. They pine away, are void of counsel, apt to weep, and tremble, timorous, fearful, sad, and out of all hopes of better fortunes. They take delight in doing nothing F 82 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE for the time, but love to be alone and solitary, though that does them more harm. And thus they are af- fected so long as this vapour lasteth ; but by-and-by they are as pleasant and merry as ever they were in their lives ; they sing, discourse, and laugh in any good company, upon all occasions. And so by fits it takes them now and then, except the malady be in- veterate, and then it is more frequent, vehement, and continuate. Many of them cannot tell how to express themselves in words, how it holds them, what ails them. You cannot understand them, or well tell what to make of their sayings." Such being the vivid mental feelings characteristic of the hysteric temperament, our present object is to search for some case in which they must have met with still greater excitement; we shall then be en- titled to expect that effects will be produced not un- like those of certain gases, which exert an extraor- dinary influence on the blood. It fortunately happens that a recent example, which may suit our purpose, is very minutely detailed in the last volume of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, relative to a servant-girl, of the age of sixteen, who shewed genei*al symptoms of plethora, obviously arising from the cause to which I have alluded.* The first symptom of her mental dis- * Report on a communication from Dr Dyce of Aberdeen to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, " On Uterine Irritation, and its Effects on the Female Constitution ;" by H. Dewar, M. D. F.R.S. Edinburgh. I' am sorry to be under the necessity of differing in some respects from Dr Dewar, in the view which he has given of this case, as he has appeared to have referred all the symptoms of it to Somnanibultsm. PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 83 order was an unusual somnolency. This was suc- ceeded by disturbed and talking dreams, in which she uttered wild incoherent expressions, or sang mu- sical airs. Indications of somnambulism followed. She would fall asleep, imagine herself an episcopal clergyman, go through the ceremony of baptizing the children, and give an appropriate and extnupore prayer. Or she would fancy herself living with her aunt, near London, and placing herself upon one of the kitchen-stools, ride upon it with a clattering noise, and take an imaginary journey to Epsom races. Such vivid dreams were soon afterwards alternated with waking visions. These illusions, or iva7iderings, as the girl herself named them, would suddenly come on while she was walking with her mistress's children, or was going to church, — while she was dressing her- self, — while she was arranging the furniture of the house, — or while she was busily engaged in the du- ties of the pantry or of the dining-table. A paroxysm of this kind would sometimes last for an hour ; and it differed from a dream in being characterized by fewer inconsistencies, by less glaring mistakes as to time and place, by its more frequent occurrence, and by occasionally giving way to a reproof or reprimand. " She answered," says the reporter of her case, " ma- ny questions distinctly, shewing at times scarcely any failure of her mental powers." It may now be interesting to trace the progress of the symptoms which attended the paroxysms to which the girl became subject. About a quarter of an hour previous to each state of this kind she felt somewhat drowsy ; a pain in the head, usually slight, but which. 84 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE on one occasion, was very intense, succeeded ; after- wards a cloudiness or mistiness came over her eyes ;— ■ a peculiar ringing noise stunned her ears, sometimes resembling the sound of carriage-wheels, and accom- panied with a feeling of motion, as if she herself were seated in the vehicle. The state of all these sensations bore, in fact, some slight degree of resemblance to that which results from an incipient effect on the cir- culation after inhaling the nitrous oxide, — false yet vivid sensible impressions having been felt. Occa- sionally, however, the sensations of the girl were ren- dered still more highly acute ; the eyelids appeared shut, though not entirely closed ; the pupils were much contracted, and there was a great intolerance of light. She could not name objects when the light of the candle or fire shone fully upon them, but pointed them out correctly in the shade, or when they were dimly illuminated. She also recognised any of her acquaintance better by his shadow than by looking at his person. When the paroxysm fairly came on, which might be in any pai't of the day, the sensibility to external impressions gradually lessened ; the eyes be- came half closed ; the cornea was covered with a dim- ness or glaze, resembling that of a person in syncojie ; the pupils were dilated, and, although the iris was exposed to the direct rays of the sun, it shewed no perceptible contraction.* At the same time, in pro- portion as sensations were either diminishing in their degree of vividness, or were becoming, in a manner, * The pulse, says Dr Dyce, was 70, and the extremities rather cold. PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 85 evanescent, ideas grew more intense. Thus, in one fit, as it is stated, " the girl performed, in the most correct manner, some of her accustomed duties rela- ting to the pantry and the dinner-table. Dr Dyce went to see her ; she gave him a wrong name, as for- merly. Her mistress then desired her to stand straight up, look around, and tell where she was. She reco- vered instantly, but it was only for a little ; — she very soon relapsed. When requested to read in an alma- nack held before her, she did not seem to see it, nor did she notice a stick which was held out to her. Being asked a second time to read, she repeated a portion of Scripture, and did not give a correct answer when asked where she was. Being desired to state what she felt, she put her hand to her forehead, and complained of her head, saying, she saw the mice running through the room. Mrs L mentioned that she had said the same thing on many former oc- casions, even when her eyes were shut ; that she had also frequently imagined she was accompanied by a little black dog, which she could not get rid of. She did not, in general, express any particular uneasiness from such a cause ; at times, however, she cried in consequence of it, and at other times laughed immo- derately." 86 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE CHAPTER IV. SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS OCCURRING FROM PLETHORA ; FOR INSTANCE, FROM THE NEGLECT OF ACCUSTOMED PERIODICAL BLOOD-LETTING. " Phlebotomy, many times neglected, may doe muchharmeto the body, when there is a manifest redundance of bad humors and melancholy blood ; and when these humors heate and boyle, if this be not used in time, the parties affected, so inflamed, are in great danger to be mad ; but if it be unadvisedly, unfortu- nately immoderately used, it doth as much harme by refriger- ating the body, duUing the spirits, and consuming them." Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part I. Sect. 2. The blood may, from nothing more than the excess in which it prevails throughout the system, prove a sti- mulant capable of inducing an undue vividness of thought. This curious fact appears to have formerly met with many satisfactory illustrations, when, in ac- cordance with the hvunoral pathology once taught, periodical blood-letting was universally practised ; and the r(ilio?iale of such an effect must, from the principles laid down, be sufficiently evident. The comparative degree of vividness subsisting between sensations and ideas being regulated by the usual in- fluencing condition of the circulating system, we may readily conceive, that whenever a wonted evacuation of the sanguineous fluid is stopped, the recollected images of the mind must be rendered liable to an PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 87 undue degree of excitation. This is evident, from a remark occurring in Burton's Anatomy of IMelan- choly, where the mental effect resulting from a neglect of accustomed phlebotomy is, in the language of the Immoral school of medicine, expressed under such metaphorical terms, as " an inflammation caused by hot and boiling humours." That this view is far from hypothetical, the case of Nicolai, the Prussian bookseller, to which I have al- luded in the first chapter, strikingly shews. This intelligent man had evidently certain trains of thought rendered unduly vivid from moral causes, the parti- cular influence of which I shall consider hereafter ; but a conspiring agent, much more excitable, was strictly of a pathological description, and resulted from a casual neglect of accustomed blood-letting. This very curious fact I shall give in another extract from Nicolai's case. " Several incidents," he observes, " connected with apparitions, seem to me of importance, though we might be apt to regard them in a secondary point of view ; for we cannot determine of what con- sequence even a circumstance of the most trivial na- ture may be, if at any future period (in case more experiments of a like nature are ascertained) some suppositions or conclusions can be made respecting the origin of such phantoms, or respecting that law of association, according to which ideas are modified or follow one another. " I was then, which is seldom the case, in a situa- tion to make observations on myself. I took down, therefore, in a few words, what was most important, and related it immediately to several persons. My 88 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE memory, which is extremely retentive, has, besides, treasured up the most minute circumstances ; the more on that account, as this story has very often proved the subject of my impartial consideration, not only with regard to my own particular situation, but also in respect to its many psychological consequences. Its truth will, I hope, require no further assurance on my part, since a member of this academy (Mr Selle) is an unexceptionable witness of it, having, as my physician, received a daily account of all that hap- pened to me. " In the last ten months of the year 1790, I under- went several very severe trials, which greatly agitated me. From the month of September in particular, repeated shocks of misfortune had befallen me, which produced the deepest sorrow. It had been usual for me to lose blood by venesection twice a year. This was done once on the 9th of July, 1790, but towards the close of the year it was omitted. In 1783, I had been suddenly seized with a violent giddiness, which the physician imputed to an obstruction in the small muscles of the abdomen, proceeding from too intense an application to study, and my sedentary manner of life for many years. These complaints were removed by a three-years' medicinal course, and the rigid ob- servance of a strict diet during that time. In the first stage of the malady the application of leeches had been particularly effective, and this remedy I had from that time regularly applied twice or thrice a year, when- ever I felt congestion in the head. It was on the 1st of IMarch, 1790, that the leeches had been last ap- plied ; the bleeding, therefore, and the clearing of the 8 PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 89 minuter blood-vessels by leeches, had, in 1790, been less frequently observed than usual, A circumstance too that could not tend to benefit my deplorable situa- tion was, that from September I had been continually engaged in business which required the severest exer- tion, and which, from frequent interruptions, was rendered still more burthensome and distressing." Nicolai then proceeded to give an account of the appearance of the first phantasxn that presented itself before him, which was like the form of a deceased person ; and he afterwards details the innumerable other spectral illusions with which he was haunted. This part of the narrative has been given in the first chapter of this dissertation. The most curious fact, hoAvever, still remains to be told ; it is that interesting circumstance in the case which proves, that the de- traction of blood in a system where the habitual eva- cuation of this vital fluid had been casually neglected, was sufficient, by a reduction of the sanguineous in- fluence, to expel all the phantasms which had resulted from an undue vividness of ideas. " Though at this time," says Nicolai, " I enjoyed rather a good state of health both in body and mind, and had become so very familiar with these phantasms, that at last they did not excite the least disagreeable emotion, but, on the contrary, afforded me frequent subjects for amuse- ment and mirth ; yet as the disorder sensibly increas- ed, and the figures appeared to me for whole days to- gether, and even during the night, if I happened to awake, I had recourse to several medicines, and was at last again obliged to have recourse to the applica- tion of leeches. 90 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE " This was performed on the 20th of April, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. I was alone with the surgeon ; but during the operation, the room swarmed with human forms of every description, which crowd- ed fast one on another ; this continued till half-past four o'clock, exactly the time when the digestion commences. I then observed, that the figures began to move more slowly ; soon afterwards the colours became gradually paler; every seven minutes they lost more and more of their intensity, without any al- teration in the distinct figure of the apparitions. At about half-past six o'clock all the figures were entirely white, and moved very little ; yet the forms appeared perfectly distinct ; by degrees they became visibly less plain, without decreasing in number, as had often formerly been the case. The figures did not move off, neither did they vanish, which also had usually happened on other occasions. In this instance they dissolved immediately into air ; of some even whole pieces remained for a length of time, which also by degrees were lost to the eye. At about eight o'clock there did not remain a vestige of any of them, and I have never since experienced any appearance of the same kind. Twice or thrice since that time I have felt a propensity, if I may be so allowed to express myself, or a sensation as if I saw something which in a moment again was gone. I was even surprised by this sensation whilst wiuting the present account, having, in order to render it more accurate, perused the papers of 1791> and recalled to my memory all the circumstances of that time. So little are we some- times, even in the greatest composure of mind, masters of our imiigination." PRODUCTION OF SPECTKAL ILLUSIONS, 91 CHAPTER V. THE SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS WHICH OCCASIONALLY OCCUR AS HECTIC SYBIPTOMS. "■ That sudden flow of spirits, bright and strong, Which play'd in sprightly sallies round my heart ; Was it a gleam forewarning me from heav'n, Of quick approaching fate ? As tapers mount Expiring into wide diffusive flame, Give one broad glare, into the socket sink, And sinking disappear. It must be so ! — " W. Thompson. A VERY remarkable agent, observable in a number of diseases, and capable of imparting an undue degree of vividness to thought, is the cause of the fever usually named Hectic. By most medical men, the proximate cause of hectic fever is considered to be absoi'bed pus ; agreeably to which view, the affection is merely symptomatic of the numerous catalogue of diseases in which this substance, originating from abscesses or ulcers, enters into the circulation. By a few the cause is regarded as constitutional, and hence the opinion, that it is characterized by a peculiar temperament, the indica- tions of which are a fair skin, blue eyes, yellow hair, lax fibre, and sanguine disposition ; and that other fevers, as well as the diseased actions of various or- 92 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE gans of the body, may induce the true hectic state.* On either notion, however, the cause of hectic fever must be regarded as an agent very materially modi- fying the quality of the sanguineous fluid ; hence the small, quick, and sharp pulse, the pyrectic indications of cold and hot fits, with sweatings and other symp- toms. Along with this influence exercised on the cir- culation, the mental feelings are highly vivified, while the quality of them is of such an exhilarating charac- ter, as to cherish, amidst the most alarming indica- tions, the fallacious prospect of returning health. Whilst corporeal exhaustion gives token that the hec- tic victim is fast sinking to a premature grave, the imagination, as if in cruel irony, is proportionally rendered more and more lively. The wan and ema- ciated student is buoyed up with blissful visions of future scientific acquirements never to be realized : " Fancy dreams Of sacred fountains, of o'ershadowing groves, Whose walks with god-like harmony resound : Fountains which Homer visits ; happy groves Where Milton dwells. The intellectual power, On the mind's throne, suspends his graver cares And smiles.'' In the still more advanced, yet moribund symptoms of hectic fever, the vividness which ideas acquire, becomes, in the highest degree, intense. Patients are often deluded with the blissful visions which our great • I much doubt the correctness of this latter view ; it is advo- cated in Good's Study of Medicine, vol. ii. p. 105. PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 93 bard, with such exquisite feeling and taste, has dra- matized in his pathetic representation of the dying moments of Catherine of Arragon : Catherine. — ^— Saw you not, even now, a blessed troop Invite me to a banquet ; whose bright faces Cast thousand beams upon me, like the sun ? They promised me eternal happiness ; And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel I am not worthy yet to wear : I shall Assuredly. Patience. Do you note How much her grace is alter'd on the sudden ? How long her face is drawn ? How pale she looks. And of an earthy cold ? Mark her eyes. Griffith. She is going, wench ; pray, pray. Patience, Heaven comfort her ! 94 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE CHAPTER VI. SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS FROM FEBRILE AND INFLAMMA- TORY AFFECTIONS. " External forms, forbidden, mount the winds, Retire to Chaos, or with night commix ; Irregular and new ; as pain or ease The spirits teach to flow, and in the brain Direction diverse hold." THOBirsoN's Progress of Sickness. It has been sufficiently shewn, in treating of the ge- neral pathology of mental illusions, that the febrile miasma possesses a great power, through the medium of the circvilation, of inducing an extreme vividness of ideas. This cause, variously operating under the mo- dified forms which it acquires from different climates and soils, has frequently given rise to spectral im- pressions. Incidents of this kind, which more parti- cularly occur during the delirium attending the ty- phoid state of fever, are indeed so common, that it is needless to dwell any longer upon this part of our inquiry. Also in certain inflammatory states of the system, frequently, however, attended with an irritable state of the nerves, nothing is more common than for pa- tients to see phantasms, or to hear imaginary sounds, Avhile the dispelling of these illusions generally suc- ceeds to a copious detraction of blood. A very curious PRODUCTION OF SPECTllAL ILLUSIONS. 9;> case of this kind is given in the 15th volume of Ni- cholson's Philosophical Journal, which shews every internal evidence of authenticity, although the narra- tor has not, like Nicolai, had the courage to affix to it his signature. " About twelve years ago, I had an attack of fever, arising from some deep-seated inflam- mation, which caused acute pain in the left side. It was occasioned by a cold caught at the breaking-up of the hard frost in the spring of 1795. The pulse was generally about 110 in the minute, and the ill- ness, which lasted some weeks, was accompanied with disordered perception, through almost its whole dura- tion. At the commencement of the fever, a slight defect of memory was perceived in forming the phrases for dictating a letter ; but this did not last, and I found no difficulty afterwards in performing arithmetical and other processes by memory to as great an extent as my usual habits could have gone. The first night was attended with great anxiety, and the fatiguing and perpetual recurrence of the same dream. I supposed myself to be in the midst of an immense system of mechanical combination, all the parts of which were revolving with extreme rapidity and noise, and at the same time I was impressed with a conviction that the aim or purpose of this distracting operation was to cure my disorder. When the agita- tion was carried to a certain height, I suddenly awoke, and soon afterwards fell again into a doze, with repe- tition of the same dream. After many such repeti- tions it occurred to me, that if I could destroy the impression or conviction, there might be a probability that the delirious dream would change its form ; and 96 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE as the most likely method, I thought, that by con- necting some simple visible object in my mind, with the notion of cure, that object might be made to oc- cupy the situation of the rapidly moving objects in the dream. The consequence, in some measure, an- swered my expectation ; for upon the next access, the recollection of the figure of a bottle, to which I had previously directed my mind, presented itself, the ro- tation ceased, and my subsequent dreams, though disturbed, were more various and less irritating. " The medical treatment consisted in an external application of leeches to the side, venesection, and a saline mixture, which was taken internally. " A second night was passed with much agitation in repeated dozing, with dreams, in which, except with regard to the strangeness and inconsistency of the objects that offered themselves, it was difficult to distinguish the time of sleep from that of wakefulness. None of that anxiety of mind remained which had added to the sufferings of the preceding night. When morning came, the state of the sensations had either undergone a change, or it was more easy, as Hartley remarks, for the real impressionsof surroundingobjects, to predominate over the phantasms of disease. Being perfectly awake, in full possession of memory, reason, and calmness, conversing with those around me, and seeing, without difficulty or impediment, every sur- rounding object, I was entertained and delighted with a succession of faces, over which I had no control, either as to their appearance, continuance, or removal. " Tliey appeared directly before me, one at a time, very suddenly, yet not so much so, but that a second PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 97 of time might be employed in the emergence of each, as if through a cloud or mist, to its perfect clearness. In this state each face continued five or six seconds, and then vanished, by becoming gi-adually fainter during about two seconds, till nothing was left but a dark opaque mist, in which almost immediately after- wards appeared another face. All these faces were in the highest degree interesting to me for beauty of form, and for the variety of expression they manifested of every great and amiable emotion of the human mind. Though their attention was invariably direct- ed to me, and none of them seemed to speak, yet I seemed to read the very soul which gave animation to their lovely and intelligent countenances. Admi- ration and a sentiment of joy and affection when each face appeared, and regret upon its disappearance, kept my mind constantly rivetted to the visions before it ; and this state was interrupted only when an inter- course with the persons in the room was proposed or urged." The writer then gives certain other details relative to his case, which I shall notice in a more suitable part of this essay. He afterwards speaks of a tempo- rary suspension of these visions, which he attributes to the effect of a medicine. " I do not remember," he adds, " how long these visions lasted, but think it was the next morning that they all vanished, at the very instant of taking a draught, composed of lemon- juice, saturated with potash, with a small addition of the pulvis Londinensis. I cannot think the effect was owing to any peculiar virtue of this medicine, (for it took place before the draught had actually entered G 98 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE the stomach,) but merely to the stimulus of the sub- acid cold fluid. " How long the appearances were suspended I did not note, or have now forgotten. The fever conti- nued with the same frequency of pulse, and pain in the side, attended with yawning and great increase of suffering while in the prone posture. Notwithstand- ing the saline antimonial medicine was continued, the figures returned ; but they now consisted of books, or parchments, or papers containing printed matter. I do not know whether I read any of them, but am at present inclined to think they were either not dis- tinctly legible, or did not remain a sufficient time be- fore they vanished. " It occurred to me, that all these delusions were of one sense only, namely, the sight ; and, upon con- sidering the recurrence of sounds, a few simple mu- sical tones were afterwards heard, for one time only ; soon after which, having dropped asleep, an animal seemed to jump upon my back, with the most shrill and piercing screams, which were too intolerable for the continuance of sleep. Diseased perceptions of the hearing did not again recur." PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 99 CHAPTER Vn. SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS ARISING PROM INFLAMMATION OP THE BRAIN. " And often where no real ills affright, Its visionary fiends, an endless train, Assail with equal or superior might, And through the throbbing heart, and dizzy brain, And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain." Beattie. Our researches have hitherto been confined to the blood, which we have considered as giving rise, from its own independent chemical properties or bulk, to certain intense states of the mind. It is now of im- portance to inquire if similar effects may not be re- ferred to nervous influence. According to the very important physiological ex- periments of Dr Philip, it appears that the nervous system consists of parts endowed with the vital prin- ciple, yet capable of acting in concert with inanimate matter ; and that in man, as well as in certain well- known animals, electricity is the agent thus capable of being collected by nervous organs, and of being universally diffused, for purposes intimately connected with the animal economy, throughout every part of the human system. The agency, therefore, of the 100 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE nerves in contributing to produce numerous changes on the blood, and with them equally numerous states of the mind, must be very great ; and it is for this reason, that throughout every part of the human body they accompany vessels in their course. One set of nerves takes a direction from the surface of the human body, or from its cavities ; agreeably, also, to the impressions received from external matter, as well as to the differences of animal structure which occur in sensible organs, corresponding sensations and re- novated feelings are excited. Hence, when we take into consideration the effect of certain gases on the blood in inducing definite qualities and degrees of vividness in our mental feelings, the conclusion is in- evitable, that the nerves belonging to the sensitive organs of our frame cannot generate any mental af- fections without first producing those peculiar sangui- neous effects which we have before described, and to which the immaterial principle of the mind seems, in some unknown manner, to be related. It may be also observed, that the mental feelings thus excited by the nervous influence on the circulation, bear a further relation to a set of nerves proceeding from small por- tions of the brain and spinal cord, which supply the muscles of voluntary motion ; each distinct state of mind thus ultimately stimulating with a definite de- gree of force particular muscular fibres. But, besides the class of nerves concerned with voluntary motion, there is another and far more extensive description, which exercise, through the medium of the blood, an influence on the states of the mind. Nerves of this kind, consisting of a chain of ganglions, to which PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 101 communications from all parts of the brain and spinal marrow are sent^ form the cause of the processes of secretion. The healthy exercise of these functions is attended with a temperature considerably raised above that of the surrounding medium, and hence arise the different mental states which result from salutary and morbid assimilations, or from the moderate, intense, or languishing circulation of the blood. It is then from these causes that various degi'ees of vividness may be imparted to our feelings. This physiological view leads to the inference, that with respect to causes of irritation acting on the ner- vous system, they may either influence nerves con- nected with the transmission of sensations and ideas from external impressions, or they may influence those nerves which are concerned in the processes of secre- tion ; in either case, however, the vividness of mental feelings cannot fail to be affected. On the other hand, by merely stimulating the nerves which are trans- mitted directly from the brain and spinal cord to the voluntary muscles, nothing more than irregular mus- cular actions can ensue. Causes of nervous irritation may also act in two ways ; they may either directly influence the state of the blood, and with it the state of the mental feelings, or they may produce a similar effect, though far less in degree, by exerting a power over the elastic and involuntary muscular fibres of the heart, giving, by this means, either an increasing or diminishing resistance to the vital expansibility evinced in the volume of the circulating mass. Dr Philip has mentioned, as a result of his experi- ments, that a chemical or mechanical agent very par- 102 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE tially irritating the brain and nerves, is incapable of exciting the heart, but that it is influenced by all agents applied to any considerable portion of these organs, and that it feels the effect of such an influence as long as it is applied. Excitements of this kind are to be found in such inflammatory causes as sudden alternations of heat and cold, exposure to the rays of a vertical sun, the sudden suppression of accustomed evacuations, various kinds of poison, and inebria- tion. In certain forms of cerebral inflammation, the first symptoms evince an increasing intensity of all sensations. In the case of a lady, a patient of Dr Good, there was an intolerable acuteness of hearing and viaioH, insomuch that the slightest light and sound, even the humming of a fly, became insupport- able. Ideas also were rendered more vivid. But as the inflammation increased, the acute sensibility to external impressions gradually diminished, while the recollected images of the nund assumed a most fright- ful reality. In an example which came under my own notice, ideas of vision were so intense, that al- though the patient closed his eyelids, he could not even then dispel the lively images of demons that haunted his bed. The sleep was moreover disturbed ■with the most horrible dreams. A very curious case of spectral illusions is relatetl by Dr Alderson of Hull, in which the irritation of the brain or its membranes seems to have resulted from an extended inflammation under the scalp. " A few months ago," says this writer, " I visited Mr R., who was seized, in his passage from America, with a most excruciating lieadach. He obtained some PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 103 temporary relief from the formation of matter under the scalp ; swellings came on in the throaty and he had some difficulty of respiration when in bed. At tliis time, he complained to me that he had trouble- some dreams, and that he seemed to dream whilst awake. In a short time after, he told me he had, for an hour or two, been convinced that he had seen his wife and family, when his right judgment told him that they were in America ; and the impression was so strong a few nights afterwards, and the conversa- tion he had with his son so very particular and im- portant, that he could not help relating the whole to his friends in the morning, and requested to know if his wife and son were not actually arrived from Ame- rica, and at that time in the house. I was sent for to hold consultation, and he evidently saw that they all took him to be insane. He therefore immediately turned to me, and asked me, whether the complaint he then had would bring on the imagination of spec- tres, and apparitions, and figures ; for he had always hitherto been an unbeliever in ghosts, and in every thing else ; he felt, and his friends likewise acknow- ledged, that he was perfectly sane, and strong in mind as ever he was in his life. Having satisfied him with the nature and extent of his complaint, and that it would soon vanish with his bodily sufferings, he and his friends were made easy in their minds ; but the phantoms became at length more troublesome, so that he could not bear to go into his bed-room, where every picture brought with it the association, and con- jured up the spirits of the departed, or introduced a train of unpleasant companions. He remained after 104 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE this in a low room, and was for a time free from in- truders ; but in a bright brass lock he again saw his transatlantic friends, and never afterwards could he look to it but he saw them ; and when I have been with him, and have purposely taken up a book, I have seen him hold conversation in his mind's eye with them ; and I have momentarily known him con- sider me as hearing and seeing them too — I say mo- mentarily, for he is a man of strong parts, and per- fectly convinced of the nature of the complaint ; for whenever I spoke, and he turned from the lock, he could converse on religion, physic, and politics, as well as ever. He then changed his house ; the matter again formed under the scalp, and he is now in a state of convalescence, and totally free from such visitations." * The effect induced on the brain by intoxication from ardent spirits, which have a strong tendency to inflame this organ, is attended with very remarkable effects. These have been lately described as symp- toms of delirium tremens.'^' Many cases, indeed, are recorded, which shew the liability of the patient to long-continued spectral impressions. " I was called," says Dr Armstrong, " to visit Mr B. J., a short spare man, in the year of his age; who, I was told, was so very ungovernable, that his friends had pro- vided a strait-waistcoat for him, and only waited my approbation to put it on. I found him in a state of extreme perturbation, impressed with the idea that * Edinburgh 3Iedical and Surgical Journal, vol. vi. p. 291. -|- An excellent thesis on this subject was written in tlie year 1821, by Dr Bcgbie of Edinburgh. PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 105 two men were lurking in the adjoining room, who were determined to murder him, and who had re- peatedly, in the course of the morning, fired pistols at him with that intention. In order to escape from the supposed assassins, he had just made an attempt to leap through the chamber -window, and had only been prevented from so doing by the interference of some relations, with whom he had been struggling very hard. I endeavoured to pacify him, by assurmg him that no one should do him an injury, and at last pre- vailed upon him to sit down. Occasionally, however, he looked at me suspiciously ; and, upon the least noise being made below stairs, started and stared wildly round the room. His breathing was rather hurried. He occasionally sighed deeply, and at in- tervals he was attacked with a dry hollow-sounding cough, which appeared to shake his whole frame. His face was pale, and his countenance full of anxiety. To all my questions his answers were confused, and not at all to the purpose ; he hesitated almost at every syllable, and mistook the pronunciation of many words. On inquiry, I learnt that he had latterly been in a state of intoxication, more especially in the pre- ceding week, and on Saturday the 14th of November; since which time he had taken less stimulus than usual, with the intention of becoming temperate. The following particulars were likewise related to me. On Sunday, the 15th of November, he complained of being very languid, took little food, and only drank about two glasses of wine, a small quantity of ale, and half a glass of gin. Towards the evening he grew rather feverish, and passed an uneasy and sleepless 106 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE night. He remained nearly in the same state during the ensuing Monday, till late in the afternoon, when he was seized with a violent hollow clanging cough, which made him perspire profusely, and was very troublesome through the night, which he passed, as before, without sleep. On Tuesday morning he had a severe fit of coughing, after which he became ex- ceedingly fretful and irritable, the slightest contra- diction throwing him into an excessive passion. In the latter part of the day he refused both wine and food, asserting that he was confident some wicked people were watching an opportunity to poison him ; and, when preparing to go to bed in the evening, suddenly started, as if somebody was about to lay hands upon him. He soon afterwards, however, went to bed, but obtained no rest whatever. From this period the distraction of mind increased, and he was in constant alarm about the safety of his person. At an early hour the next eventing, he desired to go to bed ; but, hearing a noise made by a servant beneath his chamber, he leapt up in great agitation, declaring that two men had just entered the house with the de- sign of murdering him. Being somewhat calmed by the kindness of his friends, he went to bed again, and begged them to be watchful in the night. He did not seem at all disposed to sleep, but talked at inter- vals about his life being in imminent danger from fire-arms and poison, and kept constantly gathering the bed-clothes about him till daylight, when he rose, much agitated with the fear of assassination, and has since continued restless and alarmed." Dr Armstrong, after detailing sevei-al other symp- PllODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 107 toras, mentions the result of a visit paid him three days afterwards. " He has taken his wine, food, and medicine, whenever presented to him ; but has had no sleep in the night, though he remained very quiet till about six o'clock this morning, when, one of the people who sat up with him refusing to let him go down stairs, he burst into a violent passion, attempted to break open the door of his chamber, and insisted that he was not in his own house, but detained by force in some other. His wife, on hearing the noise, came into the room, and told him he might go down stairs, or anywhere he thought proper, and endea- voured, in a good-humoured way, to convince him that he was really at home ; and at length succeeded, by shewing him the different apartments of the house. Shortly afterwards he requested a cup of coffee, which he appeared to relish ; and then went to bed again, and fell into a sound tranquil sleep, from which he has not yet awakened. Not wishing to distm-b the patient, I left the house without seeing him ; but, on calling again about two o'clock in the afternoon, found that he had just risen, collected and rational upon every subject, but had no very distinct recollection of any thing that had passed during his illness." * A case, even still more curious, is related by Dr Alderson.t " I was called upon," he observes, " some time ago, to visit Mr , who, at that time, kept a dram-shop. Having at different times attended, and thence knowing him very Avell, I was struck with • Edinburgh fliedical and Surgical Journal, vol. ix. p. 14(i. t Ibid. Tol. vi. p. 288. 108 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE something singular upon my first entrance. He went up stairs with me, but evidently hesitated occasionally as he went. When he got into his chamber, he ex- pressed some apprehension lest I should consider him as insane, and send him to the asylum at York, whither I had not long before sent one of his pot- companions. Whence all these apprehensions ? — What is the matter with you ? — Why do you look so full of terror? He then sat down, and gave me a history of his complaint. " About a week or ten days before, after drawing some liquor in his cellar for a girl, he desired her to take away the oysters which lay upon the floor, and which he supposed she had dropped ; — the girl, think- ing him drunk, laughed at him, and went out of the room. " He endeavoured to take them up himself, and to his great astonishment could find none. He was then going out of the cellar, when at the door he saw a soldier, whose looks he did not like, attempting to enter the room in which he then was. He desired to know what he wanted there ; and upon receiving no answer, but, as he thought, a menacing look, he sprung forward to seize the intruder, and to his no small surprise found it a phantom. The cold sweat hung upon his brow — he trembled in every limb. It was the dusk of the evening as he passed along the passage — the phantom flitted before his eyes — he at- tempted to follow it, resolutely determined to satisfy himself; but as it vanished, there appeared others, and some of them at a distance, and he exhausted him- self by fruitless attempts to lay hold of them. He PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 109 hastened to his family, with marks of terror and con- fusion ; for, though a man of the most undaunted re- solution, he confessed to me that he never had before felt what it was to be completely terrified. During the whole of that night, he was constantly tormented with a variety of spectres, sometimes of people who had been long dead, and other times of friends who were living ; and harassed himself with continually getting out of bed, to ascertain whether the people he saw were real or not. Nor could he always distin- guish who were and who were not real customers, as they came into the rooms in the daytime, so that his conduct became the subject of observation ; and though it was for a time attributed to private drink- ing, it was at last suspected to arise from some other cause; and when I was sent for, the family were un- der the full conviction that he was insane, although they confessed, that, in every thing else, except the foolish notion of seeing apparitions, he was perfectly rational and steady ; and during the whole of the time that he was relating his case to me, and his mind was fully occupied, he felt the most gratifying relief, for in all that time he had not seen one apparition ; and he was elated with pleasure indeed, when I told him I should not send him to York, for his was a complaint I could cure at home. But whilst I was writing a prescription, and had suffered him to be at rest, I saw him suddenly get up, and go with a hui-- ried step to the door. What did you do that for ? — he looked ashamed and mortified : — he had been so well whilst in conversation with me, that he could not 110 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE believe that the soldier whom he saw enter the room was a phantom, and he got up to convince himself. " I need not here detail particularly the medical treatment adopted ; but it may be as well just to state the circumstances which probably led to the com- plaint, and the principle of cure. Some time pre- viously he had had a quarrel with a drunken soldier, who attempted, against his inclination, to enter his house at an unseasonable hour, and in the struggle to turn him out, the soldier drew his bayonet, and, hav- ing struck him across the temples, divided the tem- poral artery ; in consequence of which he bled a very large quantity before a surgeon arrived, as there was no one who knew that, in such a case, simple com- pression with the finger, upon the spouting artery, would stop the effusion of blood. He had scarcely recovered from the effects of this loss of blood, when he undertook to accompany a friend in his walking- match against time, in which he went forty-two miles in nine hours. Elated with success, he spent the whole of the following day in drinking, but found himself, a short time afterwards, so much out of health, that he came to the resolution of abstaining altogether from liquor. It was in the course of the week following that abstinence from his usual habits, that he had the disease. It kept increasing for seve- ral days till I saw him, allowing him no time for rest. Never was he able to get rid of these shadows by night when in bed, nor by day when in motion ; though he sometimes walked miles with that view, and at others got into a variety of company. He told PRODUCTION OF SPECTRxVL ILLUSIONS. Ill me he suffered even bodily pain, from the severe lash- ing of a waggoner with his whip, who came every night to a particular corner of his bed, but who al- ways disappeared when he jumped out of bed to re- tort, which he did several nights successively. The whole of this complaint was effectually removed by bleeding with leeches, and active purgatives. After the first employment of these means, he saw no more phantoms in the daytime ; and after the second, only once saw his milkman in his bed-room, between sleeping and waking. He has remained perfectly rational and well ever since, and can go out in the dark as well as ever, having received a perfect con- viction of the nature of ghosts." 112 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE CHAPTER VIII. SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS ARISING FROM A HIGHLY-EXCITED STATE OF NERVOUS IRRITABILITY ACTING GENER- ALLY ON THE SYSTEM. " This bodiless creation Ecstacy Is very cunning in." — Haimlet. The examples brought forward in the last chapter have, I trust, sufficiently illustrated the delusions liable to occur from an extremely morbid state of the nervous system. We had previously seen, that al- though an undue vividness of ideas directly results from certain changes induced in the circulating fluid, such changes might not only be traced to an inherent quality of the blood, arising from constitutional af- fections, or to the suppression of customary and na- tural evacuations, but that they might also ensue from adventitious agents of a chemical nature introduced into the system. In extending these researches, we further added to such causes of spectral impressions the influence of the nervous system, which nothing appeared more forcibly calculated to illustrate than inflammatory states of the brain or its membranes. Such extreme cases, therefore, of nervous irritability, which take their rise from manifest derangements of organic structure, give us the best reason to expect (J moDUCTioN or spectral illusions. 113 that consequences no less singulai* in their nature may result from causes of a latent kind, where a highly- excited state of the nervous influence, not often to be detected by actual examination, either generally or partially affects the circulating system. Agreeably to the view which I have given of ner- vous fibres, they may be described as of three kinds. Fibres of the first description take their course from the external organs of sense, or from sensitive cavi- ties ; and, in transmitting their influence to the san- guineous system, thereby induce corresponding sen- sations and renovated feelings. Fibres of the second kind are connected through a system of ganglions with the brain and spinal cord ; their action on the blood being for the processes of secretion and assimilation, while, at the same time> they are capable of rendering the affections of the mind more or less vivid. Nerv- ous fibres of a third class have no antecedent connexion with our mental states, but, in inducing muscular mo- tion, obey the stimulus of the will. According to this notion, therefore, the particular mental excita- bility about to be described, arises from the influence of fibres of the first and second kind, and hence spectral illusions may occur, although the motific nerves should not be vniduly excited ; which not un- frequently happens when phantoms disturb the ima- gination of persons, who, from the regularity with which muscular motions at the same time obey the will, are supposed to be in perfect health. In the se- cond place, spectral illusions may occur when there is an equally intense excitement of the motific nerves. In such a case, the particular affection is induced, H 114 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE ■which in Dr Good's Nosology bears the name of Cams Ecstasis. This writer has conceived, that in the diffusion of the motific influence, an excess of supply is equally felt by the extenor and flexor muscles. Hence the muscles are thrown into a rigid and permanent spasm, which gives to the body so erect a position, and so lofty and unalterable a demeanour, that the unhappy visionary, from this imposing air of inspiration, has not unfrequently both deluded himself and others with the notion, that his dreams were supernatural visita- tions. In the third place, the voluntary motific nerves may be irregularly incited ; or, in other words, the balance of action subsisting between the flexor and ex- tensor muscles may be so disturbed, that the frame will appear to be variously convulsed or incurvated. I believe this to be one of the varieties of Ecstasis which nosologists have, perhaps rather loosely, re- ferred to Epilepsy ; but, as all the causes of the latter affection are by no means decidedly pointed out, it would, for the present, be a prudent step not to dis- turb the appellation.* In many instances of epilepsy, there has been such a flow of spirits as to indicate, that a very powerful nervous influence was generally diffused throughout the human frame, while, as har- • Dr Wilson Phillip has shewn from experiments, that the nerves connected with voluntary muscles are more powerfully incited by mechanical than chemical causes of irritation. Thus we see the reason wliy Exostosis, or why foreign substances affecting the nerv- ous system, should occasionally operate as causes of the convulsions of epilepsy ; and why convulsions in general should be regarded as merely incidental to spectral illusions. PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 115 bingers of the paroxysm, there has not only been the well-known mira epileptica, but also a wild display of phantasms. A woman, whose case is related by Fortius, was always warned of an approaching fit by the ap- pearance of her own image in a mirror; and Sauvage mentions, that even during the paroxysm dreadful spectres have been seen. It is likewise a curious fact, that in such forms of the disease, real objects have oc- casionally seemed magnified to an extraordinary de- gree, while, among coloured substances, a green hue has predominated. Another form of Ecstasis is that which occasionally occurs as a symptom in catalepsy, where the influence of those nerves which are con- nected with voluntary muscles is so diminished, that the limbs are unable to resist external force, but yield to it with readiness, and retain any position in which they may be placed. I shall, lastly, observe, that a ge- neral state of nervous irritability not unfrequently ex- ercises its influence on the system, in concurrence with a highly-excited condition of the sanguine or melancholic temperament. An increase of action here takes place in that extensive system of nerves, upon which the processess of assimilation depend. This effect is pointed out by the peculiar symptoms, which arise in the organs more immediately connected with digestion. " From the centre of the epigastric re- gion," says Pinel, " are propagated, as it were by a species of irradiation, the accession of insanity, when all the abdominal system even appears to enter into the sad confederacy. The patient complains of a sense of tightness in the region of the stomach, want of ap- petite, obstinate constipation, and a sensation of h^at 116 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE in the bowels, which obtains a temporary relief from copious draughts of cooling liquids." — " This reaction of the epigastric region upon the functions of the un- derstanding is so far from oppressing and obscuring them, that it appears even to augment their vivacity and strength. The imagination is exalted to the high- est pitch of development and fecundity. Thoughts the most brilliant and ingenious, comparisons the most apt and luminous, give to the maniac an air of supernatural enthusiasm and inspiration. The recol- lection of the past appears to unroll with great rapidi- ty, and what had long been not thought of and for- gotten, is then presented to the mind in glowing and animated colours." — In another place the same elo- quent writer adds, " Dreams of ecstacy, and visions of heavenly pleasure, are the ordinary preludes to paroxysms of maniacal devotion : as those of unfor- tunate love are preceded by similar interruptions of sound and healthful sleep. The beloved object ap- pears under the form of an exquisite beauty, with every other advantage, greatly exaggerated by the magic power of fancy. But the too happy dreamer, after an interval of more or less continuance of rea- son and calmness, awakes once more the noisy, the disconsolate, and the furious maniac." * " Pinel's Treatise on Insanity ; translation by D. D. Davis, M-D. pages 17 ami 28, PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAl, ILTXTSIONS. 117 CHAPTER IX. THE SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS OF HYPOCHONDKIACKS. '' There is nothing so vaine, absurd, ridiculous, extravagant, im- possible, incredible, so monstrous a chymera, so prodigious antl strange, such as painters and poets durst not attempt, which they will not really feare, faine suspect and imagine unto themselves." Burton's Anatomy of Melanchoi.v. Not unfrequently a partial and irregular state of nervous irritability acts in concurrence with highly- excited conditions of certain temperaments. This gives rise, in very sanguine or melancholic constitu- tions, to the symptoms of hypochondrism. The irre- gular action of those nerves, upon which the produc- tion of external impressions and the renovated feel- ings of the mind depends, is indicated by false affect- tions communicated to the organs of sense, particular- ly to those of touch. Hence the imaginary diseases of which hypochondriacks suppose they are the sub- ject, as well as the ideal transformation of the texture of their bodies into such substances as glass, lead, or feathers. At the same time, the irregular action of other nerves, concerned in the processes of assimila- tion, is productive of the usual morbid state which takes place of the digestive organs. Burton has sum- 118 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE med up the extravagancies of hypochondriacks in a few words : " Humorous are they beyond all mea- sure, they faigne many absurdities voide of reason ; one supposes himself to be a dog, cock, beare, horse, glasse, butter, &c. He is a giant, a dwarfe, as strong as an hundred men, a lord, duke, prince, &c. And if he be told he hath a stinking breath, a great nose, that he is sick, or inclined to such or such a disease, he beleeves it eftsoones, and by force of imagination will worke it out." It is useless to dwell much long- er upon this disease, as no spectral impressions oc- cur in it, which have not been described in the chap- ter that treated of the illusions of mania or melancho- lia. I might perhaps mention, that the quality of such phantasies not unfrequently harmonizes with any false conceit that may prevail. This circum- stance is not unaptly described in the old comedy of Lingua : — " Lately I came from fine Phantaste's house.— No sooner had I parted out of doors, But up I held my hands before my face, To shield mine eyes from the light's piercing beams ; When I protest I saw the sun as clear, Through these my palms, as through a perspective : No marvel ; for when I beheld my fingers, I saw my fingers were transform'd to glass, Opening my breast, my breast was like a window,* Through which I plainly did perceive my heart ; In whose two conclaves I discern'd my thoughts Confus'dly lodged in great multitudes." PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 119 CHAPTER X. CERTAIN LESS FREQUENT MORBID SOURCES OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. " Of various forms unnumber'd spectres more." Dryden's Virgil. Having shewn, from various authentic medical cases, the liability of spectral illusions to arise from many morbid affections which are of very frequent occur- rence, it is by no means necessary to my present object, that this part of the investigation should pro- ceed to a much greater extent. — I first stated, that certain gases, when inhaled, alter the composition of the blood, rendering, at the same time, more vivid some particular quality of our mental feelings. Might not then other aeriform substances be found, which would have nearly the same effect ? An eminent me- dical practitioner, from whose ingenious essay on ap- paritions I have freely quoted, insinuates the proba- bility, that necromancers, in imposing upon any ob- ject of their art, may occasionally avail themselves of some gaseous matters, which, when inhaled. " by magic sleights Shall raise such artificial sprights, As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion." 120 THE DISEASES CONNECTED WITH THE " The celebrated conjurer or master-mason/' remarks Dr Alderson of Hull, " whom we had here some years ago, told me, that he could give me a recipe for a pre- paration of antimony, sulphur, &c. which, when burnt in a confined room, would so affect the person shut up in it, that he would fancy he saw spectres and appa- ritions." Notwithstanding, however, the liberal offer made to this gentleman, the existence of such a fumi- gation stands in great need of confirmation. — But, be- sides the inhalation of gases, there are several poisons, particularly of the narcotic kind, such as opium, hen- bane, the conium maculatum, bella-donna, &c. which, when introduced into the system by the organs of digestion, have the effect of inducing delirium, and occasionally spectral illusions. In the violent mental excitement of hydrophobia it has been recorded, that the phantasm of the dog whicli inflicted the fatal wound has sometimes haunted the bed of the wretch- ed patient. In the constitutional affection of gout, where an al- tered quality of the circulating fluid is evinced by its tendency to a morbid secretion of calcareous matter, similar states of mind, pai'ticularly in the recedent form of the disease, have been experienced. An ex- citement of gouty inflammation, instead of attacking the hands or feet, has, from some occasional cause, been transferred to the brain, in which case, violent acute sensations have ensued, and these again have been followed by the most vivid yet painful ideas. To such symptoms spectral illusions liave sometimes su- PRODUCTION OF SPECTRAL IIJATSIONS. 121 pervened, as the following case, related by Dr Alder- soiij sufficiently well illustrates : — " I was soon after called," says this writer, " to visit Mrs B., a fine old lady about 80 years of age, whom I have frequently visited in fits of the gout. At a period when, from her general feelings, she rather expected tlie gout, she was seized with an unusual deafness, and great distension in the organs of diges- tion. From this time she was visited by several of her friends, whom she had not invited, and whpm she at first so far considered as actually present, that she told them she was very sorry that she could not hear them speak, nor keep up conversation with them : she would therefore order the card-table, and rang the bell for that purpose. Upon the entrance of the ser- vant, the whole party disappeared — she could not help expressing her surprise to her maid that they should all go away so abruptly ; but she could scarcely be- lieve her when slie told her that there had been no- body in the room. She was so ashamed, that she suffered, for many days and niguis tugctuci, vi.v- .- trusion of a variety of phantoms, and had some of her finest feelings wrought upon by the exhibition of friends long lost, and who only came to cheat her fancy, and revive sensations that time had almost ob- literated. She determined, however, for a long time, not to complain, and contented herself with merely ringing her bell, finding she could always get rid of the phantoms by the entrance of her maid, when- ever they became distressing. It was not till some time after that she could bring herself to relate her distresses to me. She was all this time convinced o£ 122 THE DISEASES, &c. lier own i-ationality, and so were those friends who really visited her ; for they never could find any one circumstance in her conduct and conversation to lead them to suspect her in the smallest degree deranged, though unwell. This complaint was entirely removed by cataplasms to the feet, and gentle purgatives ; and terminated, a short time afterwards, in a regular slight fit of the gout. She has remained ever since, now somewhat more than a year, in the perfect enjoyment of her health and faculties." * The first object of this dissertation has at length been completed. It is manifest, that with numerous morbid affections of the body, arising from variously excited states of the circulating system, or of the nerv- ous influence, the production in the mind of spectral illusions is necessarily connected. Of such affections, Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, has well remark- ed, that " though they appeare in the mind of man, yet are they bred in the bodie. and pm^ppd from this numor, which is the very dregs of blood, nourishing and feeding these places, from whence proceed fears, cogitations, superstitions, fastings, labours, and such like. This maketh sufferance of torments, and (as some sale) foresight of things to come." Edinburgh 3Iedical and Surgical Journal, vol. vi. p. 291. PART III. PROOFS THAT THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS ARE FREQUENTLY SUGGESTED BY THE FANTASTIC IMAGERY OF SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF. PART III. CHAPTER I. EXPLANATION OP THE MODE IN WHICH TllK IDEAS WHICH AKE SUGGESTED BY VARIOUS POPULAH SU- PERSTITIONS BECOME RECALLED IN A HIGHLY VIVI- FIED STATEj SO AS TO CONSTITUTE THE IMAGERY OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. " Each molehill -thought swells to a huge Olympus." — Dryden. In this department of our investigation an attempt will be made to show, that in well-authenticated ghost- stories of a supposed supernatural character, ideas, which are rendered so unduly intense as to induce spectral illusions, may be traced to such fantastical ob- jects of prior belief, as are incorporated in the various systems of superstition, which for ages have possessed the minds of the vulgar. But before this object can be satisfactorily accomplished, it will be necessary to take a brief review of the progress of our research. By this means we shall be better prepared to notice 126 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS an important law of the mind, by which past sensa- tions may be recalled in various states of faintness or intensity. This inquiry has hitherto proceeded upon the gene- ral view, that an undue sanguineous action imparts a disproportionate degree of vividness to our ideas. Ni- colai, indeed, in the narrative read by him to the Royal Society of Berlin, from an attentive consideration of the phenomena which attended his illusions, could not refrain from expressing the same suspicion, namely, that they had some inexplicable connexion with the state of the circulating system. His words are these : *' The natural vivacity of imagination renders it less wonderful, that after a violent commotion of the mind, a number of phantasms should appear for sevei*al weeks in succession. Their leaving me on the appli- cation of leeches, shews clearly that some anomaly in the circulation of the blood was connected with their appearance ; though it may perhaps be too hasty a conclusion to seek for the cause in that alone. It seems, likewise, remarkable, that the beginning of the apparitions, after the disturbance in my mind was settled, as well as the alteration which took place, when they finally left me, happened exactly at the time when digestion commenced. And it is no less remarkable, that the apparitions, before they entirely ceased, lost their intensity of colours ; and that they did not vanish or change as formerly, but seemed gradually to dissolve into air."* From the doctrine inculcated in this dissertation, * Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. p. 17<». TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 127 the conjecture of Nicolai will not, perhaps, appear to be devoid of foundation. In the view which I took of the opposite effects of the nitrous oxide and febrile miasma, it was shewn, that the highly-vivid state of pleasurable feelings which the former was capable of exciting, corresponded to a dilating action of the blood exerted on the vascular system, the indication of which was an increasing diastole of the heart and fulness of the pulse ; while the opposite effects of the latter agent were connected with an undue influence of the systole of the heart, with a hard pulse, and a con- stricting tendency of the capillaries. Next, with regard to the action of morbific causes upon our various mental states, it was remarked, that we always distinguish between those feelings which are induced, when causes impressing our organs of sense are present, and those which occur as revivals of prior mental states ; the former being termed sen- sations, the latter ideas, or, more correctly, renovated feelings. When past feelings, therefore, are renovated, they are always in a less vivid state than actual impres- sions ; and, in a healtliy condition of the system, a definite degree of intensity may be supposed to sub- sist between sensations and ideas, the latter being ^Jro- portionallij less intense, less vivid, or fainter than the former. But, from the influence of disease, these ideas may be renovated in a state of vividness so great, as to nearly or altogether equal in intensity actual im- pressions. An ample proof of this fact is afforded in the case of Nicolai, whose imagination was liable to be rendered unduly vivid by the plethoric habit of body 7 128 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS under which he laboured. " I must observe," he says, " that my imagination possesses in general a great fa- cility in picturing. I have, for example, sketched in my mind a number of plans for novels and plays, though I have committed very few of them to paper, because I was less solicitous to execute than to invent. I have generally arranged these outlines when, in a cheerful state of mind, I have taken a solitary walk, or when, travelling, I have sat in my carriage, and could only find employment in myself and my imagi- nation. Constantly, and even now, do the different persons whom I imagine in the foundation of such a plot, present themselves to me in the most lively and distinct manner ; their figure, their features, their manner, their dress, and their complexion, are all visible to my fancy. As long as I meditate on a fixed plan, and afterwards carry it into effect, — even when I am interrupted, and when I must begin it again at different times, all the acting persons continue pre- sent in the very same form in which my imagination at first produced them."* I shall now endeavour to discover the exact order in which a morbific cause acts upon ideas, when, by * Tliose droll philosophers, the Phrenologists, account for all this by supposing that Nicolai possessed the organ of wondeb. Gloucester. That would be ten days' icondcr at the least. Clarence. That's a day longer than a xvonder lasts. 'M Part of King Henry VI. Act 3, Scene 2. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 129 rendering them as vivid as actual impressions, it gives rise to spectral illusions. The law by -which ideas are renovated, is usually explained by metaphysicians under the name of asso- cialion. Thus, it is a law, that whenever any sensa- tion of a definite nature and quality is repeated, it will be immediately followed by a renewal of the feel- ings with which it was before associated, their repe- tition taking place agreeably to their prior order. The number of fainter feelings which may thus re- turn is indefinite, and only meets with interruption from some new sensation, and along with it some new train of renovated feelings or ideas. It may, therefore, be shown, from a narrative inserted in the 15th volume of Nicholson's Philosophical Journal (from which I have before made a large quotation), that when a morbific cause so operates upon ideas, as to render them as vivid as actual impressions, the effect is produced in the order of their natural associ- ation. " I had a visit," says the writer, " from Dr C———, to whom, among other remarks" (^relative to his illusions], " I observed, that I then enjoyed the satisfaction of having cultivated my moral habits, and particularly in having always endeavoured to avoid being the slave of fear. — ' I think,' said I, ' that this is the breaking up of the system, and that it is now in progress to speedy destruction. In this state, when the senses have become confused, and no longer tell me the truth, they still present me with pleasing fictions, and my sufferings are mitigated by that calm- ness which allows me to find amusement in what are probably the concluding scenes of life.' — I give these I ]30 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS self-congratulations without scruple^ more particular- ly because they led to an observation of fact which de- serves notice. When the doctor left me, my relaxed attention returned to the phantasms, and, some time afterwards, instead of a pleasing face, a visage of ex- treme rage appeared, which presented a gun at me, and made me start ; but it remained the usual time, and then gradually faded away. — This immediately shewed me the probability of some connexion between my thoughts and these images ; for I ascribed the angry phantasm to the general reflection I had form- ed in conversation with Dr C .* I recollected some disquisitions of Locke, in his Treatise on the Con- duct of the Mind, where he endeavours to account for the appearance of faces to persons of nervous habits. It seemed to me, as if faces, in all their modifications, being so associated with our recollections of the affec- tions of passions, would be most likely to offer them- selves in delirium; but I now thought it probable, that other objects could be seen if previously medi- tated upon. With this motive it was that I reflected upon landscapes and scenes of architectural grandeur, while the faces were flashing before me ; and after a certain considerable interval of time, of which I can form no precise judgment, a rural scene of hills, valleys, * To what part of the writer's remark to Dr C does this supposed connexion refer ? Does he allude to the reflection, in which he mentions having avoided being the slave of fear ? In this case I must suppose he means, that the idea of a man threatening his life then arose in his mind ; which idea afterwards returning, became, by the vivifying operation of a morbific cause, converted into a genuine pliantasni. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 131 and fields, appeared before me, which was succeeded by another and another in ceaseless succession ; the manner and times of their respective appearance, du- ration, and vanishing, being not sensibly different from those of the faces. All the scenes were calm and still, without any strong lights or glare, and de- lightfully calculated to inspire notions of retirement, of tranquillity, and happy meditation." — The same writer adds in another place, — " the figures returned, but now they consisted either of books, or parch- ments, or papers, containing printed matter. I do not know whether I read any of them, but am at pre- sent inclined to think they were not either distinctly legible, or did not remain a sufficient time before they vanished. I was now so well aware of the connexion of thought with their appearances, that, by fixing my mind on the consideration of manuscript instead of printed type, the papers appeared, after a time, only with manuscript- writing; and afterwards, by the same process, instead of being erect, they were all inverted, or appeai'ed upside down." This case decidedly shews, that a morbific cause vivifies ideas in a natural order of association. After this satisfactory illustration of the order in which ideas are vivified by morbific causes, the ex- tent of this action ought next to be investigated. 1st, A morbific cause of phantasms may exert a transient influence upon thought ; or, after vivifying certain ideas to the height of actual impressions, a long interval may occur before there is a recurrence of the illusion. Nicolai's first spectral impression was 132 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS of this kind ; its subject was that of a deceased per- son, which, after haunting him for a few moments, did not return until several hours had expired. 2dly, A morbific cause of spectral illusions may, nnth very little intermission, influence ideas as they oc- cur in their natural order of association. Thus, in a case recorded in the Pschyology of Bonnet, a gentle- man labouring under some morbid affection of the brain, saw, while awake, various figures of animals, of human beings, of chariots, or of buildings, all in motion, which would successively approach towards him, recede, and disappear. But, at the same time, numerous sensations and ideas, unaffected in their de- gree of vividness, must have constantly interrupted this succession of spectral impressions, otherwise the judgment could not, as the narrative decidedly states, have remained entire. 3dly, A morbific cause of the same kind may, in its vivifying action, extend to some definite quality of sensations and ideas, whether that quality be pleasur- able or painful. To the indications of this general action I have very frequentl}^ alluded, particularly in my description of the effects on the mind of the ni- trous oxide and febrile miasma. These remarks on the mode in which ideas may be renovated in a highly-intense state, will enable us, whenever we would wish to explain such popular narratives on the subject of ghosts or demonology as may be considered authentic, to apply with more suc- cess those pathological principles relative to specti'al illusions which I liave endeavoured to establish. For, in adverting to the subject of those waking visions TllACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 133 detailed in the first chapter of this work, which Ni- colai the Prussian bookseller experienced, it is evi- dent that his intense imagination was impressed with no appearance which was of itself supernatural. The objects of his second sight (to use the well-known term of the Scottish Highlanders), were all of the most fa- miliar kind, — men and women in their natural form and aspect, horses, dogs, or birds. Not of this earth- ly nature, however, were the illusions of superstitious ages, which constantly teemed either with angels or demons. In reference, then, to the view which I have taken, that spectral illusions ought to be regard- ed as nothing more than recollected images of the mind, which have been rendered by disease as in- tense as actual impressions, and which have been recalled in this vivid state by the well-known law of association, the figures of many phantasms may be in- discriminately referred to the delineations of those enthusiastic declaimers, historians, or poets, who have boldly attempted to supply from their own wild phantasy, the forms which they have supposed to have been imperfectly described in sacred records. From the imagination of ecclesiastical writers ; from the stone or carved images of saints and angels, which have adorned the walls of religious edifices ; or from emblematical pictures or porti*aits, which might have otherwise met with a popular diffusion, the sensible forms assumed by apparitions of this kind have been derived. By a high-wrought embellishment, they have been as determinately fixed in the mind as any faniiliar object which may be found in nature. No wonder then, that when, from some morbid state of the sys- 134 THE OBJECTS Ol' SPECTllAL ILLUSIONS tem, the superstitious have been rendered liable to spectral impressions, the figures of saints, angels, ghosts, or demons, should, above all other shapes, have formed the subject of their waking visions. The late Dr Ferrier took some pains to trace to their real source the spectral figures which have been attributed to demoniacal visits. Thus, in his obser- vations on the work of Remy, the commissioner in Lorraine for the trial of witches^ he makes the follow- ing remark : — " My edition of this book was printed by Vincenti, at Lyons, in 1595. It is entitled Dce- nionolatreia. The trials appear to have begun in 1683. Mr Remy seems to have felt great anxiety to ascertain the exact features and dress of the demons, with whom many persons supposed themselves to be fami- liar. Yet nothing transpired in his examinations, which varied from the usual figures exhibited by the gross sculptures and paintings of the middle age. They are said to be black-faced, with sunk but fiery eyes, their mouths wide, and smelling of sulphur, their hands hairy, with claws, their feet horny and cloven." There is, also, in another part of Dr Fer- rier's work, the following account given of a case which passed under his own personal observation : — " I had occasion," he observes, " to see a young mar- ried woman, whose first indication of illness was a spectral delusion. She told me, that her apartment appeared suddenly to be filled with devils, and that her terror impelled her to quit the house with great precipitation. When she was brought back, she saw the whole staircase filled by diabolical forms, and was in agonies of fear for several days. After this first im^ TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 135 pression wore off, she lieard a voice tempting her to self-destruction, and prohibiting her from all exer- cises of piety. Such was the account given by her when she was sensible of the delusion, yet unable to resist the horror of the impression. When she was nearly recovered, I had the curiosity to question her, as I have interrogated others, respecting the forms of the demons with which she had been claimed ; but I never could obtain any other account, than that they were very small, very much deformed, and had horns and claws, like the imps of our terrific modern ro- mances." To this illustration of the general origin of the figures of demoniacal illusions, I might ob- serve, that in the case of a patient suffering under de- lirium tremens, which came under my notice, the devils who flitted around his bed, were described to me as exactly like the forms that he had recently seen exhibited on the stage in the popular drama of Don Giovanni. Dr Fei-rier of Manchester was among the first to shew the importance of explaining the causes, which have given rise to the illusive creations of the mind. " I conceive," says this acute and ingenious writer, " that the imaffected accounts of spectral visions should engage the attention of the philosopher as well as the physician. Instead of regarding these stories with the horror of the vulgar, or the disdain of the sceptic, we should examine them accurately, and should ascertain their exact relation to the state of the brain and of the external senses." * It must be - — - - — * * Ferrier's Theory of Appcaritions, p. 1.39. 136 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS confessed, however, that, in narratives of this kind, the circumstances most interesting to the pathologist, either from having been considered as unnecessary or inconvenient to the purposes or views of superstition, appear in most instances to have been altogether sup- pressed. The field of inquiry is, therefore, in this particular department of our dissertation, rather li- mited ; and hence the necessity of pointing out be- forehand the various morbific causes of spectral im- pressions, by which the true nature of phantasms may admit of a readier explanation, than by having re- course for such a purpose to the extravagancies of a supernatural agency. Yet still a few scattered glimpses of truth break through the mysterious stories which excite the attention of the learned and the vul- gar, and, by the light which such rays afford, I shall avail myself, however feebly it may gleam through the obscure and gloomy regions of demonology. The object, then, to be held in view in this depart- ment of our inquiry, is simply this : — While an at- tempt will be made to apply the medical cases which have been adduced towards the explanation of many supposed visitations of good and evil spirits, it will be always necessary to demonstrate in what manner the subject of the illusions thus induced has corre- sponded with the fanciful imagery which owes its origin to various preconceived superstitions. In con- nexion, likewise, with the illustrations which I shall adduce of the morbid origin of many supernatural visitants recorded in popular narratives, it may not be uninstructive to glance at the opinions entertained through a number of ages, relative to their nature. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 137 t'linctioiis, and proper business, upon our globe. By this means, a conclusion may be ultimately drawn fatal to the existence of that world of spirits, which Superstition has depicted from no other source than its own wild, fallacious, and morbid phantasy. A question, however, may now be started by some few individuals, if this inquiry can with propriety be conducted on the general preconceived supposition, that every well-attested instance, where a communi- cation with apparitions of various kinds is supposed to have been held, ought to be regarded in no other light than as a pathological case ? To any such ob- jection I would reply, that there is only one line of demarcation, beyond which researches of this kind cannot meet with any application. This is to be found in the pages of sacred history. Concerning the manner in which the Deity, for signal purposes, has formerly chosen to hold an immediate commu- nion with the human race, it would be irrelevant to offer any observations. At the same time, it may be necessary to observe, that as we are not warranted, for many reasons, which may be defended on scrip- tural grounds, to suppose that any direct converse with good or evil spirits, connected with either the Jewish or the Christian dispensation, has extended beyond the Apostolic age, there will be no hesitation on my part to proceed on the hypothesis, that all the subsequent visitations of this nature which have been recorded, deserve a medical rather than a theological investigation. 138 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS CHAPTER II. nEMAHKS ON THE APPARITIONS OF GOOD SPIRITS, HECORUED IN POPULAR NARRATIVES. -" Spirits^ when they please, Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not ty'd or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones. Like cumbrous flesh ; but in what shape they chusc, Dilated or condens'd, bright or obscure. Can execute their airy purposes." — BIilton. The present chapter will be devoted to the consider- ation of benignant spirits, and the apparitions to which they have given rise. From the evidence of the Holy Scriptures^ we are authorised to infer nothing more respecting those spi- ritual beings named angels^ but that they are ministers whom the Deity has employed to execute his special commissions. And happy would it have been, if the early Christians and Jews had been contented with this simple information, without framing a system on the subject, which, as a learned divine of the church of England has remarked, savours more of some hea- then mythology than of Christianity.* The Egyp- * Wilson's Arclucological Dictionary, article Angels, The same doctrine has likewise met with a successful exposure from Bishop Horsley. i'UACEl) TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAOEllY. 139 tiai)!;, for instance, believed in the constant attendance of three angels upon every individual. The Romans supposed, that such genii, as they named them, were messengers between the gods and the human race ; conceiving, therefore, with the Pythagoreans, that two were sufficient for any single individual, one was sup- posed to be of a good and the other of an evil quality. '' These," as Sheridan has remarked in his notes to Persius, " were private monitors, who, by their insi- nuations, disposed each man to good or evil actions; tJiey were not only reporters of his crimes in this life, but registers of them against his trials in the next." The Jews founded their belief in good and evil spirits, partly from the evidence of the Scriptures, and partly from the notions of the Pagans. Some of their angels were created out of the elements of fire, and others out of the wind. Whenever they issued from their allotted place, they forfeited their immortality. They instructed mankind in wisdom and knowledge. Every thing in the world was under their government. Even to the various herbs of the field, supposed at that time to be twenty-one thousand in number, presiding an- gels were affixed. Other good spirits had their re- spective dominion over plants, trees, rain, hail, thun- der, lightning, fire, fishes, reptiles, animals, men, cities, empires, and nations.* Such a notion, unfor- tunately for the Christian world, very early accom- panied the spreading of the Gospel. And, indeed, during a very long period afterwards, evident traces might be discovered of the prevalence of the same • Stehelins' Traditions of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 7). 140 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS popular opinion which is mentioned by Symmachus, namely, " that the Divine Being had distributed to cities various guardians, and that as souls were com- municated to infants at their birth, so particular genii were assigned to particular societies of men." When the church of Papal Rome prevailed through- out Christendom, this belief was so far modified, that the functions of ministering angels were assigned to the spirits of departed saints, who at length became so numerous, as to very materially obstruct the ordi- nary current of human affairs. Hence the very just declamation against so overwhelming an interference from the pen of the dauntless Reginald Scot, who compares it to that of heathen deities ; this writer not making the distinction at the time, that the saints of the Roman calendar were the proper successors of the tutelar angels of the Jewish talmud. " Surelie," says he, in a strain of most bitter irony, " there were in the Popish cluxrch, more of these antichristian gods in number, more in common, more private, more publicke, more for lewd purposes, and more for no purpose, than among all the heathen, either hereto- fore or at this present time; for I dare undertake, that for everie heathen idol I might pronounce twentie out of the Popish church. For there were proper idols of every nation, as St George on horseback for England, St Andrew for Burgundie and Scotland, St Michael for France, St James for Spain, St Patrike for Ireland, St Davie for Wales, St Peter for Rome and some part of Italic. Had not every citie in all the Pope's dominions his severall patrone : as Paule for London, Denis for Paris, Ambrose for Millen, Louen TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 14i for Gaunt, Roniball for Mackline, St Marks Lion for Venice, the three Magician Kings for Cullen, and so of other ? Yea, had they not for everie small towne and everie village and parish (the names whereof I am not at liberty to repeat) a several idol ; as St Se- pulchre, for one ; St Bride for another ; St All Hal- lowes. All Saints, and our Ladie for all at once ? Had they not hee idols and shee idols, some for men, some for women, some for beasts, and some for fowles ? And doo you not thinke that St Martine might be opposed to Bacchus ? If St Martine be too weake, we have St Urbane, St Clement, and manie other to assist him. Was Venus and Meretrix an advocate for whores among the Gentiles ? Behold, there were in the Ro- mish church to encounter them, St Aphra, St Aphro- dite, and St Maudline. Was there such a traitor among the heathen idols as St Thomas Becket ? or such a whore as St Bridget ? I warrant you, St Hugh was as good a himtesman as Anubis. Was Vulcane the protector of the heathen smithes ? Yea forsooth, and St Euloge was patron for ours. Our painters had Luke, our weavers had Steven, our millers had Arnold, our tailors had Goodman, our souters had Crispine, our potters had St Gore with a devil on his shoulders and a pot in his hand. Was there a better horseleech among the gods of the Gentiles than St Loy ? or a better sow-gelder than St Anthonie ? or a better tooth-drawer than St Apolline > I believe that Apollo Parnopeius was no better a rat-catcher than St Gertrude, who hath the Pope's patent and com- mendation therefore. The Thebans had not a better shepherd than St Wendeline, nor a better gissard to 142 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS keep their sheep than Gallus. But for physicke and surgerie our idols exceeded them all. For St John and St Valentine excelled at the falling evil, St Roch Avas good at the plague, St Petromill at the ague. As for St Margaret, she passed Lucina for a midwife, and yet was but a maide ; in which respect St Mar- purge is joined with her in commission. For mad- men, and such as are possessed with devills, St Ro- mane was excellent. For botches and biles Cosmus and Damean ; St Clare for the eies ; St Apolline for teeth ; St Job for the pox ; and for sore brests St Agathe was as good as Ruminus." — This is the ex- postulation of honest Reginald Scot, who, in the true spirit of the reforming age in which he lived, comes to the conclusion, " that all these antichristian gods, otherwise called popish devils, are as rank devils" as the Dii gentium spoken of in the Psalms, or as the Dii montium, the Dii terrarum, the Dii populorum, the Dii terras, the Dii filiorum, or the Dii alienii, cited in other places of the Scripture. I have quoted thus freely from Scot's denunciation of the Romish saints, because it is an evidence of the ascendency over tlie mind, which tliese successors to the guardian angels of still earlier sects of Christians must have excited, while it no less satisfactorily ac- counts for the peculiar character imparted to the spectral illusions of Popish times. When the tenets of Rome were succeeded by those of the reformed church, the influence of tutelar saints began to decline. Still it was found very inconve- nient to the peculiar doctrines taught in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that there sliould not be TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 143 some hypothesis to account for human actions, which philosophy could not explain. Thus, the learned author of the Religio Medici has summed up, after the following manner, the views of the learned on the subject: — " Therefore for spirits," he remarks, " I am so far from denying their existence, that I could easily believe, that not only whole countries, but par- ticular persons, have their tutelary and guardian an- gels. It is not a new opinion of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato. There is no heresie in it, and if not manifestly defined in Scrip- ture, yet it is an opinion of a good and wholesome use in the course and actions of man's life, and would serve as an hypothesis to solve many doubts, whereof common philosopliy affordeth no solution." It is evidently for this reason, so well explained by Sir Thomas Brown, that the hierarchy of angels soon became a leading feature in the pneumatology of the schools ; poets even vying with grave metaphysicians, in rendering every compensation to these ministering spirits for the neglect into which they had fallen, Avhen their benignant offices had been usurped by the saints of the Romish church : — How oft do they their silver bowers leave, To come to succour us, that succour want ? How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant. Against foul fiends to aid us militant ? They for us fight, they watch and duly ward. And their bright squadrons round about us plant. And all for love, and nothing for reward : O why should heavenly God to man have such regard ? Spenser. 144 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTBAL ILLUSIONS A doctrine, thus sanctioned by the most eminent men of the age, again made its way among the vulgar, and in the course of time gave rise to the grossest super- stitions. Thus, in a popular work, entitled, " Curi- osities, or the Cabinet of Nature, by Robert Basset," published in the year 1637, when a question is asked, " Wherefore is it that the childe crycs when the absent nurse's brests doe pricke and ake ?" the answer is as follows : — " By that the nurse is hastened liontie to the infant to supply the defect ; and the seas, the rivers, nay every lake, pool, brook, or spring, became so filled with spirits, both good and evil, that of each province it might be said, in the words of the Roman satirist, " Nostra regio tam plena est numinibus, ut faciliiis possis deum quam hominem invenire." Hence the modification which took place of systems of demon- ology, so as to admit of the classification of all de- scriptions of devils, whether they had been derived from Grecian, Roman, Teutonic, Celtic, or Eastern systems of mythology. " Our schoolmen, and other divines," says Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, " make nine kinds of bad divels, as Dionysius hath of ano-els. In the jirst rank are those false gods of the Gentiles, which were adored heretofor in several idols, and gave oracles at Delphos and elsewhere, whose prince is Belzebub. The second rank is of liars and equivocaters, as Apollo, Pythius, and the like. The third are those vessels of anger, inventers of all mis- chief, as that of Theutus in Plato. Esay calls them vessels of fury ; their prince is Belial. The fourth are malicious, revengeful divels, and their prince is Asmodeus. The jiflh kind are coseners, such as be- lono- to magicians and witches ; their prince is Satan. The sixth are those aerial divels that corrupt the air, and cause plagues, thunders, fires, &c. spoken of in the Apocalyps and Paule ; the Ephesians name them the princes of the aire : Meresin is their prince. The seventh is a destroyer, captaine of the furies, causing wars tumults, combustions, uproares, mentioned in the Apocalyps, and called Abaddon. The eighth is that accusing or calumniating divel, whom the Greeks TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IINIAGERY. 187 call AiiZoXos, that drives us to despaire. The ninlhe are those tempters in several kindes, and their prince is Mammon." But this arrangement was not comprehensive enough; for, as Burton adds, " no place was void, but all full of spirits, devils, or other inhabitants, not so much as an haire-breadth was empty in heaven, earth, or wa- ters, above or under the earth, — the earth was not so full of flies in summer as it was at all times of invi- sible devils." Pneumatologists, therefore, made two grand distinctions of demons ; there were celestial de- mons, who inhabited the regions higher than the moon ; while those of an inferior rank, as the INIanes or Le- mures, were either nearer to the earth, or grovelled on the ground. Psellus, however, " a great observer of the nature of devils," seems to have thought, that such a classification destroyed all distinction between good and evil spirits ; he therefore denied that the latter ever ascended the regions above the moon, and con- tending for this principle, founded a system of de- monology, which had for its basis the natural history and habitations of all demons. He named his first class Jiery devils. They wandered in the region near the moon, but were restrained from entering into that luminary ; they displayed their powers in blazing stars, in firedrakes, in counterfeit suns and moons, and in the cuerpo santo, or meteoric lights, which, in vessels at sea, flit from mast to mast, and forebode foul weather. It was supposed that these demons occasionally resided in the furnaces of Hecla, Etna, or Vesuvius. — The second class consisted of aerial devils. They inhabited the atmosphere, causing tempests. 188 THE OBJECTS OF SrECTllAL ILLUSIONS thunder, and lightning; rending asunder oaks, firing steeples and houses, smiting men and beasts, shower- ing down, from the skies, stones,* wool, and even frogs; counterfeiting in the clouds the battles of armies, raising whirlwinds, fires, and corrupting the air, so as to induce plagues. — The third class were terrestrial devils ; such as lares, genii, fauns, satyrs, wood-nymphs, foliots, Robin Goodfellows, or trulli. — The fourth class were aqueous devils ; as the various descriptions of water-nymphs, of mermen, or of mer- women. — The fifth were subterranean devils, better known by the name of daemones metallic!, metal men, Getidi or Cobali. They preserved treasure in the earth, and prevented it fr^m being suddenly revealed; they were also the cause of horrible earthquakes. — Psellus's sixth class of devils were named lucifugi. They delighted in darkness; they entered into the bowels of men, and tormetited those Avhom they pos- sessed with phrenzy and the fallen sickness. By this power they were distinguished from earthy and aerial devils, who could only enter into the human mind, which they either deceived or provoked with unlaw- ful affections. Nor were speculations wanting with regard to the common nature of these demons. Psellus conceived that their bodies did not consist merely of one ele- * Psellus speaks with great contempt of this petty instance of malevolence to the human race. " Stones are thrown down from the air," he remarks, " which do no harm, the devils having little strength, and being mere scarecrows." So much for the origin of meteoric stones. TRACED TO SITPEllSTITIOTTS TMA(iERY. 189 ment, although he was far from" denying that tliis might not have been the case before the fall of Lucifer, It was his opinion, that devils possessed corporeal frames capable of sensation ; that they could both feel and be felt; that they could injure and be hurt ; that they lamented when they were beaten, and that if stuck into the fire, they even left behind them ashes, — a fact which was demonstrated in a very satis- factory experiment made by some philosopher upon the borders of Italy ; — that they were nourished with food peculiar to themselves, not receiving the aliment through the gullet, but absorbing it from the exterior surface of their bodies, after the manner of a spunge ; that they did not hurt cattle from malevolence, but from mere love of the natural and temperate heat and moisture of these animals ; that they disliked the heat of the sun, because it dried too fast ; and, lastly, that they attained a great age. Thus, Cardan had a fiend bound to him twenty-eight years, who was forty-two years old, and yet considered very young. He was informed, ft'om this very authentic source of intelli- gence, that devils lived from two to three hundred years, and that their souls died with their bodies. This very philosophical statement was, nevertheless, combated by other observers. " Manie," says Scot, " affirmed that spirits were of aier, because they have been cut in sunder and closed presentlie againe, and also because they vanished awaie so sudden lie." But a truce to these absurdities, of which I begin to suspect that my readers may be no less wearied than myself. Still the inquiry was necessary for my purpose, as I trust it will now be apparent, that most 190 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS of the fantastical images, which have long formed the subject of the spectral illusions of superstition, have kept pace, either with Pagan systems of mythology, with Christian systems of demonology, or with the no less superstitious views entertained, relative to the hierarchy of benignant genii. Yet, in the impressive language of Lord Byron, What are they ? Creations of the mind ? The mind can make Substance, and people planets of its own, With beings brighter than have been, and give A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh," TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 191 CHAPTER IV. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE APPARITIONS OF DEPARTED SPIRITS. Ghosts fly on clouds and ride on winds," said Connal's voice of wisdom. " They rest together in their caves, and talk of mortal mtn.'"— Poem of Fingal. It is the most reasonable of expectations, that the various morbific causes, which are capable of impart- ing to the recollected images of the mind the vividness of actual impressions, should have for their subject the forms of deceased as well as of living individuals. In the narrative, for instance, of Nicolai, given in the first chapter of this work, the following remarkable passage occurs : — " There appeared many other phan- tasms, sometimes representing acquaintances. Those whom I knew were composed both of living and de- ceased persons, though the number of the latter was comparatively small." This instance of spectres pro- duced by disease, illustrates also the alleged paleness of ghosts, or the misty and cloudy appearance which they assume. For the same writer remarks of certain of the phantasms which he saw, that they appeared to him in their natural size, and as distinct as if alive ; though the colours seemed somervliat paler than in real nature." It is evident, that this impression must have resulted from the spectral idea of colour not 192 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS quite equalling in intensity the vividness of an imme- diate sensation ; indeed, Nicolai lias related of certain other forms, that " soon afterwards their colour began to fade, and at seven o'clock they were entirely white." The mode in which ghosts are said to disappear, is also well displayed in the same case. The phantoms beheld by this philosopher would suddenly withdraw or vanish. On other occasions, they would grow by degrees more obscure ; — they would dissolve in the air ; nay, sometimes, fragments of thein would conti- nue visible a considerable time : Macbeth. " The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them : — "Whither are they vanish'd ? — Banquo. Into the air ; and what seem'd corporal As breath into the wind.'' From another writer, I have quoted an account of spectral forms nearly similar. '' They appeared before me," it is said, " one at a time, very suddenly, yet not so much so, but that a second of time might be employed in the emergence of each, as if through a cloud or mist, to its perfect clearness. In this state each form continued five or six seconds, and then va- nished, by becoming gradually fainter during about two seconds, till nothing was left but a dark and pale mist, in which, almost immediately afterwards, ap- peared another face. All these faces were, in the highest degree, interesting to me, for beauty of form, and the variety of expression they manifested of every great and amiable emotion of the human mind." How 7 TRACKD TO SUPKKSTri'IOUS I]MAGERY. 193 well do these circumstances incidental to morbid illu- sions agree with the description of a Highland bard. " Who comes from the place of the dead, — that form with the robe of snow ; white arms and dark-brown hair ? It is the daughter of the chief of the people ; she that lately fell ! Come let us view thee, O maid ! thou that hast been the delight of heroes ! The blast drives the phantom away ; white, without form, it ascends the hill."* It must be confessed, that the popular belief of de- parted spirits occasionally holding a communication with the human race, is replete with matter of curious speculation. Some Christian divines, with every just reason, acknowledge no authentic source whence the impression of a future state could ever have been com- municated to man, but from the Jewish prophets or from our Saviour himself Yet it is certain, that a be- lief in an existence after death has, from time imme- morial, prevailed in countries, to which the knowledge of the gospel never could have extended, as among certain tribes of America. Can then this notion have been intuitively suggested ? Or is it an extravagant supposition, that the belief inight have often arisen not only from dreams, but from those spectral illu- sions, to which men in every age, from the occasional influence of morbific causes, must have been subject.'' And what would be the natural self-persuasion, if a savage saw before him the apparition of a departed friend or acquaintance, endowed with the semblance of life, with motion, and with signs of mental intelli- * See Note to Crorna, in Macplierson's Ossian, vol. ii. N 194 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS gence, perhaps even holding converse with him ? As- suredly, the conviction would scarcely fail to arise of an existence after death. The pages of liistory at- test this fact : " If ancestry can be in aught believ'd, Descending spirits have convers'd with man, And told him secrets of the world unknown." But if this opinion of a life hereafter had ever among heathen nations such an origin, it must necessarily be imbued with the grossest absurdities incidental to so fallacious a source of intelligence. Yet still the mind has clung to such extravagancies with avidity ; " for/' as Sir Thomas Brown has remarked, " it is the hea- viest stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature ; or that there is no future state to come, unto which this seems progres- sively and otherwise made in vain." It has remained, therefore, for the light of revelation alone, to impart to this belief the consistency and confirmation of divine truth, and to connect it with a rational system of re- wards and punishments. From the foregoing remai'ks, we need not be sur- prised, that a conviction of the occasional appeai-ance of ghosts or departed spirits, should, from the remotest antiquity, have been a popular creed, not confined to any distinct tribe or race of people ; and when it is considered that such illusions are nothing more than recollected images of the mind presented in a highly- excited state, it is natural to expect that the imaginary beings of another world would appear to put on the same corporeal forms, and adopt the same manners, as TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 195 those to whicli they had been accustomed in an earthly state of existence. Dr Barclay, in speaking of the si- mulacra of the Romans, has very properly remarked, that " the dress and its fashions were represented as well as the body, while, in all the poetical regions of the dead, chariots, and various species of armour, were honoured likewise with their separate simulacra ; so that these regions, as appears from the Odyssey, yEneid, and Edda, were just the simulacra of the manners, opinions, customs, and fashions, that charac- terized the times and countries in which their poetical historians flourished."* The religious effect of this belief has been by no one more ably demonstrated than by the learned Farmer. He has satisfactorily shewn that the worship of the heathen nations corresponded to their notions of hu- man ghosts, and was founded upon it.t Dreams also have deeply entered into the tenets of many religions, — such phenomena having been ever regarded as pro- phetic indications communicated to mankind by su- pernatural influence. Aristotle wrote on divination by dreams, as well as Zeno, Cleantlies, Chrysippus, and other ancient philosophers. But it is certain that the popular belief relative to ghosts did not always recommend itself to the more refined opinions of philosophic sects. " For ghosts were thought," says Dr Farmer, " to come from their subterraneous habitations, or from their graves, to partake of the entertainment provided for tliem. • Barclay on Life and Organization, page 14. ■f See Note 3. 196 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS Blood, in particular, was an acceptable libation to ghosts, and more particularly to the ghosts of he- roes." * It was, therefore, to correct the loose opi- nions entertained regarding the nature of the gods, and the souls of the dead, that Pneumatology put forth its pretensions as a distinct science. Consequently, in examining the stories of apparitions recorded by the Greeks and Romans, it will be found, that they vary in their character according to the different doctrines which were urged by the learned on this subject, and which, in course of time, began to prevail among the vulgar. For it was by various sects supposed, either that the soul was corporeal, being formed from warm air, or from water, or from fire, or from corporeal va- pours ; or, on the other hand, that the soul was im- mortal, — that it was a harmony of heat, cold, mois- ture, and dryness, — that it was part of one universal soul, or that different souls might be possessed by one individual. t Thus it was an opinion, that, after the dissolution of the body, every man was possessed of three different kinds of ghosts, which were distin- guished by the names of Manes, Anima, and Umbra. These were disposed of after the following manner : the Manes descended into the infernal regions, the • Farmer on Worship of Human Spirits, page 434. ■f For a summary of the opinions entertained by the ancients on this subject, see Dr Barclay's Inquiry into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, concerning Life and Organization, section 2d and 3d. A more valuable present to philosophy has seldom been rendered, than by this successful exposure of ancient and modern errors con- cerning matter and mind. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 197 Anima ascended to the skies, and the Umbra hovered about the tomb, as being unwilling to quit its con- nexion with the body. Dido, for instance, when about to die, threatens to haunt ^Eneas with her zim- hra ; at the same time, she expects that the tidings of his punishment will rejoin her manes below.* Lucretius conceived, that the various apparitions of deceased friends were subtle images which con- stantly rose from the surfaces of all bodies, which made an impression on our organs of sense, and which communicated this notion to the soul. This opi- nion, strange as it is, entered more or less into many systems on the same subject, which were taught by the schoolmen of the middle ages, although the obli- gation due to Lucretius has not been generally ac- knowledged.f " For the notion of this threefold soul, see the verses attributed to Ovid : — " Bis duo sunt homini : IManes, Card, Spiritus, Umbra ; Quatuor ista loci bis duo suscipiunt, Terra tegit carnem, tumulum circumvolat Umbra, Orcus habet IManes, Spiritus astra petit." •f- We detect a similar view in the reveries of the sympathetic philosophers of the eighteenth century, and in the doctrine of the transmission of spirits, which was taught by Lavater. Yet older philosophers (Psellus for instance) were so heretical, as to be- lieve that demons were material. Paracelsus, who conceived that the elements were inhabited by four kinds of demons, viz. spirits, nymphs, pigmies, and salamanders, also argued their materiality, but thought they possessed caro non-adamica. Cudworth main- tained the materiality of angels. But, as I have no leisure at present to enter into a view of these very learned disquisitions, I must re- 198 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS But it is unnecessary to allude any more to opinions of this kind, chiefly pneumatological, which were en- tertained by the Greeks and the Romans relative to ghosts. It is sufficient to say, that the notion of souls revisiting the globe after death has been a popular creed, not confined to the vulgar, but supported by modern no less than by ancient philosophers. sign the discussion to other hands ; and, for this purpose, shall take the liberty of introducing the gentle reader to a set of very modest and unassuming pneuniatologists, who, in the opinions they advance on this same puzzling subject of spirits, only repeat the doctrines which they have heard from authority that none may question. When the Gardener, in Addison's sprightly comedy of the Drummer, inquires " how the spirit gets into the house when all the gates are shut," the following dialogue occurs :— Butler. Why, look ye, Peter, your spirit will creep you into an augre-hole. He'll whisk you through a key-hole, without so much as justling against one of the wards. Coachman. I verily believe I saw him last night in the Town- dose. Gardener. How did he appear ? Coachman. Like a white horse. Butler. Pho, Robin, I tell you he has never appeared yet, but in the shape of the sound of a drum. Coachman. This almost makes one afraid of one's own shadow. As I was walking from the stable t'other night without my lan- tern, I fell across a beam, and I thought I had stumbled over a spirit. Butler. Thou might'st as well have stumbled over a straw. Why a spirit is such a little, little thing, that I have heard a man who was a great scholar say, that he'll dance ye a Lancashire hornpipe upon the point of a needle. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 199 The opinions relative to apparitions which may be found in Jewish traditions, proceed upon the doctrine subsequently entertained by Christians, that the spii-its of the dead were souls that had obtained a sort of temporary respite from the pains of purgatory, to which they had become subject after death. It was even supposed that the righteous were conducted through hell, that they might be completely purified in the fiery river Dinnur, before they could ascend into paradise. In conformity with this opinion, sever- al ghost-stories are recorded by the Jews, relative to the conversations which the living had with the dead. A few of these I shall give ; the first being a dialogue which took place between Turnus Rufus and the ghost of his father. " It happened," say the Rabbins, " that the wicked Turnus Rufus met Rabbi Akkiva on a Sabbath-day ; and he asked the Rabbi what the difference was be- tween that day and another } Then did Rabbi Akkiva ask him, ' What difference there was between one man and another ?' ' What is the difference,' says the Rabbin, ' between thee and another man, that thou art by thy Lord advanced to the dignity thou pos- sessest, and that others are not so much esteemed .'" Turnus Rufus replied, ' It was because his Lord would have it so.' Rabbi Akkiva replied, — ' I also honour the Sabbath, because my lord will have it so : as it is the will of thy lord that thou shouldst be ho- noured ; so it is the will of the King of kings that we should honour the Sabbath.' ' Why then,' de- manded Turnus Rufus, ' doth this God of yours do any work on the Sabbath '^' ' What work doth he do ?' 200 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS said the Rabbin. Turnus Rufus replied, ' The very work he doth on other days : He maketh the wind to blow and the rain to fall, the clouds to ascend, the sun and moon to I'ise, and the fruits to ripen.' Where- upon Rabbi Akkiva said to him, * I know well that thou art skilled in the laws of the Hebrews. When two live together in the same court, then doth the one give to the other the mutual token (or an instrument, by which they agree, according to the law, concerning the office of carrying to and from one another on the Sabbath,) and they are allowed to carry certain things from one place to another. But one who liveth alone in a court, though the court were as large as Antioch, carrieth in that court certain things to land again, be- cause there is no other to take that office upon him. Now, heaven is the throne of the holy and blessed God, and the earth is his foot-stool, and the whole earth is full of his glory : And there is no power in his world for to contend with him. IMoreover, those who did eat the manna in the wilderness were wit- nesses of the (distinction it pleased God to annex to the) Sabbath, because the manna fell every day on the week but on the Sabbath. But this is not all : For the river Sabbatjon clearly shews this distinction, since it floweth during the six days, but floweth not on the Sabbath.' Then, replied Turnus Rufus, ' Speak no more of the manna ; for no such thing as its falling hath happened in our days. And for the river Sab- batjon, I do not believe it.' Then said Rabbi Akkiva to him, ' Go to the soothsayers and diviners, and they will convince thee : For on every day of the week but the Sabbath they can, each in his way, make their TRACKD TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 201 divinations hit well enough ; but on the Sabbath they labour in vain. Get thee to thy father's grave for in- formation ; for thou shalt on every day but the Sab- bath perceive a smoke to arise from it; but on the Sabbath thou shalt perceive no such matter. If the dead, then, can discern and distinguish the Sabbath, how comes it to pass that the living are ignorant of it and neglect it?' " Upon this, Turnus Rufus went and beheld his father's grave, but could perceive no smoke to ascend from it. And he said to Rabbi Akkiva, ' Perhaps his punishment is at an end.' The Rabbi answered, ' Thou shalt see the smoke to-morrow.' And when Turnus Rufus saw, on the first day of the week, the smoke ascend from the grave, he caused his father to be raised out of his grave by necromancy ; and he said to him, ' Thou didst not in thy life-time keep the Sabbath, but now thou art among the dead thou ob- servest it. How long is it since thou turnedst Jew ?' Then answered his father, ' My son, every one among you that keepeth not the Sabbath in a becoming man- ner, shall, when he cometh among us, observe it against his will.' Then asked Turnus Rufus, ' What is it ye do on the working days ?' And his father an- swered, ' We are punished on every working-day ; but on the Sabbath we have rest. On the eve of the Sabbath, a voice is heard from heaven, saying, ' Let the wicked out, that they may have rest.' And there is an angel, who is set over us, who punisheth us every day. And at the end of the Sabbath, when the Seda- rim, or the Jewish form of prayers, is ended, the same angel calls aloud, saying, ' Ye wicked, get ye again 202 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS into hell ; for the Israelites have ended their form of prayer.' "* A second ghost-story relates a dialogue of the Rabbi Akkiva with an individual, who was condemned after death to carry wood for fuel to the fire of hell. " It happened, that as Rabbi Akkiva, at a certain place, was going to a funeral, he met a man, who had a burden of wood upon his back, with which he run with the speed of a horse. Rabbi Akkiva stopt him, and said to him, ' My son, how cometh it to pass, that thou undergoest such heavy labour > if thou art a slave, and thy master yokes thee to this burden, I will purchase thy freedom, and deliver thee from him. If it be thy poverty that is the cause, I will enrich thee.' The man answered, ' My lord, suffer me to go on ; for I must not stop.' Then did Rabbi Akkiva ask him, ' Art thou a devil or a human being ?' And he was answered, ' I died, and am now obliged to fetch wood for fuel to the fire' (of hell, we suppose.) ' What,' said the Rabbin, ' was thy business in thy life-time ?' And he was answered, ' I was an excise- man. I favoured the rich, and oppressed the poor. But that is not all : on the day of atonement I lay with a virffin, who was betrothed to me.' Then said Rabbi Akkiva, ' My son, hast thou ever heard from those that are set over thee in hell, whether there be any means by which thou mayest be delivered from thence-''' And he was answered, ' Detain me no longer, lest my stay provoke my punishers to anger ; * Stehelin's Tradition of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 56. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 203 for there is no help for me. Nor have I heard of any means that might procure my redemption, excepting one : They have said, if thou hast a son, who could stand in the congregation, and there say, ' Blessed be the blessed Lord, (words at the head of a certain Jew- ish prayer) thou wouldest be delivered from this pun- ishment.' ' But I have not a son. Indeed, when I died, I left my wife with child ; but I know not whe- ther she bore a son or a daughter. And if she bore a son (and he be still living) there is no knowing for me, whether he be instructed in the law.' Then did Rabbi Akkiva ask him his name, and his wife's name, and the name of the city where he dwelt. He replied, ' My name is Akkiva, and my wife's name Susmira, and the city where I dwelt is called Alduca.' Then did Rabbi Akkiva lament for him. " And the Rabbi went from city to city till he came to the city Alduca ; and there he asked where the man and where his house was ? And the people made an- swer, ' May his bones be bruised in hell ' And he asked after the man's wife, and was answered, ' Let her name be rooted out of the world.' Then he in- quired after the man's son, and was answered, that the son was not circumcised, and that his parents had no regard to that covenant. " Then took Rabbi Akkiva the lad, and made him sit before him, in order to instruct him in the law. But he could not be instructed, until, for his sake. Rabbi Akkiva had fasted forty days ; when a voice came from heaven, saying, ' Fastest thou thus for his sake.;' And he answered, ' Yea.' And then the lad read the alphabet, till Rabbi Akkiva had brought him 204 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS to his house, and taught him the prayer at meat, and the shema, {i. e. the words in Deut. vi. 4. ' Hear, O Israel,') and the Prayer Book. Then did he (Rabbi Akkiva) place him properly ; and the lad prayed, and said, ' Blessed be the blessed Lord for ever.' And in the same hour his father was freed from hell.' " And the Father appeared in a dream to the Rabbi Akkiva, and said to him, ' May the rest of Paradise be thy portion, because thou hast rescued me from the punishment of hell.' Then began the Rabbi Ak- kiva to say, ' Thy name, O Lord, endureth for ever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all genera- tions.' "* A third narrative, farinae ejusdem, I shall give at length on account of the precept that the fable is in- tended to convey. " There happened something remarkable in the holy community at Worms. It fell out that a Jew, whose name was Ponim, an ancient man, whose business was altogether about the dead, coming to the door of the school, saw one standing there who had a garland on his head. Then was Rabbi Ponim afraid, imagining it was a spirit. Whereupon he whom the Rabbi saw called to him, saying, ' Be not afraid, but pass forward : Dost not thou know me ? Then said Rabbi Ponim, ' Art not thou he whom I bu- ried yesterday ?' And he was answered, ' Yea, I am he.' Upon which Rabbi Ponim said, ' Why comest thou hither .'' How fareth it with thee in the other * Stehelin's Tradition of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 64. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 205 world?' And the apparition made answer, ' It goeth well with me, and I am in high esteem in Paradise.' Then said the Rabbi, ' Thou wert but looked upon in the world as an insignificant Jew. What good work didst thou that thou art esteemed ?' The apparition answered, ' I will tell thee : The reason of the esteem I am in is, that I rose every morning early, and with fervency uttered my prayer, and offered the grace from the bottom of my heart ; for which reason I now pronounce grace in Paradise, and am well respected. If thou doubtest whether I am the person, I will show thee a token that shall convince thee of it. Yester- day, when thou didst clothe me in my funeral attire, tliou didst tear my sleeve.' Then asked Rabbi Ponim, * What is the meaning of that garland?' The appari- tion answered, ' I wear it to the end the wind of the world may not have power over me ; for it consists of excellent herbs of Paradise.' Then did Rabbi Ponim mend the sleeve of the deceased ; for the deceased had said, that if it was not mended, he should be ashamed to be seen among others whose aj^parel was whole. And then the apparition vanished. Wherefore let every one utter his prayer with fervency, for then it will go well with him in the other world : and let care be taken, that no rent or tearing be left in the apparel in which the dead are interred."* The opinions entertained by the early Christians re- specting ghosts may now be noticed. Origen con- ceived that souls which had been guilty of flagrant • Stehelin's Tradition of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 19. 206 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS crimes, and were not purged of their impurity, some- times were lodged in buildings, or were attached to other places. Other theologians condemned all visions or apparitions that had not the unequivocal sanction of the Deity, our Saviour, or the angels. Athanasius maintained, that when souls were once released from their bodies, they held no more communion with mortal men. Augustine remarked, that if souls did actually walk and visit their friends, he was con- vinced that his mother, who had followed him by land and by sea, would have shewn herself to him, in order to inform him what she had learned in another state, as well as to give him much useful advice. The notions regarding ghosts which were enter- tained during the Christian era, but more particularly during the middle ages, are very multifarious ; yet these, with the authorities annexed to them, have been most industriously collected by Reginald Scot. His researches are replete with amusement and in- struction. " And, first," says he, " you shall under- stand, that they hold that all the soules in heaven may come downe and appeare to us when they list, and assume anie bodie saving their owne : otherwise (sale they) such soules should not be perfectlie hap- pie. They saie that you may know the good soules from the bad very easilie. For a damned soule hath a very heavie and sowre looke ; but a saint's soule hath a cheerfull and a merrie countenance : these also are white and shining, the other cole black. And these damned soules also may come up out of hell at tlieir pleasure, althougli Abraham made Dives be- ieeve the contrarie. Tliev aflirme, that damned soules TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 207 walke oftenest : next unto them, the soules of pur- gatorie ; and most selclome the soules of saints. Also they saie, that in the old lawe soules did appeare sel- dome ; and after doomsdaie they shall never be seene more : in the time of grace they shall be most fre- quent. The walking of these souls (saith Michael Andraeas) is a most excellent argument for the proofe of purgatorie ; for (saith he) those soules have testi- fied that which the popes have affirmed in that be- halfe ; to wit, that there is not onelie such a place of punishment, but that they are released from thence by masses, and such other satisfactorie works ; where- by the goodnes of the masse is also ratified and con- firmed. " These heavenlie or purgatorie soules (saie they) appeare most commonlie to them that are borne upon Ember daies: because we are in best state at that time to praie for the one, and to keep companie with the other. Also, they saie, that soules appeare often- est by night ; because men may then be at best lea- sure, and most quiet. Also, they never appeare to the whole multitude, seldome to a few, and most commonlie to one alone : for so one may tell a lie without controlment. Also, they are oftenest seene by them that are readie to die : as Trasilla saw Pope Fcelix ; Ursine, Peter and Paule ; Galla Romana, S. Peter; and as Musa the maid sawe our Ladie: which are the most certaine appearances, credited and al- lowed in the church of Rome: also, they may be seene of some, and of some other in that presence not seene at all, as Ursine sawe Peter and Paule, and yet manie at that instant being present could not see anie 208 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS such sight, but thought it a lie, as I do. Michael Andreeas confesseth, that papists see more visions than protestants : he saith also, that a good soule can take none other shape than a man ; manie a damned soule may and dooth take the shape of a blacke moore, or of a beaste, or of a serpent, or speciallie of an here- tike." Such is the account which Scot has given regard- ing the Popish opinion of departed spirits. In an- other part of his work, he triumphantly asks, " Where are the soules that swarmed in time past ? Where are the spirits .-' Who heareth their noises ? Who seeth their visions ? Where are the soules that made such mone for trentals, whereby to be eased of their pains in purgatorie ? Are they all gone into Italie, because masses are growne deere here in England ? — The whole course may be perceived to be a false practise, and a counterfeit vision, or rather a lewd invention. For in heaven men's soules remaine not in sorow and care ; neither studie they there how to compasse and get a worshipfull burial here in earth. If they did, they would not have foreslowed it so long. Now, therefore, let us not suffer ourselves to be abused anie longer, either with conjuring priests, or melancholi- call witches ; but be thankfuU to God that hath de- livered us from such blindness and error."* — This is the congratulation of a true protestant at an early pe- riod of the Reformation. The early Popish church, as we might expect, has • Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, book xv. chap. 39 ; also Discourse on Devils and Spirits, chap. 28. TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 209 favoured the world with numerous stories of appari- tions, the subject of which is generally connected with the doctrine of Purgatory. I shall give Regi- nald Scot's abstract of one of these narratives, which was taken, as he assures us, " out of the rosarie of our ladie, in which booke do remaine (besides this) ninetie and eight examples to this effect, which are of such authoritie in the church of Rome, that all Scrip- ture must give place unto them." " A certeine hangman passing by the image of our ladie, saluted hir, connnending himself to hir protec- tion. Afterwai'ds, while he praied before hir, he was railed awaie to hang an offender ; but his enemies in- tercepted him, and slew him by the waie. And lo ! a certeine holie preest, which nightlie walked about everie church in the citie, rose up that night, and was going to his ladie, I should sale to»our ladie churcli. And in the churchyard he saw a great manie dead men, and some of them he knew, of whome he asked what the matter was, and who answered, that the hangman was slaine, and the divell challenged his soule, the which our ladie said was hirs : and the judge was even at hand, coming thither to heare tlie cause, and therefore (said they) we are now come to- gither. The preest thought he would be at the hear- ing hereof, and hid himself behind a tree, and anon he saw the judicial seat readie prepared and furnished, where the judge, to wit, Jesus Christ, sate, who tooke up his mother unto him. Soon after the divels brought in the hangman pinioned,, and proved by good evidence that his soule belonged to them. On the other side, our ladie pleaded for the hangman, u 210 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS proving that he, at the houre of death, commended his soule to hir. The judge hearing the matter so well debated on either side, but willing to obeie (for these are his words) his mother's desire, and loath to doo the divels anie wrong, gave sentence, that the hang- man's soule should return to his bodie, until he had made sufficient satisfaction ; ordeiring that the Pope should set foorth a publike forme of praier for the hangman's soule. It was demanded, who should do the arrand to the Pope's holiness. Marie, quoth our ladie, that shall yonder preest that lurketh be- hind the tree. The priest being called foorth, and injoined to make relation hereof, and to desire the Pope to take the paines to doo according to this de- cree, asked by what token he should be directed. Then was delivered unto him a rose of such beautie, as when the Pope saw it, he knew his message was true." But although it is certain, that with the disbelief of a future state of purgatory, taught by the Romish church, the communication of the living with the dead became much less frequent, Protestants still con- tinued to entertain numerous opinions on the sub- ject of apparitions, which fully equalled in absurdity the superstitious notions of the church they so zea- lously opposed. A host of imaginary phantoms, the history of which I have attempted to trace, derived from Celtic and Teutonic mythologies, and even from eastern tales, gave rise to new fables, to new dreams, and to new spectral impressions. Scot, in his Dis- covery of Witchcraft, remarks on this subject, " And know you this, by the waie, that hertofor Robin Good- TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 21 1 fellow and Hobgobblin were as terrible, and also cre- dible, to the people, as hags and witches be now ;— and, in truth, they that maintaine walking spirits, with their transformation, &c., have no reason to de- nie Robin Goodfellow, upon whom there hath gone as manie and as credible tales as upon witches ; sav- ing, that it hath not pleased the translators of the Bible to call spirits by the name of Robin Goodfellow, as they have termed diviners, soothsaiers, poisoners, and coseners, by the name of witches." Nor did these opinions so soon lose ground ; they were popular in all parts of Britain until the middle of the last century ; and, even at the present day, the demoniacal influence of fairies, and other mythologi- cal sprites, is acknowledged in such sequestered dis- tricts as Wales, the Western Highlands of Scotland, Orkney, and Shetland. The notion, however, of souls revisiting our globe after death, has met with more extensive support, since it was a creed to which even philosophers were not ashamed to subscribe. To a volume, for instance, of Dr Archibald Pitcairn's Latin poems, which I have lately seen, are prefixed several MS. anecdotes relative to his family, which are from some one evidently on terms of intimacy with him. Among these, a dream of the doctor is recorded, the circumstances of which appear to have been dictated by himself. The narrative is as follows : — " Robert Lindsay, grandchild, or great-grandchild, to Sir David Lindsay of y'^ Month, Lyon King at Arms, &c., being intimate condisciple with A. P., they bargained, anno 1671, that whoever dyed first should give account of his condition if possible. It 212 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS happened that he dyed about the end of 1675, while A. P. was at Parise ; and the very night of his death A. P. dreamed that he was at Edinburgh, where Lindsay attacked him thus : — ' Archie/ said he, * perhaps ye heard I'm dead?' — ' No, Roben.' — 'Ay, but they burie my body in the Greyfryers. I am alive, though in a place whereof the pleasures cannot be exprest in Scotch, Greek, or Latine. I have come with a well- sailing small ship to Leith Road, to carry you thither.' — ' Roben, I'll go with you, but wait till I go to Fife and East Lothian, and take leave of my parents.' — ' Archie, I have but the allowance of one tide. Farewell, I'll come for you at another time.' Since which time A. P. never slept a night without dreaming that Lindsay told him he was alive. And having a dangerous sickness, anno 1694, he was told by Roben that he was delayed for a time, and that it was properly his task to carry him off, but was dis- charged to tell when.* But among the well-informed classes of Great Bri- tain, the belief in apparitions would probably have ceased to exist about the commencement of the 18th century, if an important circumstance had not oc- curred, which was materially connected with the his- tory of these illusions. Very loose, and even atheis- tical opinions, relative to a future state of existence, began to prevail, and hence arose that fashionable class of sceptics, who self-dubbed themselves Jree- thinkers. Numbers of persons, some of whom were " For this curious ghost-story I am indebted to David Laing, Eaq. of Edinburgh. • TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 213 distinguished for their great attainments, then began to consider, if some additional arguments might not be prockiced to oppose the torrent of infidelity that prevailed, besides what they could procure from the sacred writings. In turning their attention to this subject, it was conceived that a direct evidence in fa- vour of a future state might be advanced, if the Pla- tonic notion could be established, that there existed an occasional intercourse between the spiritual deni- zens of another world and the living inhabitants of this earth. A speculation of this kind was accord- ingly revived ; and from the time of Addison down to that of the author of Rasselas, we find the greatest names enrolled among its supporters. They wished, as Dr Johnson has frankly confessed, additional evi- dence besides what the Holv Bible contained, con- cerning a future state of existence. This, then, was the true motive why so many idle stories relative to apparitions were fabricated at the commencement and the middle of the last century ; — it was to supply the demand of those individuals who wished to confute with them the infidel opinions of the freethinkers. " For, says Mr Wesley, in the fol- lowing remarkable confession, " it is true that the English in general, and indeed most of the men in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as mere old wifes' fables. I am sorry for it ; and I willingly take this opportunity of en- tering my solemn protest against this violent com- pliment, which so many that believe the Bible pay to those who do not believe it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge, these are at the 214 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS bottom of the outcry which has been raised, and with such insolence spread throughout the nation, in direct opposition not only to the Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and best of men in all ages and nations. They well know (whether Christians know it or not) that the giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible. And they know, on the other hand, that if but one account of the intercourse of men with se- parate spirits be admitted, their Avhole castle in the air (deism, atheism, materialism,) falls to the ground. I know no reason, therefore, why we should suffer even this weapon to be wrested out of our hands. Indeed there are numerous arguments besides, which abundantly confute their vain imaginations. But we need not be hooted out of one, — ^neither reason nor religion requires this." I have no other view in quoting the foregoing pas- sage from Mr Wesley's works, than to shew the spirit with which he, and many other truly pious indivi- duals, were impressed, when they wished to revive the belief in apparitions, which was evidently begin- ning to lose ground. The anxiety they manifested to listen to all stories of a supernatural cast, soon gave rise to a liost of needy romance- writers, who got up " well-authenticated" ghost-stories as fast as the anti- freethinkers were able to swallow them. It was in this period that the exquisite story was invented of the ghost of INlrs Veal, who came into the Avorld for no other purpose than to assure Mrs Bargrave, that, from lier actual knowledge of another state of existence, " Drelincourt's book of death was the best on that subject ever written." Oi" course, the story of Mrs TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 215 Veal (a good bookseller's pufF) naturally found its Avay into the preface to the translation of Drelincourt. Another romance of the same sort was the popular story of Lord Littleton's warning, said to have been received by him before death. But let us be thank- ful, that we live in an age when the truths which are contained in the Holy Scriptures need no additional confirmation from apparitions. There were, again, other efforts made, but assured- ly of the most ridiculous kind, for the purpose of confuting the freethinkers. These consisted of depu- tations, instituted even by John Aubrey, Esq. F. R. S. which were sent to the poor illiterate Highlanders, in order to procure all the evidence that could be col- lected from this superstitious source of intelligence respecting a future state of existence. " From the certainty of dreams, second sight, and apparitions," says Theophilus Insulanus, " follows the plain and natural consequence of the existence of spirits, im- materiality, and immortality of the soul." The author then proceeds in a lavish abuse of atheists, deists, and freethinkers, " those adepts in science, that refine themselves into infidelity, who are the nuisances of society, and the disgrace of human nature, — who bring themselves on a level with the brute beasts tliat perish." The general result, attending the researches of the gentlemen who consulted the Highlanders for the purpose of confuting the freethinkers, may now be stated. They found out that the visions of second sight were often of a prophetic nature. It is said, in one of the numerous illustrations given of this faculty. 216 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL IIXUSIONS that " Sir Normand M'Leod, who has his residence in the isle of Bernera, which lies between the isle ox North-Uist and Harries, went to the isle of Skye about business, without appointing any time for hia return : his servants, in his absence, being altogether in the large hall at night, one of them, who had been accustomed to see the second sight, told the rest they must remove, for they would have abundance of other company that night. One of his fellow-servants an- swered, that there was very little appearance of that, and if he had seen any vision of company, it was not like to be accomplished this night ; but the seer in- sisted upon it that it was. They continued to argue the improbability of it, because of the darkness of the night, and the danger of coming through the rocks that lie round the isle ; but within an hour after, one of Sir Normand's men came to the house, bidding them provide lights, &c., for his master had newly landed." * * The more frequent uncertainty, however, of these ghostly predictions, is not unaptly illustrated in the Table-Talk of John- son. " An acquaintance," remarks Bos well, " on whose veracity I can depend, told me that, walking home one evening at Kilmar- nock, he heard himself called from a wood, by the voice of a bro- ther who had gone to America, and the next packet brought an account of that brother's death. Macbean asserted, that this in- explicable calling was a thing very well known. Dr Johnson said, that one day at Oxford, as he Avas turning the key of his chamber, he heard his mother distinctly calling Sam. She was then at Litchfield ; but iwthhig citsmd." This casual admission, which, in the course of conversation, transpired from a man, /ihii. TRACED TU SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 217 But the discovery of Aubrey and others, that the visions of second sight disclosed future events, might have been readily anticipated, when we reflect that, from the remotest antiquity, there has scarcely existed a religious institution, of which prophets have not formed a component part. And when we consider that the Highlands were peopled both by a Celtic and Teu- tonic stock, it is far from improbable that the modern Gaelic seer is the genuine successor either of the Celtic bard or of the Northern Scald ; his ecstatic illusions having been the most effective when they partook of the imagery which an early distracted state of the coun- try would suggest.* But the time is past, when the gleaming swords of hostile clans stained the Highland plains with that blood which now is only shed for mutual defence. In the next place, the praisewoi'thy individuals who undertook to prove " the existence of spirits, the im- materiality and immortality of the soul," from the morbid as well as pretended visions of the Highland seer, learned (and how appalling to their sneering op- ponents must have been tlie knowledge of the im- portant fact), that the spirit Brownie was a common object of second sight ! " Sir Norman IVIacleod, and some others," say these delectable theologians, " play- ing at tables, at a game called by the Irish Falmer- self strongly tainted with superstition, precludes many farther re- marks on the prophetic nature of these impressions, which would now indeed be highly superfluous. • See note 4. 218 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTllAL ILLUSIONS more, wherein there are three of a side, and each of them throw the dice by turns, there happened to be one difficult point in the disposing of one of the table- men. This obliged the gamester to deliberate before he was to change his man, since upon the disposing of it the winning or losing of the game depended. At last the butler, who stood behind, advised the player where to place his man, with which he com- plied, and won the game. This being thought ex- traordinary, and Sir Normand hearing one whisper him in the ear, asked who advised him so skilfully .'' He answered, it was the butler ; but this seemed more strange, for he could not play at tables. Upon this. Sir Normand asked him how long it was since he had learned to play ? and the fellow owned that he never played in his life ; but that he saw the spirit Browny reaching his arm over the player's head, and touching the part with his finger on the point where the tableman was to be placed." The last discovery which the theologians made who visited the Northern seers, was, that the second sight was " a thing very troublesome to them that had it ; and that they would gladly be rid of it. For if the object was a thing that was terrible, they were seen to sweat and tremble, and shriek at the apparition. At other times they laughed and told the thing cheer- fully, just according as the thing was pleasant or astonishing." They found that " it was ordinary with seers to see houses, gardens, and trees, in places void of all these ;" that " some found themselves, as it were, in a crowd of people ;" that visions were seen TRACED TO SUPEIISTITIOUS IMAGKllY. 219 in night when colours could not otherwise be distin- guished. This is in tact the only information that is worth any notice regarding the second sight of the Highlanders. But the Jictive scientific gentlemen, who wished to silence the freethinkers by their re- searches, were not thus content. They found that children, horses, and cows, possessed the second sight; that the second sight might be communicated by sympathy ; and " that any person that pleased might get it taught him for a pound of tobacco." Really, it is impossible to seriously proceed any far- ther in describing this faculty of the gifted seer, — a faculty which so seriously engaged the contemplative mind of that great colossus of' literature (as his ad- mirers call him), Dr Johnson. Suffice it to say, that by the latest information derived from the Highlands, Deuteroscopia is now scarcely known. " To have cir- cumnavigated the Western Isles," says Dr Maccul- loch, in the following excellent remarks, " without even mentioning the second sight, would be unpar- donable. No inhabitant of St Kilda pretends to have been forewarned of our arrival ; ceasing to be be- lieved, it has ceased to exist. It is indifferent whether the propagators of an imposture, or of a piece of su- pernatural philosophy, be punished or rewarded. In either case the public attention is directed towards the agent ; whether by the burning of the witch, or by the flattering distinction which attended the Higliland seer. When witches were no longer burnt, witch- craft disappeared. Since the second sight has been limited to a doting old woman, or a i)yi)ochondrical 220 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS tailor, it has been a subject for ridicule ; and, in mat- ters of this nature, ridicule is death."* Thus, then, I have endeavoured to shew, that the commencement of the eighteenth century was a period in which, for special purposes, many ghost-stories were revived, and even new ones were fabricated. The author to whom I have alluded, styling himself Theophilus Insulanus, even affixes the term of irreli- gious to those who should entertain a doubt on the reality of apparitions of departed souls. " Such ghostly visitants," he gravely affirms, " are not em- ployed on an errand of a frivolous concern to lead us into error." With due deference, however, to this anonymous writer, whom I should scarcely have no- ticed, if he had not echoed in this assertion an opinion which was at the time popular, I shall advert to the opposite sentiments expressed on the subject by a far more acute, though less serious author. The notion, for instance, of the solemn character of ghosts, and that they are never ennployed on frivolous errands, is but too successfully ridiculed by Grose. " In most of the relations of ghosts," says this pleasant writer, " they are supposed to be mere aerial beings without substance, and that they can pass through walls and other solid bodies at pleasure. The usual time at which ghosts make their appearance is midnight, and seldom before it is dark, though some audacious spirits have been said to appear even by daylight. Ghosts " Description of the Western Isles, by Dr Macculloch, vol. ii. p. 32. TKACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 221 commonly aj)pe;ir in the same dress they usually wore when living, though they are sometimes clothed all in white ; but this is chiefly the churchyard-gliosts, who have no particular business, but seem to appear pro bono publico, or to scare drunken rustics from tumbling over their graves. I cannot learn that ghosts carry tapers in their hands, as they are some- times depicted, though the room in which they ap- pear, if without fire or candle, is frequently said to be as light as day. Dragging chains is not the fashion of English ghosts ; chains and black vestments being chiefly the accoutrements of foreign spectres, seen in arbitrary governments : dead or alive, English spirits are free. If, during the time of an apparition, there is a lighted candle in the room, it will burn extremely blue : this is so universally acknowledged, that many eminent philosophers have busied themselves in ac- counting for it, without ever doubting the truth of the fact. Dogs too have the faculty of seeing spirits."* There are several other minute particulars respect- ing ghosts given by this author, for the insertion of Avhich I have not room ; yet it would be inexcusable to omit noticing the account which he has subjoined, of the strange mode in which spirits execute the aw- fully momentous errands upon which they are sent. " It is somewhat remarkable," he adds, " that ghosts do not go about their business like the persons of this " " As I sat in the pantry last night counting my spoons," says the Eutler, in the comedy of the Drummer, '' the candle me- thought burnt blue, and the spay'd bitch look'd as if she saw something." 222 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS world. In cases of murder, a ghost, instead of going to the next justice of the peace, and laying its in- formation, or to the nearest relation of the person murdered, appears to some poor labourer who knows none of the parties ; draws the curtain of some de- crepit nurse, or alms- woman ; or hovers about the place where his body is deposited. The same cir- cuitous mode is pursued with respect to redressing injured oi-phans or widows; Avhen it seems, as if the shortest and most certain way would be, to go to the person guilty of the injustice, and haunt him conti- nually till he be terrified into a restitution. Nor are the pointing out lost writings generally managed in a more summary way ; the ghost commonly applying to a third person, ignorant of the whole affair, and a stranger to all concerned. But it is presumptuous to scrutinize far into these matters ; — ghosts have un- doubtedly forms and customs peculiar to themselves."* * I find, in a recent publication of great merit, the incidents of a ghost-story, told by Clarendon, relative to the Duke of Buck- ingham, which are commented on in the following manner : — " This noble historian interrupts his narrative with a long story about the ghost of Sir George Villiers, the Duke's father, having given a warning of his son's fate no seldomer than three times. Like gliosis, in general, this was a very silly one ; for, instead of going directly to his son, (was the spirit under the same syco- phantish awe with the living followers of the Duke ?) the phantom carried its errand to an officer of the wardrobe, whom in life it had paid attention to at school, but whose situation was too mean to warrant his going directly with the important intelligence to the favourite. The man neglected the warning till the third time, and TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 223 The view which Grose has taken of the character of most stories about departed spirits is pretty cor- rect, although I have certainly read of some spirits whose errands to the earth have been much more di- rect. One ghost, for instance, has terrified a man in- to the restitution of lands, which had been bequeathed to the poor of a village. A second spirit has adopted the same plan for recovering property of which a ne- phew had been wronged ; but a third has haunted a house for no other purpose than to kick up a row in it — to knock about chairs, tables, or other furniture. Glanville relates a story, of the date of 1632, in v/hich a man, upon the alleged information of a female spi- rit, who came by her death foully, led the officers of justice to the pit where a mangled corpse was con- cealed, charged two individuals with her murder ; and, upon the strength of this fictitious story, the poor fellows were condemned and executed, although then he went to a gentleman to whom he was well known, Sir Ralph Freeman, one of the masters of the requests, who had mar- rietl a lady nearly allied to the Duke, and prevailed with him to apply to his Grace to grant the officer of the wardrobe an opportu- nity of speaking with him privately on a subject of the utmost con- sequence to his Grace. The man gave sufficient information, which he had got from the ghost, relative to Buckingham's pri- vate affairs, to satisfy the Duke that he was no impostor, and the Duke was observed to be very melancholy afterwards. But to what all this warning tended, except to create uneasiness at some impending calamity, it is impossible to conceive, since the hint was too dark and mysterious to enable him to provide against the danger?"— //i*/or«/ of the British Empire, by George Brodie, Esq. vol. ii. p. 209. 224 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS they solemnly persevered to the last in maintaining their innocence. It is but too evident, in this case, by whom the atrocious deed had been committed. There is, however, another point of view in which apparitions have been considered. It has been said that they arise for special purposes connected with the extension of our holy religion. " These ghostly visitants," says Theophilus Insulanus, " are employed as so many heralds by the great Creator, for the more ample demonstration of his power, to proclaim tidings for our instruction ; and, as we are prone to despond in religious matters, to confirm our faith of the exist- ence of spirits (the foundation of all religions), and the dignity of human nature." Dr Doddridge, pro- fessing exactly similar sentiments, published in cor- roboration of them the remarkable story of Colonel Gardiner's conversion. " This memorable event," says the pious writer, " happened towards the middle of July, 1719" The Major had spent the evening (and, if I mistake not, it was the Sabbath) in some gay company, and had an unhappy assignation with a married woman, whom he was to attend exactly at twelve. The company broke up about eleven, and, not judging it convenient to anticipate the time ap- pointed, he went into his chamber to kill the tedious hour perhaps with some amusing book or some other way. But it very accidentally happened, that he took up a religious book which his good mother or aunt had, without his knowledge, slipped into his port- manteau. It was called, if I remember the title ex- actly, The Christian Soldier, or Heaven taken by Storm ; and it was written by IMr Thomas Watson. 6 TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 22r> Guessing by the title of it, that he would find some phrases of his own profession spiritualized in a man- ner which, he thought, might afford him some diver- sion, he resolved to dip into it ; but he took no serious notice of any thing it had in it ; and yet, while this book was in his hand, an impression was made upon his mind (perhaps God only knows how,) which drew after it a train of the most important and happy consequences. — He thought he saw an unusual blaze of light fall upon the book while he was reading, which he at first imagined might happen by some ac- cident in the candle ; but, lifting up his eyes, he ap- prehended, to his extreme amazement, that there was before him, as it were suspended in the air, a visible representation of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, surrounded on all sides with a glory ; and was impressed, as if a voice or something equivalent to a voice had come to him, to this effect, (for he was not confident as to the words,) ' Oh, sinner ! did I suffer this for thee, and are these thy returns?' Struck with so amazing a phenomenon as this, there remained hardly any life in him ; so that he sunk down in the arm-chair in which he sat, and continued, he knew not how long, insensible." With regard to this vision, — the appearance of our Saviour on the cross, and the awful words repeated, can be considered in no other light than as so many recollected images of the mind, which probably liad their origin in the language of some urgent appeal to repentance that the Colonel might have casually read or heard delivered. From what cause, however, such ideas were rendered as vivid as actual impressions, p 226 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS we have no information to be depended upon.* The illusion was certainly attended with one of the most important of consequences connected with the Chris- tian dispensation — the conversion of a sinner. And hence, no single narrative has perhaps done more to confirm the superstitious opinion, that apparitions of this awful kind cannot arise without a divine fiat. Dr Doddridge, for instance, prefaces the story with the following striking appeal : — " It is with all so- lemnity that I now deliver it down to posterity, as in the sight and presence of God ; and I choose delibe- rately to expose myself to those severe censures, which the haughty but empty scorn of infidelity, or prin- ciples nearly approaching it, and effectually doing its pernicious work, may very probably dictate upon the occasion, rather than to smother a relation which may, in the judgment of my conscience, be likely to con- duce so much to the glory of God, the honour of the Gospel, and the good of mankind." These are, indeed, most solemn words, — far more solemn perhaps than the occasion required. If Dr Doddridge had merely contented himself with ex- pressing the satisfaction, which every Christian must necessarily feel at the happy effect which the vision ultimately had upon the mind of Colonel Gardiner, he would have done more real service to true religion than by considering it as a special interposition of * A short time before tlic vision Colonel Gardiner had received a severe fall from his horse. — Did the brain receive some slight degree of injury from the accident, so as to predispose him to this spectral illusion ? TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 227 Heaven. For, could this very learned author be ig- norant, that apparitions no less genuine than the one which he has recorded have never failed, during every period of time, to sanction the grossest idolatry of the Heathens, or even of papal Rome > The Doctor was doubtless unaware that there was a vision on record, the authenticity of which no one can reasonably doubt, wherein a supernatural token, no less awful than that which appeared to Colonel Gardiner, and, to all appearance, no less sanctioned by Heaven, was sent to one of the most powerful enemies to Christi- anity that lived in the 17th centuiy, encouraging him to publish the book in which his dangerous tenets were contained. This singular naiTative is to be found in the Autobiography of Lord Herbert of Cher- bury, which I shall give in this nobleman's own words. " My book, De Veritate, prout distinguitur a revela- tione verisimUi, jyossihUi ct a fnlso, having been begun by me in England, and formed there in all its princi- pal parts, was about this time finished ; all the spare hours which I could get from my visits and negocia- tions being employed to perfect this work, which was no sooner done but that I communicated it to Hugo Grotius, that great scholar, who, having escaped his prison in the Low Countries, came into France, and was much welcomed by me and Monsieur Tieleners, also one of the greatest scholars of his time, who, af- ter they had perused it and given it more commen- dations than it is fit for me to repeat, exhorted me earnestly to print and publish it ; howbeit, as the frame of my whole book wa§ so different from any thing which had been written heretofore, I found I 228 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS must either renounce the authority of all that had been written formerly concerning the method of find- ing out truth, and consequently insist upon my own way, or hazard myself to a general censure concerning the whole argument of my book ; I must confess it did not a little animate me, that the two great per- sons above-mentioned did so highly value it ; yet, as I knew it would meet with some opposition, I did consider whether it was not better for me a while to suppress it. Being thus doubtful in my chamber one fair day in the summer, my casement being open to- wards the south, I took my bopk, De Veritate, in my hand, and, kneeling on my knees, devoutly said these words : " ' O thou eternal God, author of the light which now shines upon me, and giver of all inward illumi- nations, I do beseech thee, of thy infinite goodness, to pardon a greater request than a sinner ought to make ; I am not satisfied enough whether I shall pub- lish this book De Veritate ; if it be for thy glory, I beseech thee give me some sign from heaven ; if not, I shall suppress it.' " I had no sooner spoken these words, but a loud, though yet gentle noise came from the heavens, (for it was like nothing on earth,) which did so comfort and cheer me, that I took my petition as granted, and that I had the sign demanded, whereupon also I re- solved to print my book. " This, how strange soever it may seem, I protest before the eternal God is true ; neither am I any way superstitiously deceived herein, since I did not only clearly hear the noise, but in the serenest sky that TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 229 ever I saw^ being without all cloud, did to my think- ing see the place from whence it came. And now I sent my book to be printed in Paris at my cost and charges, without suffering it to be divulged to others than to such as I thought might be Avorthy readers of it ; though afterwards, reprinting it in England, I not only dispersed it among the pi'ime scholars in Europe, but was sent to not only from the nearest but furthest parts of Christendome, to desire the sight of ray book, for which they promised any thing I should desire by way of return." On this narrative of Lord Herbert, Dr Leland, in his " View of the Deistical Writers," makes the fol- lowing remarks : — " I have no doubt of his Lord- ship's sincerity in this account ; the serious air with which he relates it, and the solemn protestation he makes as in the presence of the eternal God, will not suffer us to question the truth of what he relates ; viz., that he both made that address to God which he mentions, and that, in consequence of this, he was persuaded that he heard the noise he takes notice of, and regarded as a mark of God's approbation of the request he had made ; and accordingly this great man was determined by it to publish his book. He seems to have considered it as a kind o^ imprimatur given to it from Heaven, and as signifying the Divine appro- bation of the book itself, and of what was contained in it." I shall now merely observe, that the inference which was drawn from Colonel Gardiner's story is completely neutralized by this counterpart to it ; by the fact, that while one special sign warns a sinner of 7 230 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS the awful consequence of slighting the gospel, another encourages a deist to publish a work, the design of which is to completely overturn the Christian reli- gion. Such are the contradictions which a superstitious belief in apparitions must ever involve ; and well may a late writer, to whom we are indebted for some ex- cellent remarks on Lord Herbert's life, exclaim with astonishment, — " In what strange inconsistencies may the human mind entangle itself!"* It must be admitted, however, that, at the close of the 18th and at the commencement of the 19th cen- tury, the wish to explain the occurrence of appai'itions on superstitious principles evidently declined. Nico- lai, in the memoir which he read to the Royal Society of Berlin, on the appearance of spectres occasioned by disease, remarked, that a respectable member of that academy, distinguished by his merit in the science of botany, whose truth and credibility were unexcep- tionable, once saw, in the very room in which they were then assembled, the phantasm, of the late president Maupertuis. But it appears that this ghost was seen by a philosopher, and, consequently, no attempt * Retrospective Review, vol. vii. page 328. — The following are the remarks made, in this well-conducted periodical work, on Lord Herbert's vision : — " It is highly singular that a writer, holding opinions like these, should, when doubtful as to the propriety of promulgating them, look for a special revelation of the Divine pleasure. In what strange inconsistencies will the human mind entangle itself ! when, on the point of publishing a book which was to prove the incfficacy of revelation. Lord Herbert put up a prayer for an especial interposition of Heaven to guide hirn." TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 231 was made to connect it with superstitious specula- tions. Mr Coleridge, who has confessed to many mental illusions, informs us that a lady once asked him if he believed in ghosts and apparitions ? " I an- swered," said he, " with truth and simplicity, No, madam ! I have seen far too many myself.'"' '* But, before quitting entirely this subject, I ought to attempt a physical explanation of many ghost-sto- ries which may be considered as most authentic. This is seldom, however, a very easy task. There is, for instance, a story related of Viscount Dundee, whose ghost, about the time he fell at the battle of Killiecranky, appeared to Lord Balcarras, then under confinement on the suspicion of Jacobitism at the castle of Edinburgh. The spectre drew aside the curtain of his friend's bed, looked steadfastly at him, leaned for some time on the mantle-piece, and then walked out of the room. The Earl, not aware at the time that he was gazing upon a phantasm, called upon Dundee to stop. News soon arrived of the unfortu- nate hero's fate. Now, regarding this and other sto- ries of the kind, liowever authentic they may be, the most interesting particulars are suppressed. Of the state of Lord Balcarras's health at the time, it has not been deemed necessary that a syllable should trans- pire. No ai'gument, therefore, either in support of, or in opposition to, the popular belief in apparitions, can be gathered from an anecdote so deficient in any notice of the most important circumstances upon which the development of truth depends. "With re- The Friend, by S. T. Coleridge, Esq. vol. i. p. 248. 232 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS gard to the spectre of Dundee appearing just at the time he fell in battle^, it must be considered that, agreeably to the well-known doctrine of chances, which mathematicians have so well investigated, the event might as well occur then as at any other time, while a far greater proportion of other apparitions, less fortunate in such a supposed Confirmation of their supernatural origin, is quietly allowed to sink into oblivion. Thus, it is the office of superstition to care- fully select all successful coincidences of this kind, and to register them in her marvellous volumes, where for ages they have served to delude and mis- lead the world. Nor can another striking narrative, to be found in Beaiunont's World of Spirits, meet with any better solution. I shall give it for no other reason than be- cause it is better told than most ghost-stories with which I am acquainted. It is dated in the year 1662, and it relates to an apparition seen by the daughter of Sir Charles Lee, immediately preceding her death. No reasonable doubt can be placed on the authenticity of the narrative, as it was drawn up by the Bishop of Gloucester from the recital of the young lady's father. " Sir Charles Lee, by his first lady, had only one daughter, of which she died in child-birth; and when she was dead, her sister, the Lady Everard, desired to have the education of the child, and she was by her very well educated, till she was marriageable, and a match was concluded for her with Sir William Per- kins, but was then prevented in an extraordinary manner. Upon a Thursday night, she, thinking she TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 233 saw a light in her chamber after she was in bed, knock- ed for her maid, Avho presently came to her ; and she asked, ' why she left a candle burning in her cham- ber ?' The maid said, she ' left none, and there was none but what she had brought with her at that time ;' then she said it was the fire, but that, her maid told her, was quite out ; and said she believed it was only a dream ; whereupon she said, it might be so, and composed herself again to sleep. But about two of the clock she was awakened again, and saw the ap- parition of a little woman between her curtain and her pillow, who told her she was her mother, that she was happy, and that by twelve of the clock that day she should be with her. Whereupon she knocked again for her maid, called for her clothes, and when she was dressed, went into her closet, and came not out again till nine, and then brought out with her a letter sealed to her father ; brought it to her aunt, the Lady Everard, told her what had happened, and declared, that as soon as she was dead it might be sent to him. The lady thought she was suddenly ftillen mad, and thereupon sent presently away to Chelmsford for a physician and surgeon, wlio both came immediately ; but the physician could discern no indication of what the lady imagined, or of any indisposition of her body ; notwithstanding the lady would needs have her let blood, which was done accordingly. And when the young woman had patiently let them do what they would with her, she desired that the chaplain might be called to read prayers ; and when prayers were ended, she took her guitar and psalm-book, and sat down upon a chair without arms, and played and 234 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS sung so melodiously and admirably, that her musick- master, who was then there, admired at it. And near the stroke of twelve, she rose and sate herself down in a great chair with arms, and presently fetching a strong breathing or two, immediately expired, and was so suddenly cold, as was much wondered at by the physician and surgeon. She died at Waltham, in Essex, three miles from Chelmsford, and the letter was sent to Sir Charles, at his house in Warwick- shire ; but he was so afflicted with the death of his daughter, that he came not till she was buried ; but when he came, he caused her to be taken up, and to be buried with her mother at Edmonton, as she de- sired in her letter." This is one of the most interesting ghost-stories on record. Yet, when strictly examined, the manner in which a leading circumstance in the case is reported, affects but too much the supernatural air imparted to other of its incidents. For whatever might have been averred by a physician of the olden thne, with regard to the young lady's sound state of health during the period she saw her mother's ghost, it may be asked, — If any practitioner at the present day would have been proud of such an opinion, especially when death fol- lowed so promptly after the spectral impression ? ■ " There's bloom upon her cheek ; But now I see it is no living hue. But a strange hectic — like the unnatural red . Which autumn plants upon the perish'd leaf." Probably the exhausted female herself might have unintentionally contributed to the more strict verifi- TRACED TO SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGERY. 235 cation of the ghost's prediction. It was an extra- ordinary exertion which her tender frame underwent, near the expected hour of its dissolution, in order that she might retire from all her scenes of earthly enjo}'- ment with the dignity of a resigned Christian. And what subject can be conceived more worthy the mas- terly skill of the painter, than to depict a young and lovely saint, cheered with the bright prospect of fu- turity before her, and before the quivering flame of life, which for the moment -was kindled up into a glow of holy ardour, had expired for ever, sweeping the strings of the guitar with her trembling fingers, and melodiously accompanying the notes with her voice, in a hymn of praise to her heavenly Maker ? Entran- ced with such a sight, the philosopher himself would dismiss for the time his usual cold and cavilling scep- ticism, and, giving way to the superstitious impres- sions of less deliberating by-standers, partake with them in the most grateful of religious solaces, which the spectacle was so well calculated to inspire. Regarding the confirmation, which the ghost's mis- sion is, in the same narrative, supposed to have receiv- ed from the completion of a foreboded death, — all that can be said of it is, that the coincidence was a fortu- nate ofie ; for, without it, the story would probably have never met with a recorder, and we should have lost one of the sweetest anecdotes that private life has ever afforded. But, on the other hand, a majority of popular ghost-stories might be adduced, wlierein apparitions have either visited our world without any ostensible purpose and errand M'hatever, or, in the circumstances of their mission, have exhibited all the 236 THE OBJECTS OF SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS inconsistency of conduct so well exposed in the quo- tation, which I have given from Grose, respecting departed spirits. With respect to some other apparitions which have been recorded, the difficulty is far less to satisfactorily account for them ; they may be contemplated as the illusions of well-known diseases. Thus, there can be no hesitation in considering the following apparition, given on the authority of Aubery and Turner, as having had its origin in the Delirium Tremens of drunkenness. " Mr Cassio Burroughs," says the narrator of this very choice, yet, I believe, authentic story, " was one of the most beautiful men in England, and very valiant, but very proud and blood-thirsty. There was then in London a very beautiful Italian lady," l^whom he seduced]]. " The gentlewoman died ; and afterwards, in a tavern in London, he spake of it," [[contrary to his sacred promise], " and then going" [[out of doors] " the ghost of the gentlewoman did appear to him. He was afterwards troubled with the apparition of her, even sometimes in company when he was drinking. Before she did appear, he did find a kind of chilness upon his spirits. She did appear to him in the morning before he was killed in a duel." But it is now time to review the progress which has been made in this inquiry. I have endeavoured to trace the connexion of spectral illusions with certain diseased or irritable states of the system, and to de- monstrate in what manner the subject of the ap])ari- tions thus produced lias corresponded with the fanci- TRACED TO SUPP:RSTITI0US IMAGERY. 237 till images, which have had their origin in various po- pular superstitions. Our attention will now become exclusively confined to the different subordinate incidents, whicli are re- ported to have taken place during communications held with apparitions. We shall find, that the quality and form of these unearthly visitants, their strange er- rands to the earth, and their seemingly capricious con- duct, are not the indications of a proper world of spi- rits, as pneumatologists have averred, but that they merely prove the operation of certain laws of the mind, modified by the influence of those morbific causes, which are capable of imparting an undue vividness to thought. But, in pursuing this investigation, I shall often have occasion to lament that many valu- able facts, which intense excitements of the mind are calculated to develop, should have been, on the one hand, distorted by superstition,* or, on the other hand, totally concealed from the world for fear of ridi- cule. But Nicolai's interesting detail of his own case first shewed in what light spectral impressions ought to be considered : nor can I conclude this department of my researches more appropriately, than by holding- out, as a memorable example, the motives by which he was induced to examine the mental phenomena under which he laboured, and to present them to the woi'ld with an accuracy, that must ever recommend his narrative to the attentive consideration of the phy- siologist and of the metaphysician. His words are as follows : * See Note o. 238 THE OBJECTS, &c. " Had I not been able to distinguish phantasms from phenomena, I must have been insane. Had I been fanatic or superstitious^, I should have been ter- rified at my own phantasms, and probably might have been seized with some alarming disorder. Had I been attached to the marvellous, I should have sought to magnify my own importance, by asserting that I had seen spirits ; and who could have disputed the facts with me ? The year 1791 would pei'haps have been the time to have given importance to these appari- tions. In this case, however, the advantage of sound philosophy and deliberate observation may be seen. Both prevented me from becoming either a lunatic or an enthusiast ; for with nerves so strongly excited, and blood so quick in circulation, either misfortune might have easily befallen me. But I considered the phantasms that hovered around me as what they real- ly were, namely, the effects of disease ; and made them subservient to my observations, because I con- sider observation and reflection as the basis of all ra- tional philosophy." PART IV. AN ATTEMPT TO INVESTIGATE THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. PART IV. CHAPTER I. GENERAL OBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION WHICH FOLLOWS, Next, for 'tis time, my muse declares and sings, Wliat those are we call images of things, By day they meet, and strike our minds, and fright, And show pale ghosts, and horrid shapes by night. Creech's Lucretius. A FIT opportunity now occurs for moi'e explicitly stating the plan upon which this dissertation has been hitherto conducted, as well as its ultimate object. In the first place, a general view was given of the particular morbid affections with which the produc- tion of phantasms is often connected. Apparitions were likewise considered as nothing more than ideas, or the recollected images of the mind, which had been rendered more vivid than actual impressions. In another part of this work, my object was to Q 242 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE point out, thatj in well-authenticated ghost-stories of a supposed supernatural character, the ideas which had been rendered so unduly intense as to induce spectral illusions, might be traced to such fantastical objects of prior belief as are incorporated in the various sys- tems of superstition, which for ages have possessed the minds of the vulgar. In the present and far most considerable part of this treatise, the research is of a novel kind. Since apparitions are ideas equalling or exceeding in vivid- ness actual impressions, there ought to be some im- portant and definite laws of the mind which have given rise to this undue degree of vividness. It was chiefly, therefore, for the purpose of explaining such laws that this dissertation was written. An investigation of this kind the late Dr Ferriar had evidently in view, when he wrote the first pages of his work, entitled, A Theory of Apparitions. But it must be confessed, that this entertaining author has been far more successful in affording abundant evi- dence of the existence of morbid impressions of this nature, without any sensible external agency, than in establishing, as he proposed, a general law of the sys- tem, to which the origin of spectral impressions could be referred. " It is a well-known law," he remarks, " that the impressions produced on some of the exter- nal senses, especially on the eye, are more durable than the application of the impressing cause." This statement comprises the whole of the writer's theory of apparitions ; and the brevity with which it is given is in exact conformity with the abruptness of it's dis- missal ; for, after being applied to explain one or two RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 243 cases only of mental illusions, numerous other in- stances of the kind are related, but the theory is not honoured with any farther notice. This neglect, which probably arose from the reasonable doubts sub- sequently entertained by the author himself, of the sufficiency of his hypothesis, or, rather, of the gener- ality of its application, will render it the less necessary for me to bestow upon it any attention. The truth is, that a proper theory of apparitions embraces the con- sideration, not of one law only, but of many laws of the human mind ; on which account, it will be abso- lutely impossible to proceed in this inquiry, until cer- tain principles of thought are at the same time per- spicuously stated. This object, therefore, I shall at- tempt, although, from the restricted nature of the pre- sent dissertation, it will be impossible for me to enter into any explanation and defence of the metaphysical views which may be advanced, in contradiction to opinions that deserve the highest respect, in deference to the names with which they are associated. Any one, also, conversant in the smallest degree with re- searches of this kind, will be but too well aware of the difficulties which they involve. For this reason, 1 must request eveiy indulgence, whenever I shall have occasion to state, as briefly as the subject will allow me, certain primary laws of the mind, which, from the raaturest consideration, I have been induced to advocate. 244 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE CHAPTER II. INDICATIONS AFFORDED BY MENTAL EXCITEMENTS, THAT ORGANS OF SENSATION ARE THE MEDIUM THROUGH WHICH PAST FEELINGS ARE RENOVATED. Phaiitasma enim est sentieudi actus ; neque difFert a sensione, aliter quam^m differt :n factum esse." Hobbes. My first object is to give validity to the conjecture which I threw out on a former occasion, that past feelings are renovated through the medium of organs of sense. It will, indeed, be impossible to proceed much farther in our researches, until this curious sub- ject has met with due consideration. In the commencement of these researches, I set out with stating the view of the late Dr Brown respecting the mind, namely, that it was simple and indivisible, and that every mental feeling was only the mind itself existing in a certain state. Sensations were, at the same time, considered as states of the mind induced by objects actually pre- sent, and acting upon the organs of sense. I need scarcely add, that such mental states admit of various degrees of intensity, vividness, or faintness ; Jirst, from the greater or less susceptibility of any sensitive structure to actual impressions ; and, secondhj, ftyxn RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 34r> the greater or less force with which material causes act upon our organs of sense. It has also been pointed out, that pleasurable feel- ings, from whatever source they may be derived, de- pend upon a freedom being given to the expansive power of the circulating mass, while pain is induced by any cause which tends to deprive it of this vital property. But regarding the instrumentality by which such changes are induced, I have already ad- verted to the conclusions of Dr Wilson Philip, de- duced from his experiments, namely, that " the ner- vous system consists of parts endowed with the vital principle, yet capable of acting in concert with inani- mate matter ; and that in man, as well as in certain well-known animals, electricity is the agent thus ca- pable of being collected by nervous organs, and of being universally diffused for purposes intimately connected with the animal economy throughout every part of the human system." But without founding any system on this particular view, I considered the nerves as not only the natural dispensers of that in- fluence upon which the opposite qualities of pleasure and pain depend, but, likewise, as the natural source, whence all the degrees of vividness imparted through the medium of the circulating fluid to our various sensations, had their origin. At the same time it was shewn, that under certain morbid circumstances, sub- stances affecting the blood, without the intervention of the nerves, had the same effect of exciting or even depressing the feelings of the mind. I shall thei-e- fore now add, that from the different circumstances of the circulating fluid, as it supplies different structures 246 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE of the human frame, arise our various susceptibilities of sensation. In what, then, consists a susceptibility to ideas ? This question has been already in part answered. Since an idea is nothing more than a past feeling re- novated with a diminution of vividness proportional to the intensity of the original impression, we are jus- tified in entertaining the suspicion, that the suscepti- bility of the mind to sensations and ideas ought to re- fer to similar circumstances of corporeal structure. Accordingly, there can be little or no doubt, as I have before hinted, that organs of sense are the actual medium through which past feelings are renovated ; or, that when, from strong mental excitements, ideas have become more vivid than actual impressions, this intensity is induced by an absolute affection of those particular parts of the organic tissue on which sensa- tions depend. Thus, the mere idea of some favourite food is well known to occasionally excite the salivary glands no less than if the sapid body itself were ac- tually present, and stimulating the papillae of the fauces. After this explanation, there can be little difficulty in understanding why strong mental excitements should occasionally, though rarely, restore impres- sions of touch, which are indeed seldom so propor- tionally vivid as renovated feelings of vision or of hearing. Such appears to have been the case when Sir Humphry Davy subjected himself to the vivifying influence of the nitrous oxide. He confesses to an increased sensibility of touch, and occasionally no- tices what he names a tangible extension. In Dr RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 247 Kinglake's case, this gas had the peculiar effect of re- viving rheumatic pains in the shoulder and knee- joints, which had not previously been felt for many months.* Another gentleman, Mr James Thomson, speaks to nearly a similar fact. " I was surprised," he remarks, " to find myself affected, a few minutes afterwards, with the recurrence of a pain in my back and knees, which I had experienced the preceding day from fatigue in walking. I was rather inclined to deem this an accidental coincidence than an effect of the air ; but the same thing constantly occurring whenever I breathed the air, shortly after suffering pain, either from fatigue or any other accidental cause, left no doubt on my mind as to the accuracy of the observation." t From the facts thus advanced, we need not be sur- prised that the impression of muscular resistance or of blows should be occasionally blended with the in- cidents of ghost-stories. " After having dropped asleep," says a writer in Nicholson's Journal on Phantasms produced by Disease, " an animal seemed to jump on my back with the most shrill and piercing screams, which were too intolerable for the continu- ance of sleep." I have quoted a case of delirium tre- mens, where a man is said to have suffered even bo- dily pain from the severe lashing of an imaginary waggoner. In Wanley's Wonders of the Little World, I find a story, taken from Rosse's Arcana, to the following purport : — " There was an apparition * Davy's Researches concerning Nitrous Oxide, p. .504. t Ibid, ,515. 248 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE (saith Mr Rosse) to Mr Nicholas Smith, my dear friend, immediately before he fell sick of that fever that killed him. Having been late abroad in Lon- don, as he was going up the stairs into his chamber, he was embraced (as he thought) by a woman all in white, at which he cried out ; nothing appearing, he presently sickeneth, goeth to bed, and within a week or ten days died." Beaumont also remarks of the spirits which he saw, — " I have been sitting by the fire with others. I have seen several spirits, and pointed to the place where they were, telling the company they were there. And one spirit whom I heard calling to me, as he stood behind me, on a sud- den clapped his finger to my side, which I sensibly perceived, and started at it ; and as I saw one spirit come in at the door, which I did not like, I suddenly laid hold of a pair of tongs, and struck at him with all my force, whereupon he vanished." But it is useless to multiply stories of this kind, at the hazard of stumbling upon narratives mixed up with mere fable ; otherwise I might recount, how the familiar of one man struck him on the right or left ear as he did well or ill, — how to another individual an angel came with a similar purport, " And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him ;" how a third visionary fancied he was scoui-ged on a bed of steel by devils, — how a lad was killed by a spirit from a box on the ear, — and, in short, how nu- merous other phantasms have not been content with a bodiless form, but have occasionally put on, what the pneumatologists of the middle ages were wont to mSE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 249 name, ccn-o non adamica ; and, under this garb, have demonstrated the miraculous force of their muscular exertions : " I've heard a spirit's force is wonderful ; At whose approach, when starting from his dungeon, The earth does shake, and the old ocean groans, Rocks are removed, and towers are thunder'd down ; And walls of brass and gates of adamant Are passable as air, and fleet like winds."* In the next place, the retina may be shewn, when subjected to strong excitements, to be no less the organ of ideas than of sensations. This fact is illus- trated in the following anecdote related by Nicolai : — " A person of a sound and unprejudiced mind, though not a man of letters, whom I know well, and whose word may be credited, related to me the following case : — " As he was recovering fi*om a violent nervous fever, being still very weak, he lay one night in bed, perfectly conscious that he was awake, when the door seemed to open, and the figure of a woman entered, who advanced to his bed-side. He looked at it for some moments, but as the sight was disagreeable, he turned himself and awakened his wife ; on turning again, however, the figure was gone."* Now, in this incident, the real sensation of a closed door, to which the axis of vision had been previously directed, was followed by the fantastical representation of a door being opened by a female figure. The question then • Tragedy of QCdipus, by Lee and Dryden. •^ Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. p. 174. 250 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE isj if those very points of the retina on which the picture of the real door had been impressed^ formed the same part of the visual organ on which the idea or past feeling that constituted the phantasm was subsequently induced : — or, in other words, did the revival of the fantastic figure really affect those points of the retina which had been previously impressed by the image of the actual object ? Certainly there are grounds for the suspicion, that when ideas of vision are vivified to the height of sensations, a correspond- ing affection of the optic nerves accompanies the illusion. A person, for instance, labouring under spectral impressions, sees the form of an acquaintance standing before him in his chamber. Every effect in this case is produced, which we might expect from the figure being impressed on the retina. The rays of light issuing from that part of the wall which the phantasm seems to obscure, are virtually intercept- ed. But if impressions of vision are really renewable on the retina, their delineation ought to be always re- markable for accuracy. The author of a paper on the phantasms produced by disease, (inserted in Nichol- son's Journal), remarks, that the phantastical repre- sentations of some books or parchments, exhibited either manuscript or printed characters, agreeably to the particular subject of Ills previous thoughts. But the question, which I have been thus disposed to answer in the affirmative, has, since the publication of the first edition of this woi'k, met with a most re- markable confirmation from one of the most eminent philosophers of the present day. Dr Brewster, in some remarks which he has published of his own ex- RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 251 perience in these mental impressions, informs us, that, " when the eye is not exposed to the impressions of external objects, or when it is insensible to these im- pressions, in consequence of the mind being engross- ed with its own operations, any object of mental con- templation which has either been called up by the memory, or created by the imagination, will be seen as distinctly as if it had been formed from the vision of a real object. In examining these mental impres- sions," he adds, " I have found that they follow the mo- tions of the eyeball exactly like the spectral impressions of luminous objects, and that they resemble them also in their apparent immobility when the eyeball is dis- placed by an external force. If this result (which I state with much diffidence, from having only my own experience in its favour) shall be found generally true by others, it will follow that the objects of mental contemplation may be seen as distinctly as external objects, and will occupy the same local position in the axis of vision, as if they had been formed by the agency of light.* Hence all the phenomena of ap- paritions may depend upon the relative intensities of these two classes of impressions, and upon their manner of accidental combination. In perfect health, when the mind possesses a control over its powers, the im- pressions of external objects alone occupy the atten- • Dr Brewster, in a note subjoined to his paper, has honoured me by observing, that these results, and several others that he in- tends to explain in another paper, (which, I understand, will be published in the 5lh Number of the Edinburgh Journal of Science,) confirm, in a remarkable manner, the views that have been given in this work. 252 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE tion, but in the unhealthy condition of the mind, the impressions of its own creation either overpower, or combine themselves with the impressions of external objects ; the mental spectra in the one case appearing alone, while in the other they are seen projected among those external objects to which the eyeball is direct- ed."* In the same interesting paper from which the fore- going extract has been made, there are other particu- lars given relative to phantoms which I cannot resist quoting. The author, in opposing the view of Mr Charles Bell, that there is an immobility of the spec- tral impression when the eye is displaced by the pres- sure of the finger, thus proceeds : — " This spectrum is by no means immoveable. It is quite true that it moves through a very small space ; but this space, small as it is, is the precise quantity through which it ought to move according to the principles of optics ; and the explanation of this fact leads us to investigate the difference between the vision of external objects and that of impressions upon the retina. " In order to understand this difference, let A in the following figure be the eye of the observer, and O an external object, whose image at P is seen along the axis of vision POM. Let the eye be pushed upwards, suppose one-tenth of an inch, into the position B, the • See the Edinburgh Journal of Science, conducted by Dr Brewster, vol. ii. p. 1. in a paper by the editor, entitled " Observa- tions on the Vision of Impressions on the Retina, in reference to certain supposed Discoveries respecting Vision announced by IMr Charles Bell." IIISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 253 external object O remaining fixed. The image of O upon the retina will now be raised from P to Q in the elevated eye at B. Hence the object O will now be seen in the direction QON, having descended by the elevation of the eye from M to N. B. R " Let the eye be now brought back to its original position A, and let the object O be the lamp with ground glass used by Mr Bell. The spectral impres- sion will therefore be made upon the retina at P, and will remain on that spot till it is effaced. If the eye A is now raised to B, the impression will still be at P in the elevated eye, and it will be seen in the di- rection PR parallel to PM, having risen only one- tenth of an inch, or the height through which the eye has been raised by pressure. This small space is not very visible to an ordinary observer, when his head is at liberty to move; but if the head is carefully fixed, the motion of the spectrum becomes quite ap- parent. Hence it is obvious, that Mr Bell has been first misled by not observing the motion of the spec- trum, and, secondly, by supposing that the vision of an impression followed the same law as the vision of an external object. The difference between these two cases of vision which Mr Bell has overlooked, consists 254 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE in this, that in ordinary vision the object forms a new image upon a new part of the retina, after the eye is pushed up ; whereas in spectral vision the original object has nothing to do with it after the eye is dis- placed, the spectrum itself, which retains its place on the retina, being now the only object of perception." I shall next observe, that there can be little or no doubt but that the ear is likewise the medium through which the past feelings of sound are renovated. In a case of delirium tremens which fell under my own ob- servation, the patient, during his convalescence, was at intervals assailed, as from an adjoining closet, by imaginary voices, distinctly articulating certain ex- pressions to him ; and when thus addressed, he shewed the same impatience at being prevented by the clamour from listening to some conversation that was going on in the room, as if he had been disturbed by real sounds. These are the few remarks I have to offer on the indications afforded during intense excitements of the mind, that our susceptibility to sensations and ideas depends upon similar circumstances of organic struc- ture ; and hence, that past feelings are renovated through the medium of organs of sensation. But a question may be put, if the same notion does not lurk among other systems of metaphysical philosophy which have been taught ? " Idea, in the old writers," says Dr Brown, " like the synonimous word percep- tion at present, was expressive, not of one part of a process, but of two parts of it. It included, with a RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 255 certain vague comprehensiveness, the organic change as well as the menial, — in the same way as perception now implies a certain change produced in our organs of sense, and a consequent change in the state of the mind." The last question that may be asked is. What de- scription of ideas, whether of sight, of hearing, or of touch, most frequently gives rise to spectral illusions? Certainly, the majority of apparition-stories on record indicaets, that ghosts are more frequently seen or heard, than absolutely felt. False impressions of vision are decidedly more nu- merous than those of any other faculty. Thus Mac- beth very properly exclaims, when in doubt respect- ing the nature or purport of the imaginary dagger he saw before him, — " Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses. Or else worth all the rest." The ideas which have their origin in the affections of our muscular frame much less frequently delude us than those of vision or of hearing. In fact, those modifications of the sense of external resistance, which bear reference to our muscular conti-actions, (whence are derived all our notions of hardness, softness, roughness, smoothness, solidity, liquidity, &c.) often (but certainly not always) afford the very means by which we ascertain whether an apparition is true or false. When Macbeth sees the air-drawn dagger be- fore his eyes, and finds that it does not resist the mus- 256 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE cular contractions of his fingers, or, in less formal me- taphysical language, that it eludes his grasp, he asks in amazement, — " Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight ? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind ; a false creation. Proceeding from the heat -oppressed brain ?" Occasionally the trial has served to deter an in- tended imposture. Thus, when a friar personated an apparition, and haunted the chamber of the Em- peror Josephus of Austria, a relation of the monarch seized hold of the substantial phantasm, and flinging him out of the window, laid him pretty effectually.* " " In most of the relations of ghosts,'' says Grose, " they are supposed to be mere aerial beings, without substance, and that they can pass through walls and other solid bodies at pleasure. A particular instance of this is given, in relation the 27th, in Glan- vil's Collection, when one David Hunter, neat-herd to the Bishop of Dawn and Connor, was for a long time haunted by the appari- tion of an old woman, whom lie was by a secret impulse obliged to follow whenever she appeared, which, he says, he did for a con- siderable time, even if in bed with his wife ; and because his wife could not hold him in his bed, she would go too, and walk after him till day, though she saw nothing ; but his little dog was so well acquainted with the apparition, that he would follow it as well as his master. If a tree stood in her walk, he observed her always to go through it. Notwithstanding this seeming immate- riality, this very ghost was not without some substance ; for, hav- ing performed her errand, she desired Hunter to lift her from the ground, in the doing of which, he says, she felt just like a bag of feathers." Ct le touched by man, "J things that can ; >- t must be touch'd again. } RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 257 There can be little doubt, but that the circumstance of our muscular feelings of resistance being less liable to delusion than those of sight, has given rise to a variety of notions which, from a very early period, have been entertained on the nature of spiritual beings. Thus, Lucretius, as he is translated by Creech : " Nor must we think these are the blest abodes. The quiet mansions of the happy gods, Their substance is so thin, so much refin'd, Unknown to sense, nay, scarce perceiv'd by mind ; Now, since these substances can'' They cannot touch those other For whatsoe'er is touch'd, that Therefore, the mansions of those happy pow'rs Must be all far unlike, distinct from ours ; Of subtle natures suitable to their own ;" (and, as the translator quaintly adds,) " All which, by long discourse, I'll prove anon." Lastly, I might observe, that the olfactory organs may occasionally be the medium through which ideas of smell are so intensely excited, as to give rise to mental illusions. Burton, on the authority of Petrus Forestus, relates, that " a minister, through precise fast- ing in Lent, and over much meditation, became despe- rate, thought he saw divells in his chamber, and that he could not be saved. He smelled nothing, as he said, but fire and brimstone, and was already in hell, and would aske them still if they did not smell as much. I told him he was melancholy, but he laughed me to scorne, and replied that hee saAv divells, talked with them in good earnest, and would spit in my face, and aske me if I did not smell brimstone." u 258 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE CHAPTER III. THE VARIOUS DEGREES OF EXCITEMENT, OF WHICH IDEAS, OR THE RENOVATED FEELINGS OF THE MIND, ARE SUSCEPTIBLE. " Men must acquire a very peculiar and strong habit of turning their eye inwards, in order to explore the interior regions and recesses of the mind — the hollow caverns of deep thought— the private seats of fancy — and the wastes and wildernesses, as well as the more fruitful and cultivated tracts of this obscure climate." We are now literally entering on the investigation of what the French metaphysicians name ideology, a subject which, from the manner it has been treated, has recently incurred a censure that it too well de- serves. " Ideology is, no doubt, a part of human physiology ; but it has far outgrown its parent science in point of extent, and is still far inferior to it in the means of verification. Let the metaphysician always avail himself of the experiments of physiology as far as he is able; but let not the physiologist imagine that he can ever derive a reciprocal assistance from metaphysics. It is possible, however, to transfer cre- dulity from one extreme to the other; — to yield a faith as implicit to the probabilities of the scientific RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 259 physiologist, as is usually required for the dogmas of pneumatology."* These are, indeed, excellent remarks, from the just severity of which I can scarcely flatter myself with the prospect of an entire escape. The discussion will be, however, hazarded. This investigation has hitherto been conducted upon the principle, that the various degi'ees of vivid- ness of which our mental states are susceptible cor- respond to certain conditions of the sanguineous sys- tem ; and that the natural source of the excitement wliich is imparted to the circulation, and of the cor- responding vividness which the feelings of the mind receive, is attributable to the influence of the brain and nerves. In the next place, several proofs were adduced in support of the conclusion, that organs of sensation were the common medium through which actual im- pressions were induced, and past feelings or ideas were renovated. According, then, to this view, every organ of feel- ing, which is no less the organ of ideas than of sensa- tions, must be considered as supplied with its own vital fluid, and as more or less influenced by nervous matter. To the various stimulated conditions, there- fore, incidental to the vascularity of each organ of feeling, the vividness of sensations and ideas corre- sponds. " Notes on Magendic's Physiology, by Dr Jlilligan. See his translation of this work, page 423, 260 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE I shall now attempt a description of the various de- grees of excitement incidental to ideas, when exclu- sively rendered intense, premising, however, that such gradations are to be chiefly distinguished when the vision is affected. 1*/ Stage of Excitemetif. By a principle of the mind, purely intellectual, the impressions which may at any time be induced on the seat of vision, suggest the notion of groups of sen- sible figures, each varying in hue and intensity, and each included in a distinct outline. While this men- tal operation is going on, each affected point of the retina becomes subject to a law (the consideration of which would detain us too long), whereby its vivid- ness is considerably modified. The effect is as fol- lows : — The nerves which impart their influence to visual sensations, first render more vivid those impressed points of the retina which give rise to the outlines of forms, and then extend their influence to the interior and central points of each figure. Thus, when we survey a landscape composed of such multifarious ob- jects as woods, mountains, houses, or lakes, it will be found that the outlines of each of these visible forms first become distinct, or bright, and that this distinct- ness or vividness is in each of them gradually propa- gated to the interior or central parts of the figure. In a short time, howevei*, the outlines of each form which may have been impressed on the retina, be- come less clear to the vision, while the interior im- RISE TU SFECTUAL ILLUSIONS. 261 pressed points become more distinct. This fact in- dicates, that the vivifying influence has extended to the centre of the visual form. The process of excite- ment then gradually subsides. The faintness which has commenced at the outline of the figure, extends itself to the interior, so as to convey the notion of a gradual evanescence, until a more general indistinct- ness becomes the ultimate result. Such is the vivifying influence imparted by the nerves to actual impressions ; we may therefore ad- vert to their apparent action, when past feelings are renovated on the surface of the retina. Past feelings never begin to be renovated upon the surface of the retina, until the outlines of such figures as are formed by the actual impressions of luminous bodies have become evanescent. It is therefore on such parts of the seat of vision as have ceased to be affected by particles of light, that the recollected images of the mind may be traced. Hence, when any morbific stimulus gives an undue degree of intensity to the nerves which assist in renovating past feelings, the outlines of such ideal figures as arise by the law of association appear to be formed on the fading out- lines of sensible forms. " I do not remember," says a writer on phantasms produced by disease, in a paper which I have before quoted, " by what gradation it was, that the frequently changing appearances before the sight gave place to another mode of delusive per- ception, which lasted for several days. All the irre- gularly figured objects, such as the curtains or clothes, were so far transformed, that they seemed to afford outlines of figures, of faces, animals, flowers, and other 262 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE objects, perfectly motionlesSj somewhat in the manner of what fancy, if indulged, may form in the clouds or in the cavity of a fire ; but much more complete and perfect, and not to be altered by steady observation or examination. They seemed to be severally as per- fect as the rest of the objects with which they were combined, and agreed with them in colour and other respects." * 2d Stage of Excitement. A second stage of excitement is induced when the nerves, upon which the renovation of past feelings depends, have exerted such an influence upon a re- vived figure, that the vividness has been gradually extended, until, upon the faded outlines of sensible forms, a complete fantastical image has been formed. But it would appear, that in this stage of excitement, ideas are the most easily vivified, when the retina is not at the same time affected by sensible objects. This is, indeed, a fact which may be very readily an- ticipated, when we consider how vividly ideas of vi- sion are represented in the minds of those individuals, who, after having long experienced the enjoyment of light, become affected with blindness. I recollect taking a journey in company with a gentleman thus circumstanced, than whom no one, in the complete possession of the faculty of vision, could be more in- terested with learning the general features of the country through which he passed, the form of its * Nicholson's Journal, vol. xv. page 293. IlISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 263 hills, the course of its rivers, or the style of architec- ture displayed by various edifices. He often remark- ed, that the ideas communicated to him, although in the ordinary course of conversation, were so vivid, that he was convinced they must almost equal the sensations of perfect vision. On the general princi- ple, then, that ideas of visible objects are the most readily excited during a seclusion from actual impres- sions, the operation of a morbific cause in inducing spectral illusions will be exerted with the greatest force in complete darkness, or during the closure of the eyelids. Yet it is at the same time a distinctive character of this inferior stage of excitement, that the ideas which, duriiig darkness, are unduly vivified, may be easily dispelled by an exposure to strong sensations of light. I shall now give a few illustrations of phantasms of this class. Dr Crichton, in his excellent Treatise on Mental Derangement, has remarked, " that patients, when they first begin to rave in fevers, only do so when the room is darkened, or when they shut their eyes, so as to exclude the light of external objects." — " Then im- mediately they see, as it were, a crowd of horrid faces, and monsters of various shapes, grinning at them, or darting forward at them. As soon as they open their eyes, or upon being allowed to see a good deal of light, all these phantasms vanish." This stage of excitement meets with another illus- tration in tlie interesting account which Nicolai has given of the state of his ideas, during the attack of a bilious remittent. " I found myself," he observes, frequently in a state between sleeping and waking. 264 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE in which a number of pictures of every description, often of the strangest forms, shew themselves, change, and vanish. In the year 1778, I was afflicted with a bilious fever, which, at times, though seldom, became so high as to produce delirium. Every day, towards evening, the fever came on, and if I happened to shut my eyes at that time, I could perceive that the cold fit of the fever was beginning, even before the sensa- tion of cold was observable. This I knew by the dis- tinct appearance of coloured pictures of less than half their natural size, which looked as in frames. They were a set of landscapes, composed of trees, rocks, and other objects. If I- kept my eyes shut, every minute some alteration took place in the representation. Some figures vanished, and others appeared. But if I open- ed my eyes all w^as gone ; if I shut them again I had a different landscape. In the cold fit of the fever, I sometimes opened and shut my eyes every second for the purpose of observation, and every time a different picture appeared, replete with various objects, which had not the least resemblance to those that appear- ed before. These pictures presented themselves with- out interruption as long as the cold fit of the fever lasted. They became fainter as soon as I began to grow warm, and when I was perfectly so all were gone. When the cold fit of the fever was entirely past, no more pictures appeared ; but if, on the next day, I could again see pictures when my eyes were shut, it was a certain sign that the cold fit was com- ing on.* * Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. page 175. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 265 Another illustration is the case of the late Dr Fer- riar, which he has reported of himself. " I remem- ber/' says this writer, " that about the age of four- teen, it was a source of great amusement to myself, if I had been viewing any interesting object in the course of the day, such as a romantic ruin, a fine seat, or a review of a body of troops, as soon as evening came on, if I had occasion to go into a dark room, the whole scene was brought before my eyes, with a bril- liancy equal to what it had possessed in daylight, and remained visible for several minutes. I have no doubt, that dismal and frightful images have been presented to young persons after scenes of domestic affliction^ or public horror."* Now, with regard to the last illusion, I shall re- mark, that an affection of this kind is by no means so liable to occur to young persons as, from the forego- ing narrative, we might be led to suppose; and hence there is every reason for the suspicion, that some slight morbific cause, operating on the vividness of ideas, might have so increased the usual degree of intensity, which pleasurable emotions are known to impart to youthful feelings, as, by a joint influence of this kind, to have disposed the mind to spectral im- pressions, Sd Stage of Excitement. It has been supposed by some metaphysicians, that when spectral illusions of vision occur during the seclu- sion from any sensible impressions of the retina, they • Ferriar on Apparitions, page 16. 266 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE may be always dispelled upon the introduction of light. This is, however, a mistake. The examples last given certainly prove, that ideas of vision are liable to ac- quire an additional degree of intensity when the re- tina is least exposed to actual sensations ; for which reason, phantasms very frequently occur during the darkness or complete stillness of night. But we shall often find, that during the time when the mind is ac- tually vinder the influence of a spectral illusion, the single or combined influence of its conspiring causes may be so far increased, that the restoration of light, aud the counteracting power it exercises, will be found totally inadequate to the proposed expulsion of the" phantasm. Hence the reason which I have for in- ferring, that phantasms appear under very different degrees of vividness, and that they thereby indicate corresponding stages of mental excitement. This view meets with support from the experience of Ni- colai, whose remarks on sontie spectral figures which he saw are as follows : — " It is to be noted, that these fi- gures appeared to me at all times, and under the most different circumstances, equally distinct and clear, whether I was alone or in company, by broad day- light equally as in the night time, in my own as well as in my neighbour's house. When I shut my eyes, sometimes the figures disappeared, sometimes they re- mained even after I had closed them. If they vanish- ed, as in the former case, on opening my eyes again, nearly the same figure appeared which I had seen be- fore."* Again, in opposition to the assertion, that visual il- * Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. p. 268. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 267 lusions are always dispelled by light, a philosophical writer, whose lively phantasms were occasioned by symptomatic fever, has given the result of his own ex- perience. "It was in my recollection," he remarks, "that Hartley, in his work upon man, adopts a theory, that the visions of fever are common ideas of the memory, recalled in a system so irritated, that they act nearly with the same force as the objects of immediate sensa- tion, for which they are mistaken ; ' and therefore it is,' says he, ' that when delirium first begins, if in the dark, the effect may be suspended by bringing in a candle, which, by illumination, gives the due preponderance to the objects of sense.' This, however, I saw was manifestly unfounded."* But it is now proper to advert more particularly to the very curious circumstance, that when Nicolai's disorder was at its greatest height, the figure of a de- ceased person which he saw should remain unchanged dui'ing both the shutting and the opening of the eye- lids. This fact would indicate, that his ideas of vi- sion, thus unduly vivified, exceeded in their degree of intensity those of actual impressions ; for which reason they could not be annihilated by the operation of common sensible objects. One character, then, of the third stage of mental excitement is, that the illu- sions which are incidental to it are not dispelled by light, but may remain during the operation of sensa- tions of an ordinary degree of intensity. It must be admitted, however, that the persistence of phantasms is less durable when such sensible ob- * Nicholson's Journal, vol. xv. p. 292, 268 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE jects are opposed to the organ of vision as are calcu- lated by their vivifying influence to divert the atten- tion of the individual from the particular subject of his spectral impressions. " When my attention," ob- serves a philosophical seer, " was strongly fixed on the idea of an absent place or thing, the objects of sensa- tion and of delirium were less perceived or regarded. When the mind was left in a passive or indolent state, the objects of delirium were most vivid, and the objects of sensation, or real objects in the room, could not be seen. But when, by a sort of exertion, the attention was roused, the phantasms became as it were transparent, and the objects of sensation were seen as if through them. There was not the least difficulty in rendering either object visible at plea- sure, for the phantasms would nearly disappear while the attention was steadily fixed on the real objects."* The transparency of these phantasms was evidently owing to their ceasing in part to affect the sensibility of the seat of vision, and to those points of the retina which were impressed by vivid objects actually pre- sent, being mingled with the dim and fading images that had been renovated. Many of the phantasms which Nicolai saw ceased to haunt him during the influence of such pleasurable and vivifying objects as were connected with social intercourse ; for he remarks, that, when he was at any other person's house, the phantasms with which he was beset were less frequent, and when he walked the public street they very seldom appeared. • Nicholson's Journal, vol. xv. p. 292. KISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 269 I may lastly observe, that when any sensible ob- ject, calculated by its casual and vivifying influence to arrest the attention of a seer, has been opposed to that part of the retina which was the object of a spec- tral illusion, an apparent interception of the phantasm has indicated that its persistence has been overcome ; or, in other words, that the intensely vivid idea, of which the apparition consisted, had faded away, and had been succeeded by an actual impression. Thus, when the axis of vision has been directed to some particular part of a room where a phantasm was con- ceived to be present, and when between the eye and the phantasm some luminous object has afterwards been placed, so that rays reflected from it might im- pinge on the same points of the retina which were af- fected by the spectre, the consequence has been, that, like the phenomena of intercepted sensible impres- sions, actual i-ays of light have succeeded in effacing feelings which were ideal. This fact was proved in the case of an inhabitant of the Scottish metropolis. He was constantly annoyed by a spectral page, dressed like one of the Lord Commissioner's lac- queys, whom he always saw following close to his heels, whatever might be the occupation in which he was engaged. But to this attendant soon succeeded another no less unremitting, but far more unwel- come retainer, in the form of a frightful skeleton. An eminent medical practitioner of Edinburgh was the exorcist properly called in, who, in the course of his interrogatories, inquired, if at that very moment his patient saw the spectre ? The man immediately 270 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE pointed to a particular corner of the room where he alleged his familiar was keeping guard. To this spot, therefore, the learned gentleman walked.— ^' Now, do you see the skeleton?" he asked. " How can I," was the reply, " when you are interposed be- tween us ?" Here, then, was a satisfactory indication, not only that the retina had been actually impressed by the imaginary phantasm, but that the real object at present engaging the attention of the seer had overcome the persistence of the apparition. Soon, however. Fancy began her work again ; for, with a sudden tone of exclamation that even inspired the philosopher himself with momentary alarm, the man suddenly exclaimed, — " Ay, now I see the skeleton again, for at this very moment he is peeping at rae from behind your shoulders !" But frequently, phantasms v/hich appear without any assignable reason as arbitrarily vanish. Thus, it is recorded of one of the presidents of the Swiss can- tons, that " he had occasion to visit the library of the establishment. Entering it about two o'clock in the afternoon, what was his amazement to see the former president of the same body, his deceased fi-iend, sit- ting in solemn conclave in the president's chair, with a numerous list of ' great men, dead,' assisting him in his deliberations ! He hastened from the place in fear, and went to some of his brethren in office to ad- vise upon the most speedy measures to divorce the usurpers of their stations ; but on returning with a re-enforcement of trembling associates, he found the long table in statu quo, the chairs empty, and every RISE TO Sl'ECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 271 mark of the mysterious deliberators vanished into an-."* These remarks conclude what I have to say on the subject of the present chapter. It would appear, that when ideas of vision are rendered unduly intense, three stages of excitement may give rise to spectral impressions. In the Jirst stage of excitement, nothing more than the outlines of the recollected images of the mind are rendered as vivid as external impressions. In the second stage, ideas are vivified during dark- ness so as to produce phantasms of a perfect foi-m ; but these are easily expelled by a strong exposure to light. In the third stage of excitement, the illusions inci- dental to it are not dispelled by light, but may subsist during the influence of sensations of an ordinary de- gree of intensity. • This story I liave quoted from a late work, the Edinburgh Literary Gazette. It is the report of an anecdote related by Sir Walter Scott, on the occasion when I read a paper to the Royal Society, which has given rise to the present expanded disserta. tion. 272 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE CHAPTER IV. AN INQUIRY INTO THOSE LAWS OF MENTAL CONSCIOUS- NESS WHICH GIVE RISE TO THE ILLUSIONS OF DREAMS. I talk of dreams. Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain phantasy. Which is as thin of substance as the air, And more inconstant than the wind. — Shakspeare. There is^ perhaps, no one familiar with the various apparition-stories which have from time to time been published, who is not strongly inclined to suspect that many of them are mere dreams. Whether this conjecture be well-founded or not, it is often difficult to determine. On this account it will be necessary to investigate the phenomena of sleep with some degree of care. In reference to this inquiry it may be observed, that the excitability of the sanguineous fluid, upon which the vividness of our mental feelings depends, has, in a healthy condition of the system, its due li- mits. The power possessed by the blood of augment- ing the heart's systole or diastole cannot be too long kept up. After a certain degree of excitation, a ten- dency is shewn to an opposite state of debility, when 8 niSE TO SPECTllxVL ILLUSIONS. 273 the feelings of the mind gradually decrease in their degree of vividness. Thus, there are periodical laws which govern our hours of slumber, and which, at the same time, are conducive to the regular exercise of the important functions of assimilation. Some philosophers have supposed, that in sleep there is a temporary suspension of thought ; others (the Cartesians in particular) have much more reason- ably conceived that thought continues without any intermission. For, upon the principle inculcated by the late Dr Brown, that all our mental feelings are nothing more than the mind itself existing in different states, it is difficult to imagine in what way this rela- tion of the mind to the body can possibly be sus- pended or dissolved, as long as the vitality of our frame subsists. When, likewise, it is considered, that we cannot entertain the least conception of any other states of the mind, than those which must necessarily include sensations or renovated feelings, the hypo- thesis becomes extremely plausible, that mental feel- ings of this kind, though certainly of extreme faint- ness, do actually occur in sleep, or even during de- liquum. ^ This theory may be viewed in connexion with cer- tain states of the circulating system, upon Avhich those of the mind depend. The vividness of our mental feelings is regulated by the force and diu'ation of each systole and diastole of the heart. Should these ac- tions be too short and feeble, a corresponding faint- ness in the affections of the mind is the result, as is the case during the tremulous fluttering pulsations which are characteristic of syncope ; also, if objects of s 274 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE sensation are uniform in their impressions, the vivid- ness of our mental states will be no less diminished. Hence the promotion of sleep by the unchanged feel- ings of touch, which are induced by a hoi*izontal po- sition of the body during rest ; hence also the somni- ferous effect of monotonous sounds. The continua- tion of sleep is likewise favoured by the exclusion of all impressing objects of vision. After these preliminary remarks, I shall attempt a strict scrutiny of the states of the mind peculiar to sleep, as they are to be distinguished from those which occur during our waking hours. According to the definition which I have given of sensations, they are states of the mind induced by objects actually jiresent, and acting upon the organs of sense, while ideas are the renewals of jmst sensations. A question then, Avhich, as we shall soon find, is most intimately connected with this inquiry, may be asked. By what law we thus ai'rive at our notions of the|;re- sent and the past ? When, by the repetition of any sensation, those feelings are recalled with which they were before as- sociated, such past feelings are renovated in a less vivid state, and hence acquire the name of ideas ; that is, images of prior sensations. It is, then, from no- thing more than the comparative degrees of vividness which distinguish sensations and ideas, that the mind becomes intuitively susceptible of certain relative feel- ings of succession that subsist between them ; which feelings of succession we express by such terms as the present and the past. This notion of a succession of mental states is in fact acquired by an ultimate law of RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 275 our nature. The more vivid or sensible affection is contemplated as present to the mind,' while the less vivid, or ideal state, is considered as past. But it is essential to this knowledge of succession, that it should at the same time bear a reference to the identity of the mind; and, accordingly, this convic- tion is suggested, whenever we think of the present and the past. The late Dr Brown Avas the first to successfully explain this last-mentioned principle of the human intellect. " In all the varieties of our feelings," he remarks, " we believe that it is the same mind which is thus variously affected ;" or, as this metaphysician has elsewhere explained himself, " that '' the mind, which is capable of existing in various states, is felt by us as one in all its varieties of feel- ings." — " The belief flows from a principle of intui- tion, and it is in vain to look for evidence beyond it. We have an irresistible belief in our identity as long as we think o^ the present and the past."* In correspondence, then, with this view, I shall con- sider mental consciousness as that intellectual feeling of the mind suggestedf by a succession of sensations and renovated feelings, whereby it acquires a notion of the present and of the past, and of one and the same * Dr Brown, in his Physiology of the Human Mind, likewise remarks, that, " in accordance with the belief in our identity, we use the personal pronoun / to express the whole series of these feelings to one self as the permanent subject of them." ■j- This is a very appropriate word employed by Dr Brown, I am sorry, however, that a difference of views on certain subjects will not always allow me to apply the term in the exact sense in which this eminent author meant it should be used. 276 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE mind, which is capable of existing in a succession of states. After this definition, we shall be better pre- pared to consider what are the proper mental pheno- mena which distinguish sleep. I have already pointed out the extreme difficulty of supposing, that the relation which the immaterial principle of the mind bears to the human frame should be suspended during the periodical repose allotted to the body. This relation consists in the mind being made susceptible of certain sviccessive states. As we can therefore conceive of no succession of states that does not necessax'ily include sensations and renovated feelings, it is certainly a reasonable hypothesis, that, during our moments of slumber, actual impressions and ideas should occur, although in a state of extreme faintness. But as it must be at the same time grant- ed, that there exists no mental consciousness during perfect sleep, or that state of sleep which is free from dreams, we are now, I trust, sufficiently prepared to overcome any objections on this score to the theory proposed. For, while it is almost impossible to ima- gine that, during the vitality of the body, such essen- tial states of the mind as sensations and ideas should not occur, there is not, on the other hand, the least difficulty in supposing, that a suspension may take place, during perfect sleep, of that particular law of suggestion, which merely furnishes the co7inecting links, as it were, that properly subsist between those actual impressions which arise by the organs of sense, and those renovated feelings, or ideas, which the law of association calls forth. When the operation of this connecting principle is for a time suspended, there no RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 277 longer arises that new description of feelings •which we express under the term consciousiiess ; — tliere no longer arises that intuitive and intellectual impression of the mind relative to the present and the past, as well as to the belief in its own identity. Thus, then, we have endeavoured to establish the doctrine, that in perfect sleep the organs of sense are still impressed, though faintly, by external objects, and that feelings no less faint become the proper states of the mind ; — also, that past feelings are renovated agreeably to the law of association, though in a state far less vivid, when compared with those which occur during our waking hours. Our investigation, there- fore, now becomes limited to this sole object, — to de- termine under what circumstances that particular law is suspended, whereby the mind begins to lose all knowledge of the present and of the past, as well as of its own identity ; or, in other words, our proper business is to inquire. Under what circumstances ?nen- tal nnconsciousness takes place ? Upon the approach of sleep, all organs of sense be- come less and less affected by their usual stimuli ; and, with this diminution of sensibility, the degree of vividness in our mental affections keeps an uniform pace. But it is an important fact, that sensations and ideas are each susceptible of different extremes of faintness. Ideas cannot, by any known causes, be rendered so faint as actual impressions ; they there- fore, much sooner than sensations, acquire their own definite and extreme degree of faintness. It follows, therefore, that the cause which induces the stale of 278 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE sleep is to be considered as a cause tending to make sen- sations more faint than ideas. The knowledge of this law is of the utmost im- portance in all our inquiries relative to the phenomena of sleep. But, first;, it may be remarked, that if the cause of sleep render sensations more faint than ideas, it must evidently happen, that, in the course of this transition, sensations will, at some interval of time, arrive at the same degree of faintness as ideas. When, therefore, it is considered, that the human mind can form no notion of the present and the past, but from the comparative degree of vividness which, during our waking hours, subsists between sensations and ideas, and that the notion of present and past time necessarily enters into our definition of consciousness, it must follow, that when the cause of sleep has re- duced sensations to the same degree of faintness as ideas, a state of mental unconsciousness must neces- sarily be the result. There are still other circumstances to be taken into consideration concerning sleep. A certain degree of vividness in our various feelings is necessary to the production of mental consciousness ; or, in other •words, consciousness cannot be induced after the states of the mind liave acquired a certain extreme degree of faintness. From the operation, then, of this law, which takes place while the cause that in- duces sleep is tending to make sensations more faint than ideas, that state of unconsciousness, which first arises when there is an uniformity of vividness in sen- sations and ideas, becomes so far prolonged, as to in- KISE TO SPECTKAl. ILLUSIONS. 279 elude in its duration the usual period of sound and healthy repose. During the particular interval, when sensations are becoming more faint than ideas, so powerful is the agency of sleep, that, as we well know, very strong im- pressions made upon the organs of sense often fail in imparting to the affections of the mind that degree of intensity upon which watchfulness depends. Ideas, on the contrary, after having vmdergone a certain ex- treme degree of faintness, cease much sooner than sensations to become obnoxious to the power of sleep. We must therefore, at present, contemplate sleep as chiefly employed in enfeebling sensations, while ideas, or renovated feelings, are less under its influence. This investigation will, I trust, prepare us to theorize with far greater facility on the subject of dreams. The causes of our most common dreams have, dur- ing our waking hours, an inferior influence in render- ing more vivid the states of the mind. They are, for instance, connected with such trivial affections as in- digestion, or with the remissions of inflammatory or febrile attacks, where a repose, more or less disturbed by visions, is afforded to the wearied frame. In sleep, therefore, such causes have little power in increasing the vividness of sensations. For it is but too evident, that if the organs of sense were capable of being af- fected by slight stimuli, our states of repose, which are so important to the functions of assimilation, would be materially interrupted. Ideas, however, which are more reiTioved from the enfeebling influence of sleep, are in a greater degree liable to be affected 280 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE by causes that impart to our mental affections various degrees of vividness. I shall therefore observe, that when, by some cause affecting the state of the circulation, the ideas of per- fect sleep have been excited to a certain degree of vividness, the mind then acquires a knowledge of the present and the past, and of its own identity ; or, in other words, consciousness begins, and, with it, the state of dreaming. It will therefore be a very inter- esting research, to ascertain what may be the modifi- cations Avhich the usual phenomena of the mind un- dergo, from the operation of those laws that more immediately relate to consciousness .'' We must once moi*e recall our attention to the prin- ciple so fully demonstrated, that the usual compara- tive degree of vividness which subsists between sen- sations and ideas alone suggests the notion of present and imst time ; the more vivid feeling being consi- dered as present, and the less vivid feeling, or idea, being contemplated as past. This law, in fact, con- tinues to operate, after renovated feelings alone have become the subject of consciousness. When, there- fore, it is considered, that ideas of themselves partake of various degrees of vividness, it must be evident that, in our dreams, the more vivid idea would be contemplated as a present feeling, while the least vi- vid one would be considered as past. By this means, various recollected iufiages of the mind protrude them- selves, as it were, from the train of tliought going on, and though fainter than sensations, have still tlic power of suggesting a false conviction of actual im- pressions. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 2»1 In reference to the same law of consciousness, may be explained the illusions of many spectral impres- sions which occur during our waking hours. That principle in our nature by which mental feelings of various degrees of vividness suggest a notion of the present and of the past, is continually influencing the mind; hence, the moment that ideas become more vivid than sensations, they are contemplated as pre- sent, or as actual impressions ; while the least vivid feeling suggests the notion of past time. The partial resemblance of spectral impressions to dreams. will now, I trust, be sufficiently apparent. There is still a difference to be noticed in the circum- stances under which they are severally produced. Before spectral impressions can arise, the vivid ideas of our waking hours must be raised to an unusually high degree of intensity ; but during our moments of mental repose, a very slight degree of vividness im- parted to the faint ideas of perfect sleep is sufficient to excite a similar illusion. Hence the images of spectral impressions differ from those of dreams, in being much more vivid. 282 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE CHAPTER V. PHANTASMS MAY ARISE FROM IDEAS OP WHICH THE MIND MIGHT OTHERWISE HAVE BEEN EITHER CON- SCIOUS OR UNCONSCIOUS. " The difficulty is this : — Consciousness being interrupted always by forgetfulness, there being no moment of our lives wherein we have the whole train of our past actions before our eyes in one view ; but even the best memories losing the sight of one part while they are viewing another." Ivocke. I SHALL now attempt to explain other laws of con- sciousness, which are materially involved in the cir- cumstances under which j^hantasms arise. The in- vestigation, however, is difficult ; a proof of which is, that, from not prosecuting it, considerable disturb- ance seems to have been given to the speculations of those who have endeavoured to explain, upon estab- lished metaphysical principles, the origin of appari- tions. Nicolai, the philosophical seer of Berlin, who was long under the influence of spectral impressions, offers the following remarks on his own case : — " I observed these phantasms of the mind with great accuracy, and very often reflected on my pre- vious thoughts, with a view to discover some law in IIISE TO SrECTHAI. ILLUSIONS. 283 the association of ideas by which exactly these or other figures might present themselves to the imagi- nation. Sometimes I thought I had made a dis- covery, especially in the latter period of my visions ; but, on the whole, I could trace no connexion which the various figures that thus appeared and disappeared to my sight, had either with my state of mind, or with my employment and the other thoughts which en- gaged my attention. After frequent accurate obser- vations on the subject, having fairly proved and ma- turely considered it, I could form no other conclu- sion on the cause and consequence of such appari- tions, than that, when the nervous system is weak, and at the same time too much excited, or rather de- ranged, similar figures may appear in such a manner as if they were actually seen and heard ; for these vi- sions in my case were not the consequence of any known law of reason, of the imagination, or of the otherwise usual association of ideas." * Such were the difficulties that pressed themselves upon the mind of Nicolai, in endeavouring to account for the mysterious introduction of the fantastic visit- ants, by whom he was almost hourly surrounded. In the attempt, therefore, which I shall make to obtain some satisfaction on this head, it will be first necessary to inquire how far we are entitled, on every occasion, to seek for an explanation of such phenomena in the well-known law of the association of ideas. It has been before shewn, that when a number of sensations occur in succession, the repetition of any * Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. p. 167. 284 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE one of them would recall in theii* original order, yet in a less vivid state, the feelings by which they were followed. To this law was affixed the usual term of the associatio7i of ideas. But a question now arises. If ideas, of which we are at any one moment of time to- tally unconscious, be still liable to recur agreeably to the law of association ? The hypothetical answer which I should be disposed to give is this. That past feelings, even should they be those of our earliest mo- ments of infancy, never cease to be under the opera- tion of this principle, and that they are constantly liable to be renovated, though they should not be the object of consciousness, at the latest period of our life. According to this view, any past impression of the mind never becomes, as it were, extinct. Yet, amidst the incalculable quantity of Jdeas which are rapidly succeeding to each other, the amount of those that are vivified to such a degree as to be the object of consciousness, must fall far short of the actual number of such, as, from their extrenfie faintness, are no longer recognised. After these remarks, I shall advert to another prin- ciple of the mind deserving consideration, which is this : Feelings of any ijarticular description or subject are liable to be frequently renovated, and there is a ?iatti- ral tendency in the same Jeelings, on each occasion of their renewal, to become gradually more and more faint* The law which imrtially counteracts this ten- dency will be explained in the next chapter. * A tendency of this kind differs in degree in different indivi. duals. Tlius, in the Psychological Magazine of Germany, there RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 285 I shall now suppose, that certain sensations have been induced sufficiently vivid to excite mental con- sciousness ; and that the renovated feelings, named ideas, which correspond to them, sustain, upon each occasion of their renewal, a gradual diminution from their original degree of vividness. The result which, agreeably to the general doctrine I have inculcated, will ensue, may be readily anticipated. Any train of ideas must, in the course of its undisturbed depres- sion, be eventually reduced to states far too faint to be the object of our consciousness. In ordei-, however, to render this law as intelligible as possible, I subjoin the following tabular view, in which the lower numbers in the scale represent the more faint or least vivid of our feelings, and the high- er numbers the more excited states of the mind. is the narrative of a girl, whose ideas must have declined very slowly from their original state of vividness. After having listened but once to the longest song, she could repeat it vfrhatim, and with equal accuracy could not only rehearse the whole of any sermon she might hear at church, but was even found to preserve the re- collection of it after the interval of a year had expired. — The me- mory of Bishop Jewel was very remarkable. It is stated in Clark's Mirror, that " he could readily repeat any thing that he had pen- ned after once reading : and therefore, usually, at the ringing of the bell, began to commit his sermons to heart, and kept what he had learned so firmly, that he used to say, That if he were to make a speech premeditated, before a thousand auditors, shouting or fighting all the while, yet could he say whatsoever he had provided to speak. Sir Francis Bacon, reading to him only the last clauses of ten lines in Erasmus his paraphrase in a confused and dis- membered manner, he, after a small pause, rehearsed all those broken parcels of sentences the right way, and the contrary, with. out stumbling." 286 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE TABULAR VIEW. Mode in which a Train or Association of Ideas, unin- terrupted by Sensations, is supposed to uniformly decrease in Vividness. > Vivid Feel- ings of wliicli we are con- scious. Feelings too faint to be the Object of mental Con- sciousness. Degrees of Vivid- ness and Faintness Previous Sensation Associated Train of Ideas. 1st Stage of Depres- sion. 2d Stage of Depres- sion. 5d Stage of Depres- sion. 4th Stage of Depres- sion. 5tli Stage of Depres- sion. Gth Stage of Depres- sion. ( 6 5 4 3 2 1 Sensation Ideas Ideas Ideas Ideas Ideas Ideas Such is the mode in which a train of past feelings would decrease in vividness, if the original sensations, of which they are revivals, had possessed any uniform degree of vividness, and if there had been no excite- ments influencing at the time the ideas of the mind. But I ought to add, that from so many disturbing causes, which have a tendency to irregularly vivify the recollected images of thought, no actual illustra- tion can be afforded of this principle, that in a strict sense is exempt from sources of fallacy. From an inspection of the foregoing table, the law which I have laid down may be explained in terms RISE TO SPECTllAI, ILLUSIONS. 287 somewhat different to those which I have used, and, perhaps, with some advantage to the proper subject of our inquiry. It has been repeatedly stated, that, upon the repeti- tion of any definite sensation, there is not only a re- newal of the past feelings with which this sensation was formerly associated, (their renovation taking place agreeably to their prior order,) but that the nimiber of ideas thus renewable may be prolonged to an incalcul- able extent. I may now add, that the train which is induced only meets Avith interruption from some new sensation, and with it, from some new succession of renovated feelings. It may therefore be observed, that there is, cacteris paribus, a general tendencij in every uninterrwpled a.ssocialion of ideas to decrease in vividness, the diminution keeping pace with the extent to which the train is prolonged. This law will explain the purport of our next in- vestigation, which relates to such incidents of spectral illusions as are connected with the natural tendency of the ideas that form an associated train to gradually fade, or, in other words, to become more faint. I shall therefore proceed upon the general view, that if a train of ideas be not prematurely interrupted, the close of it will always be found to consist of renovated feelings that are too faint to be the object of consci- ousness. Such being the subject of our present inquiry, a se- cond reference may be made to the foregoing tabular view, Avhich is merely intended to convey a very ge- neral notion of the principle I would establish, — that there is a tendency in ideas to fade, the diminution of 288 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE vividness keeping pace with the extent to which a se- ries of revived impressions is prolonged. But by consulting the table, it will be seen, that when a train of uninterrupted ideas is, as it were, lengthened out, it must naturally include two varieties of renovated feelings. Of one variety of ideas the mind is absolutely con- scious. Tliis particular variety forms the first, or pre- ceding part of a sequence of renovated feelings. Of another variety of ideas the mind is unconscious, and this faint description of them is to be found in the remaining part of the train. I shall next remark, that a cause of mental excite- ment, adventitious, or truly morbific, may commence its vivifying influence upon the mental feelings dur- ing any interval of time that the mind is not suscepti- ble of actual impressions. This operation may then involve any one of tRe two following circumstances of excitement : First, An exciting cause may commence its influ- ence, when the ideas, which form the concluding part of an uninterrupted train of renovated feelings, are becoming so faint as to cease being the object of con- sciousness. Secondly, An exciting cause may commence its in- fluence more prematurely; or before a train of ideas can have so much decreased in vividness as to cease being the object of consciousness. These two circumstances of excitement will be con- sidered in succession. 7 RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 289 Section 1. The I/ifluetice of vivifying Causes upon Ideas, of which we should otherwise have been unconscious. I shall now suppose, that a cause of mental excite- ment has commenced its influence upon a sequence of ideas, but not until the train has gradually sunk into a degree of faintness so extreme, as to cease being the object of consciousness. A table, the exact reverse of the last given, will then shew the mode in which the concluding part of this train of renovated feelings is liable to such an excitement, as at length to be the object of consciousness. TABULAR VIEW, Explaining the Influence of a vivifying Cause upon the concluding Part of a Train of Ideas, of which we should otherwise have been unconscious. Vivid feel- ings of which we are con- scious. Too f-.iint to be tlie Iihject of conscious- ness. Degrees of Kaint- ness and Vividness. State to which Ideas were depressed beforethe Excite- ment. Operation of a vivifying Cause. 1st Stage of Excite- ment. 2d Stage of Excite- ment. 3d Stage of Excite- ment. 4th Stagt of Excite ment. 5th Stage ofExcitc- ment. 6th Stage ■ifExcite ment. i r 4 3 o I 1 Ideas . . . Ideas • • . . . Ideas Ideas Ideas. Ideas Ideas 290 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE I trust the above table will sufficiently explain the progressive mode, in which a morbific cause of excite- ment may restore to a vivid state of consciousness faint ideas, of which we should otherwise have been un- conscious. But this effect of a mental excitement will meet with a striking illustration, when we connect it with a law to which I have just adverted, namely, that past feel- ings, even should they be those of our earliest mo- ments of infancy, never cease to be under the influence of the law of association, and that they are constantly liable to be renovated, even to the latest period of our life, although they may be in so faint a state as not to be the object of consciousness. It is evident then, that a cause of mental excitement may so act upon a sequence of extremely faint feelings, as to render ideas of which the mind had long been pre- viously unconscious, vivid objects of consciousness. Thus, it is recorded of a female in France, that while she was subjected to such an influence, the memory of the Armorican language, which she had lost since she was a child, suddenly returned. With the knowledge of the foregoing fact before us, we shall now imagine, that certain definite ideas are arising in the mind in so vivid a state, that the order of succession in which they formerly occuri'ed as sensible impressions may be distinctly traced. If, then, such ideas arc succeeded, no less agreeably to the law of association, by another train, whicli, hav- ing long faded into extreme faintness, are, in the pre- sent instance, so morbidly excited as to again become the subject of consciousness, — sucli revived feelings RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 291 will appear to arise in a sort of insulated manner, since their original connexion with recognised sensa- tions may have been long since forgotten. Accord- ingly this was the case when certain of Nicolai's ideas met with an iniexpected renewal of their long-lost vividness ; — they appeared to be totally unconnected with the regular train of his thought. " I must ob- serve," says this author, " that when I either think deeply on a subject, or write attentively, particularly when I have exerted myself for some time, a thought frequently offers itself, which has no connexion with the work before me, and this at times in a manner so lively, that it seems as if expressed in actual words." We have next to consider, that the faded ideas of Nicolai's mind, when again becoming the subject of consciousness, had acquired such an extreme degree of vividness as to frequently induce the illusions of phantasms ; when, therefore, all knowledge was lost of the original sensations that corresponded to such spectral impressions, no wonder that this writer should express himself after the following manner :— " None of the phantasms of my illness were of known places, objects, or persons." And, lastly, when the same metaphysician conducted his inquiry on the principle, that no ideas but those of which we are conscious were subject to the law of association, no small share of disappointment c.ould fail to ensue, when he found himself unable to trace the origin of his phantasms to former impressions made in the usual manner upon his senses. 292 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE Section II. The Influence of vivifying Causes upon Ideas of which Tve are conscious. In the last section I endeavoured to shew^ that an ex- citing cause may commence its influence after the ideas which composed the concluding part of an un- interrupted train of renovated feelings had ceased to become the object of consciousness ; and that the effect of such an influence might be to revive the re- membrance of long-forgotten ideas, and, as in Nico- lai's case, to conjure up phantasms which the per- plexed metaphysician could not refer to the law of association. My next object is to point out other circumstances, under which a cause of mental excitement may vivify ideas. I have stated, that it may commence its action more prematurely, or before a train of ideas has so much decreased in vividness as to cease being the ob- ject of consciousness. But this circumstance of men- tal excitement has been so frequently illustrated in the course of this dissertation, that it requires little comment. The effect must be, that the order in which phantasms occur will be traced to the order of asso- ciation in which ideas arise. It is almost vninecessary to illustrate this vivifying action by the tabular view which is annexed. RISE TO SPECTlliVL ILLUSIONS. 293 TABULAR VIEW. Vivid feelings of which we are conscious. ) Degrees of Vividness. Previous State of Iileas. A Train of Ideas of which we are conscious subjected to Excitement. 9 8 7 6 5 Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. But Nicolai has conceived, that the circumstances under which phantasms arise are not referable to the law by which past feelings are renovated. Other philosophical seers, however, as I have shewn, have been more successful in tracing their phantasms to ideas vivified in the natural order of their association ; and, in this case, it is almost unne- cessary to repeat a remark I made, that such spectres could have been nothing more than highly-excited ideas, which had not antecedently ceased to be objects of consciousness. Indeed, Nicolai himself affords us a curious narrative of a gentleman, whose vivid re- collections of the conversation which he might have heard in the course of the day, were morbidly revived in the evening, but in states of intensity far exceeding those of the original impressions. " My much-la- mented friend, Moses Mendelsohn," he observes, " had, in the year 1792, by too intense an application to study, contracted a malady which also abounded with particular psychological apparitions. For up- wards of two years he was incapacitated from doing any thing ; he could neither read nor think, and was 294 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE rendered utterly incapable of supporting any loud noise. If any one talked to him rather in a lively manner, or if he himself happened to be disposed to lively conversation, he fell in the evening into a very alarming species of catalepsis, in which he saw and heard every thing that passed around him, without being able to move a limb. If he had heard any lively conversation during the day, a Stentorian voice repeated to him, while in the fit, the particular words or syllables that had been pronounced, with an im- pressive accent, or loud emphatic tone, and in such a manner that his ears reverberated." RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSION'S. 295 CHAPTER VL THE KFPECT OF MORBIFIC EXCITEMENTS OP THE MIND WHEN HEIGHTENED BY THE VIVIFYING INFLUENCE OF HOPE AND FEAR. Spem mihi nescio quam vultu promittis auiico." — Ovid. " Thou to whom the world unknown With all its shadowy shapes is shown ; Who seest, appall'd, the unreal scene. While Fancy lifts the veil between, Ah, Fear ! ah, frantic Fear ! I see, I see thee near." Collins. Our inquiry into the effect produced on mental con- sciousness by strong excitements of the mind, is at length so far advanced, that a fit opportunity occurs for noticing the phenomena attending other occasions besides those which are morbid, on which various de- grees of vividness are imparted to our feelings. In the last chapter I took occasion to remark, that -when any sensation is renewed, it has a tendency to become on each occasion of its repetition less vivid, and when followed by a revival of the feelings with which it was before associated, such revived feelings evince a similar tendency on each occasion of their re- 296 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE currence to become fainter and fainter. A question then may be asked, In what consists that principle of the mind, which in a partial degree is counteractifig this tendency ? Dr Brown has clearly shewn that there is (to use his own words) " a principle by which it is impossible for us not to believe that the course of na- ture has been uniform in all the simple sequences that have composed or may hereafter compose it, and that the same antecedents, therefore, have always been followed, and will continue to be followed by the same consequents ; — that whatever we observe be- comes at once, by the influence of this principle, re- presentatives to us of the past and of the future as well as of the present." Such are the functions of the anticipating faculty of the mind, — that faculty where- by we are enabled to contemplate present and past feelings in the relation of the present and the future, or in the relation of the past and the future. When- ever, therefore, this anticipating principle is thus ex- ercised, various degrees of pleasure or pain are con- templated as future events ; and, in proportion to the amount of the pleasure or pain thus anticipated, and to tlie probability of the event anticipated taking place, a renovation of vividness is given to feelings that would otherwise have ceased in time to be the object of consciousness. In this point of view, the anticipating faculty of the mind is the counteracting principle, which is calculated to prevent many of our feelings from becoming on each occasion of their re- currence less and less vivid. I need now scarcely add, that when good or evil is thus anticipated, the emotions thereby induced, which RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 297 are always productive of vivid renewals of pleasure or pain, we express by the terms hope or fear. These are the very few remarks which I can stay to offer on that principle of our nature which is con- stantly more or less counteracting the tendency of sensations and ideas to become, on each occasion of their recurrence, fainter and fainter. But the power of this anticipating faculty to revive our feelings must be considered as limited in its operations, since the greatest proportion of our mental states is allowed to so decrease in vividness, as to cease in time being the object of consciousness. After these observations, we shall be prepared to expect, that in all spectral impressions palpable evi- dence will be afforded of the share which Hope and Fear had in the illusion ; — that is, the illusion will be either increased or diminished in proportion to the form of the prospective affections of the mind which it excites. Of this fact a few examples may be given. The first illustration which I shall offer is from the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. This surpris- ing man, during his confinement in a vile loathsome dungeon, underwent a series of cruelties that had produced a morbid habit of body which stimulated, to the highest degree of excitement, feelings that were of themselves naturally vivid. He, therefore, con- tinually fancied himself in the presence of an invisible guardian. Soon afterwards he was removed to the deepest subterranean cell of the castle in which he was immured, when the intense feeling of hope which he cherished of returning from darkness to the full bright- ness of day, not only dictated the subject of his spec- 298 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE tral impressions, but greatly conspired to increase their vividness. Having prayed that he might once more behold the light of the sun, he suddenly fell into a sort of ecstacy, in which he fancied that he beheld the object of his fervent wish. But the exclamation which he uttered, and the glorious changes which this orb underwent, are best told in his own words : '' O wonderful power ! O glorious influence divine ! how much more bounteous art thou to me than I ex- pected ! The sun, divested of his rays, appeared a ball of purest melted gold. Whilst I gazed on this noble phenomenon, I saw the centre of the sun swell and bulge out, and, in a moment, there appeared a Christ upon the cross, formed of the self-same matter as the sun ; and so gracious and pleasing was his as- pect, that no human imagination could form so much as a faint idea of such beauty. As I was contemplat- ing this glorious apparition I cried out aloud, A mi- racle ! A miracle ! O God ! O clemency divine ! O ffoodness infinite ! what mercies dost thou lavish on me this morning ! At the very time I thus meditated, and uttered these words, the figure of Christ began to move towards the side where the rays were concen- tered, and the middle of the sun swelled and bulged out as at first : the protuberance having increased considerably, was at last converted into a figure of the beautiful Virgin Mary, who appeared to sit with her son in her arms, in a graceful attitude, and even to smile ; she stood between two angels of so divine a beauty, that imagination could not even form an idea of such perfection. I likewise saw in tlie same sun, a figure dressed in sacerdotal robes ; this figure IlISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 299 turned its back to me, and looked towards the blessed Virgin^ holding Christ in her arms. All these things I clearly and plainly saw, and, with a loud voice, con- tinued to return thanks to the Almighty. This won- derful phenomenon having appeared before me about eight minutes^ vanished from my sight, and I was in- stantly conveyed back to my couch." Of the vivifying effect of fear in conspiring, along with morbific agents, to heighten the intensity of men- tal illusions, numerous examples might be cited. But I shall first remark, that false impressions of sound are calculated in a particular manner to create surprise and alarm : — " This is no mortal business, nor no sound That the earth owes." " The ear," says a writer on this subject, who him- self experienced very strange illusions of sound, " is much more an instrument of terror than the eye. Diseased perceptions of sight are more common than those of hearing, and they are in general born with more tranquillity. A few simple sounds usually con- stitute the amount of what the ear unfaithfully pre- sents ; but when incessant half-articulated whispers, sudden calls, threats, obscure murmurs, and distant tollings, are heard, the mind is less disposed to patience and calm philosophy."* A good example of the power of Fear to add to the vividness of apparitions, is afforded in the remarkable * Nicholson's Journal, vol. xv. p. 296. 300 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE confession of John Beaumont, the Platonic philoso- pher, t "I would not/' he says, " for the whole world, undergo what I have undergone, upon spirits coming twice to me; their first coming was most dreadful to me, the thing being then altogether new, and consequently more surprising, though at the first coming they did not appear to me, but only called to me at my chamber-windows, rung bells, sung to me, and played on music, &c. ; but the last coming also carried terror enough ; for when they came, being only five in number, the two women before mention- ed, and three men, (though afterwards there came hundreds,) they told me they would kill me if I told any person in the house of their being there, which put me in some consternation ; and I made a servant sit up with me four nights in my chamber, before a fire, it being in the Christmas holidays, telling no person of their being there. One of these spirits, in woman's dress, lay down upon the bed by me every night ; and told me, if I slept, the spirits would kill me, which kept me waking for three nights. In the meantime, a near relation of mine went (though un- known to me) to a physician of my acquaintance, desiring him to prescribe me somewhat for sleeping, which he did, and a sleeping potion was brought me ; but I set it by, being very desirous and inclined to -)- " Had this man," says Dr Ferriar, " instead of irritating his mental disease by the study of Phitonic philosopliers, placed him- self under the care of an intelligent physician, he would have re- gained his tranquillity, and the world would have lost a most ex- traordinary set of confessions." IIISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 301 sleep without it. The fourth night I could hardly forbear sleeping ; but the spirit, lyi"g on the bed by me, told me again, I should be killed if I slept ; where- upon I rose and sat by the fireside, and in a while re- turned to my bed ; and so I did a third time, but was still threatened as before ; whereupon I grew impa- tient, and asked the spirits what they Avould have ? Told them I had done the part of a Christian, in humbling myself to God, and feared them not ; and rose from my bed, took a cane, and knocked at the ceiling of my chamber, a near relation of mine lying then over me, who presently rose and came down to me about two o'clock in the ntiorning, to whom I said, ' You have seen me disturbed these four days past, and that I have not slept : the occasion of it was, that five spirits, which are now in the room with me, have threatened to kill me if I told any person of their being here, or if I slept ; but I am not able to forbear sleep- ing longer, and acquaint you with it, and now stand in defiance of them ; and thus I exerted myself about them ; and notwithstanding their continued threats, I slept very well the next night, and continued so to do, though they continued with me above three months, day and night." Again, in the case of Nicolai, — it would appeal-, that, notwithstanding his boasted calmness, the spectres which he saw were not always without the poAver of creating in his mind a little uneasiness, as the ef- fort which he evidently made in order to preserve his composure betrays what was the real state of the phi- losopher's feelings. " After I had recovered," he ob- serves, " from the first impression of teri'or, I never 302 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE felt myself particularly agitated by these apparitions, as I considered them to be what they really were, the extraordinary consequences of indisposition ; on the contrary, I ^endeavoured as much as possible to preserve viy composure of mhid, that I might remain distinctly conscious of Avhat was passing within me." As it is evident, from this admission, that Nicolai's phantasms had occasionally some little power in disturbing him, we shall inquire into the effect that the agitation had upon his mind : — '' In the afternoon," says Nicolai, " or a little after four o'clockj the figure which I had seen in the morning again appeared. I was alone when this happened, — a circumstance which, as may easily be conceived, could not be very agreeable. I went therefore to the apartment of my wife, to whom I related it. But thither also the figure pursued me. Sometimes it was present, sometimes it vanished, but it was always the same standing figure. A little after six o'clock, several stalking figures also appeared, but they had no connexion with the standing figure. I can assign no other reason for this apparition than that, though much more composed in my mind, I had not been able so soon entirely to forget the cause of such deep and distressing vexation, and had reflected on the consequences of it, in order^ if possible, to avoid them ; and that this happened three hours after din- ner, at the time when digestion just begins. " At length I became more composed with respect to the disagreeable incident which had given rise to the first ai)parition ; but though I had used very excel- lent medicines, and found myself in other respects perfectly well, yet the apparitions did not diminish. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 303 but, on the contrary, rather increased in number, and were transformed in the most extraordinary manner."* It is apparent from this confession, as well as from that of Beaumont, that when any phantasm has the effect of exciting strong emotions of the mind, the il- lusion may not only be pi'olonged, but repeated. The latter result occurs when the recollected ideas of for- mer spectral impressions are subjected to a fresh mor- bific excitement, and when this effect is increased by the vivifying influence of the particular Hope or Fear, which the remembrance of the apparition may have induced. An illustration to this effect is given by a writer on phantasms produced by disease, the account of which appeared in Nicholson's Journal : — " I know a gen- tleman," he says, " in the vigour of life, who, in my opinion, is not exceeded by any one in acquired know- ledge and originality of deep research ; and who, for nine months in succession, was always visited by a figure of the same man, threatening to destroy him, at the time of his going to rest. It appeared upon his lying down, and instantly disappeared when he re- sumed the erect posture." It is evident, from this narrative, that the most vivid idea in this individual's mind at his time of going to rest, was the remembered impression of the phantasm ; and hence the same il- lusion was most likely to be renewed by a subsequent morbific cause of excitement. The foregoing remarks will probably afford us an explanation of many cases of apparitions, in which an * Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. page lOfi. 304 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE individual has been haunted for many years by a si- milar description of phantasm, as by a good or evil genius, or by some supposed emissary from Satan, under the name of a familiar. In short, ideas which may be vivified by Hope or Fear, are, by the co-ope- ration of morbific excitements, most easily converted into apparitions. They are then dispelled with consi- derable difficulty, and are rendered the more liable to return. 3 RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 305 CHAPTER Vn. THE ILLUSIONS WHICH HOPE AND FEAR ARE CAPABLE OP EXCITING INDEPENDENTLY OF THE CO-OPERA- TION OF MORBIFIC CAUSES. " Then, led by thee to some wild cave remotCj My taste I ply — the study of myself. Or, should the silver moon look kindly down. The vision'd forms of ages long gone by Gleam out from piled rock, or dewy bush — Mellow to kinder light the blaze of thought. And sooth the maddening mind to softer joy." Lord Leveson Gower's Faust. An apparition is, in a strict sense, a past feeling, re- novated by the aid of morbific agents with a degree of vividness, equalling, or exceeding, an actual im- pression. If the renewed feeling should be one of vi- sion, a form may arise perfectly complete ; if of sound, a distinct conversation may be heard: or, if of touch, the impression may be no less complete. The ques- tion then is, — What illusions are Hope and Fear capa- ble of exciting independently of the co-operation of morbific causes .■* In this investigation a preliminary remark may be made, that all emotions which arise from such innate V 306 THE IMENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE causes of them, as by their durable influence on our selfish and social dispositions or habits, have acquir- ed the name of moral, are indicated by the same gene- ral effects on the circulation that result from the action of foreign agents introduced into the system, such as the particular gases to which I have alluded. For, while pleasurable excitement arising from sources of mental vividness is indicated by an increasing ex- pansibility of the vital fluid, by a corresponding state of the diastole of the heart, and by a fulness and force of the arterial pulse, affections of a painful nature are manifested by an opposite tendency of the blood to reduce its volume ; when a hard pulse, as well as that constricted state of the capillaries is induced, which bears the name of the cutis anstrina. Such circum- stances, then, are essential to the general susceptibility of the human frame to be affected in a definite manner, agreeably to the selfish and social nature of man. I would next observe, that on laws connected with the various combinations of matter that more or less forcibly impress our sensitive organs, depend the occasio7is on which different susceptibilities of feeling are called forth. Particular hard or soft substances ; for instance, luminous particles, sapid bodies, &c., in impressing with greater or less force any particular organ of sense, bear a reference to the definite suscep- tibility of the sensitive part to receive such impres- sions ; and, accordingly, definite qualities of pleasure or of pain are produced in different states of vivid- ness. Again, when we contemplate man as a social being we shall find, that his innate and individual suscep- RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 307 tibilities of pleasures or of pain are liable to be still farther modified : that all his moral propensities or dispositions depend upon ultimate laws, determining on what definite occasions of social intercourse, va- rious degrees of vividness shall be dispensed to the state of the mind. After this general notice of the primary laws by which our emotions are governed, it may be briefly added, that in any train of sensations and ideas, the more any particular feelings are vivified by an occa- sion calculated to inspire hope or fear, the less vivid are all other impressions rendered which occur in the same train of feelings. But it is impossible for me, in this limited treatise, to enter into a full explanation of the principles which modify our natural emo- tions. I shall therefore remark, that one of them is alluded to after the following manner by Dr Brown ; though I ought to premise, that he uses the word per- ception where others would use the term sensation, and conception where an idea or renovated feeling is evidently meant. His observations are to this effect :— " The phantasms of the imagination in the reveries of our waking hours, when our external senses are still open and quick to feel, are, as mere conceptions, far less vivid than the primary perceptions from which they originally flowed : and yet, under the influence of any strong emotion, they become so much more bright and prominent than external things, that to the impassioned muser on distant scenes and persons, the scenes and persons truly around him are almost as if they were not in existence." This, then, is the effect of Hope and Fear, — to re- 308 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE duce the vividness of all impressions that are not con- nected with the occasion which gave birth to the emotion, so as to render such impressions scarcely the object of consciousness. And thus it is, that in each train of thought, while every idea connected with a particular occasion of hope or fear becomes subject to a strong excitement, all other impressions, which bear no reference to the occasion, become proportionally faint. By this means the illusion must be increased. •How well is this fact illustrated in the emotions which are excited, when, through the medium of the retina, an idea is intensely renovated upon the faded outlines of such forms as have been induced by the partial gleams of light which diversify woods, rocks, or clouds ! In proportion as hope, or superstitious awe, impart an undue degree of vividness to the spectral outline which may thus be traced, all other parts of the natural objects which are unconnected with the form of the phantasm grow proportionally dim. The spectre then acquires an undue prominence in the imagination, and appears to start from the familiar objects of which, in reality, it merely forms a portion. This principle of our nature cannot perhaps be better exemplified than by a quotation from the Q^dipus of Lee and Dryden : — " When the sun sets, shadows that shew'd at noon But small, appear most long and ten-ible ; So when we think fate hovers o'er our heads, Our apprehensions shoot beyond all bounds : Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death ; Nature's worst vermin scare her godlike sons ; Echoes the very leavings of a voice, KISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 309 Grow babbling ghosts, and call us to our graves. . Each molehill thought swells to a huge Olympus; A\'hile we fantastic tlreamers heave and pufF, And sweat with an imagination's weight." Such is the law which unduly vivifies the renovated outlines of figures that have been the subject of" past, feelings^ and which renders all other parts of the sen- sible forms impressing the retina proportionally faint and obscure. But a much less sublime illustration of this principle is afforded in a well-told anecdote by Dr Ferriar in his Theory of Apparitions. " A gentleman was benighted, while travelling alone, in a remote part of the highlands of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the evening at a small lonely hut. When he was to be conducted to his bed-room, the landlady observed, with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the window very se- cure. On examination, part of the wall appeared to have been broken down to enlarge the opening. Af-, ter some inquiry, he was told that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a short time before, had commit- ted suicide, and was found hanging behind the door in the morning. According to the superstition of the country, it was deemed improper to remove the body through the door of the house ; and to convey it through the window was impossible, without remov- ing part of the wall. Some hints were dropped, that the room had been subsequently haunted by the poor man's spirit. " My friend laid his arms, properly prepared against intrusion of any kind, by the bed-side, and retired to rest, not without some degree of apprehen- 310 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE sion. He was visited, in a dream, by a frightful ap- parition, and, awaking in agony, found himself sitting up in bed, with a pistol grasped in his right hand. On casting a fearful glance round the room, he dis- covered, by the moonlight, a corpse dressed in a shroud, reared erect against the wall, close by the window. With much difficulty he summoned up re- solution to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and the minutest parts of its funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly. He passed one hand over it ; felt nothing ; and staggered back to the bed. After a long interval, and much reasoning with himself, he renewed his investigation, and at length discovered that the object of his terror was produced by the moonbeams forming a long bright image through the broken window, on which his fancy, impressed by his dream, had pictured, with mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body prepared for interment. Powerful associations of terror, in this instance, had excited the recollected images with uncommon force and effect." IIISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 311 CHAPTER VIII. MENTAL EXCITEMENTS DISTINGUISHED AS PARTIAL OR GENERAL. " Behold from far a breaking cloud appears, Which in it many winged warriors bears : Their glory shoots upon my aking sense : — Thou, stronger, may'st endure the flood of light." — Dii yden. In the earlier chapters of this part of the dissertation, some examples were adduced of spectral illusions, in which I had merely occasion to treat of ideas, and the excitements to which they alone may be subject from morbific agents. Little or no notice was taken of the important fact, that, in some instances, both actual impressions, and renovated feelings or ideas, may be simultaneously rendered unduly intense. I shall therefore now observe, that, in certain cases of phan- tasms originating from disease, it is evident that an exciting action is exclusively confined to the vivi- fying of renovated feelings. And, again, in that more complete illusion which is named an ecstacij, it is no less evident, that sensations as well as ideas are af- fected ; the spectral illusions incidental to this state being far more vivid than when ideas are exclu- sively excited, and never failing to be accompanied 312 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE with intense actual impressions, — such as acuteness of touch, and intolerance of light or sound. To what causes this diversity of action is chiefly owing it is difficult to say. The nerves connected with the production of sensations are never excited but when the organ which they supply comes in actual contact with external matter. On the other hand, the nerves which give rise to ideas do not impart their peculiar influence, unless excited by that ultimate law of the mind, which ordains, that the repetition of a definite sensation shall be followed by a renovation of the past feelings with which it was before associated. If, then, the nerves, which are considered as instru- mental to actual impressions or sensations, derive their origin from the external surface of the organ which they supply, and then influence the circulation, various morbid phenomena connected with the state of the memory no less indicate, that to other nerves, the peculiar function of which is the renovation of past feelings, a different origin may with some reason be assignable ; that such nerves may first rise from the brain, and be afterwards distributed to each vascu- lar organ. On this hypothesis may be probably ex- plained the curious fact, that in certain morbid affec- tions, the peculiar seat of which is in the brain, ideas only are excited ; and hence, that spectral im- pressions may be unattended by any such increased sensibility of touch, hearing, vision, &c., as is common to ecstatic illusions. But i may be now asked. Under what circum- stances are sensations and ideas conjohitlij affected by morbific excitements .'' In attempting an answer to RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 313 this question, it is rather difficult to conceive of a cause which, by acting immediately on the whole of the nervous system, can simultaneously vivify both ac- tual and renovated impressions ; but it is not so diffi- cult to conceive of an agent, such as the nitrous oxide, which can communicate a general influence to each organ of feeling through the medium of the circulating system, vipon the varied condition of which the vivid- ness of sensations and ideas has a more direct depend- ence. By this means, therefore, an adventitious or morbific agent can prove the substitute for a general nervous influence ; and whenever the blood is in this state of excitement, the phenomena of various ecsta- cies indicate, that while sensations and ideas are seve- rally increased in intensity, the influence upon which the renovation of past feelings depends, is in propor- tion more freely and forcibly communicated than that which is connected with actual impressions. There are, again, other circumstances to be con- sidered in the vivifying actions of morbific causes. A true ecstacy, which is characterized by the simul- taneous excitement of sensations and ideas, is often persistent. But when ideas are exclusively vivified, the action is seldom continued for a long time without remission. Thus, in a case of delirium tremens, which came under my notice, the intense revivals of past feelinsrs of touch, or the distinct tones of voice which vibrated in the morbid ear, " like no mortal sounds," or the " Forms without bodies, and impassive air," that flitted before the sight, were not uninterruptedly 314 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE continued^ as during an ecstacy, but impressed the senses with evident remissions. The patient had therefore an opportunity of comparing his phantasies with the place in which he was stationed, and with the objects around him, so as to obviate the force of his illusion by the faculty of judgment. Nicolai pos- sessed the same self-collection, " I was always able," he observes, " to distinguish, with the greatest pre- cision, phantasms from phenomena. I knew extreme- ly well, when it only appeared to me that the door was opened and a phantom entered, and when the door really was opened and any person came in." In many instances, however, the illusion has not been so easily corrected. Nor do causes which exclusively vivify the recol- lected images of the mind constantly occupy the en- tire surface of any pai-ticular organ of feeling. It is in general only a few objects in a renovated land- scape which usurp corresponding portions of the seat of vision. A detached figure may hold a place among natural and real objects, partaking with them of a similar degree of vividness, and hence be mistaken for an actual impression. Having at length explained the phenomena by which partial and general excitements are distin- guished, I shall, in the ensuing chapters, confine my- self to the consideration of those agents which diffuse their influence so generally throughout the system as to act at one and the same moment of time, though in different proportions, both on sensations and ideas, producing what are named ecslalic illmions. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 3l5 CHAPTER IX. GENERAL MENTAL EXCITEMENTS CONSIDERED AS THE RESULT OF MORBIFIC CAUSES CO-OPERATING WITH MORAL AGENTS. " For I am sick, and capable of fears." King John. I HAD occasion to remark in a preceding chapter, that feelings of pleasure and pain acknowledge certain innate laws, which may be regarded as arising from the particular constitution of the human frame. Thus, it is implanted in our nature, that certain external ob- jects, as of touch, sound, colour, taste, smell, &c. should communicate to every individual definite plea- surable or painful effects. The particular susceptibility of feeling, however, possessed by each part of the body, may materially differ in degree ; and this difference may result from the extent of influence imparted by the brain and nerves to the various organs of sense, or it may arise from some particular condition of the organs them- selves, by which the mental effect resulting from the nervous system is more or less modified. Nay, more — such various susceptibilities of feeling may even be occasioned by some unknown peculiarity of the im- 316 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE material mind itself, by which, in its relation to the structure of the human frame, it is rendered more liable to one particular state than to another. From any one, therefore, of these several causes, or even from a co-operation of two or more of them, there may, in the same person, be an innate tendency to re- ceive a more vivid degree of pleasure from sound than from colour ; or a degree of vividness, no less dispro- portionate, may be imparted to the sensations connect- ed with the gustatory organs. Even with regard to feelings of the same kind, a variety of predilections may subsist. One tint of colour or shade may natu- rally give more delight than another, and the same observation may apply to particular odours, tones, &c. Lastly, this constitutional variety of susceptibi- lities evinced in the several organs of the body, may again differ in different individuals. In the next place, when we contemplate man as a social being, we shall find, that his innate and indi- vidual susceptibilities of pleasure or of pain are liable to be still farther modified. Moral laws exist which determine on what occasions of social intercourse par- ticular hopes and fears shall be excited. Such defi- nite occasions are connected with the acquisition or privation of knowledge, of power, of society, of the means of evincing gratitude, of the means of resent- ment, and of the esteem of our fellow-creatures. These remarks lead me to attempt the explanation of a very important law, relative to the manner in which the mind may be influenced. A morbific cause, whether pleasurable or painful, can only co-operate with moral agents endowed with a similar specific RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 317 power. Thus, if we allow the nitrous oxide to be a morbific cause, (which the utmost range of its action certainly shews,*) it does nothing more than single out, as it were, all sensations and ideas which are of themselves morally pleasurable, but has no immediate effect on the painful feelings with which they are na- turally mingled. For this reason, it is easy to sup- pose, that when Sir Humphrey Davy imbibed a large quantity of the gas, all the ideas connected with his favourite chemical researches would be among the first to be affected by this powerful agent. And, ac- cordingly, on one occasion, he remarks, " I gradually began to lose the perception of external things, and a vivid and intense recollection of some former experi- ments passed through the mind." Again, in the op- posite effects arising from the febrile miasma, this powerful agent imparts no additional degree of vi- vidness to the quality of any feelings, but such as, from the previous operation of moral agents, are, of themselves, painful. The action of various other morbific causes admits of a similar explanation. • Orfila, in his history of poisons, remarks, that the nitrous oxide dissolves with great promptitude in the veins of animals into which it is injected, but produces no apparent change in the arte- rial blood. When gradually injected, it does not at first give rise to any observable effect ; but if the injections are multiplied, they are followed by phenomena, like those attending copious inhala- tions, and to these death may supervene, which (as he supposes) begins by the brain. If injected in a large quantity at once, it oc- casions the distension of the pulmonary portion of the heart, and is likewise fatal. 318 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE In contemplating, then, the co-operation of morbi- fic causes with moral agents, there must evidently subsist two varieties of ecstacy. One variety of ecstacy must occur when the cause of mental excitement, to which the affection is refer- able, has added to the vividness of pleasurable feel- ings, but has proportionally diminished that of pain- ful feelings. Another, and a second variety of ecstacy must oc- cur, when the cause of mental excitement, to which the affection is referable, has added to the intensity of painful feelings, but has proportionally diminished the vividness of pleasurable feelings. These two varieties of ecstacy will be constantly kept in view in the ensuing chapters. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 319 CHAPTER X. THE FREQUENT EFFECT OF GENERAL MORBIFIC EX- CITEMENTS IN RENDERING THE MIND UNCONSCIOUS EITHER OF PLEASURABLE OR PAINFUL FEELINGS. -" What is mortal man ? So changeable his being, with himself Dissimilar; the rainbow of an hour !" T n O Ji p s o N ' s Progress of Sickness. Before explaining a very important law of the mind relative to consciousness, which is materially con- nected with the object of the present dissertation, I shall briefly glance at the progress that has been made in the metaphysical part of this inquiry. Sensations and ideas having been considered as nothing more than states of the immaterial mind, I proceeded upon the hypothesis, that, as long as vita- lity subsisted, a succession of such states, even during syncope and sleep, was continually recurring. It was next shewn, that the comparative degree of vividness which subsists between sensations and ideas, suggests to the mind the intellectual feelings of the present and of the past ; and, along with this relation of time, the 320 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE identity of one mind, as existing in a succession of states ; and that, when ideas are rendered more vivid than sensations, a revival of past feelings is contem- plated as the result of actual impressions. A further observation was made, that the notion of the present and of the past, as well as of the proper identity of the mind, necessarily enters into our definition of co?i- sciousness ; and that mental consciousness cannot be induced until sensations and ideas have attained a certain degree of vividness. Hence the unconscious- ness attending the faint impressions of sleep. It was also pointed out, that a morbific agent capable of exciting the feelings of the mind, exerted a specific power over some particular quality of the feelings ; and that it could only impart a definite addition of pleasure or pain to feelings which, from the para- mount influence of moral agents, Avere of themselves either pleasurable or painful. The law, then, to be explained is this : When a morbijic agent adds to the general vividness of our plea- stir able feelings, every feeling of an opposite or jminful quality is, in an inverse proportion, rendered less vivid; and, vice versa, the same law holds good when a morbi- fic agent adds to the vividness of all our painful feel- ings. It follows, then, that as consciousness is never ex- cited until sensations and ideas have attained a certain degree of vividness, the intensity imparted to pleasur- able states of the mind may be so great, that, from the extreme of faintness to which affections of an op- posite quality will be proportionably reduced, every IIISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 321 mental consciousness oF painful feelings may be de- stroyed. And, in like manner, the action of a morbi- fic agent, Avhen intensely exciting all our painful af- fections, may, in the course of its operation, annihilate every consciousness of pleasurable emotions. I need scarcely remark how well this general effect is dis- played in the actions of the gases to which I have so often alluded. Under the influence of the nitrous oxide, an inhaler is conscious of no feelings, or is un- der the influence of no mental illusions but those which impart to him delight. While under the in- fluence of the febrile miasma, every blissful emotion is stifled in the overwhelming dejection which ensues, and in the horrid spectral images with which the un- happy patient is haunted. In contemplating, then, the operation of the laws which I have explained, the following is a summary of the states of consciousness during each of the two varieties of ecstacy which I have enumerated. In the first variety of ecstacy, where the particular cause of mental excitement to which the affection is referable has added to the vividness of pleasurable feelings, but has proportionally diminished that of painful feelings, the general result is, that pleasurable feelings are rendered inordinately intense, while pain- ful feelings become so faint as to cease being the ob- ject of mental consciousness. But in the second variety of ecstacy, where the particular cause of mental excitement to which the affection is referable has added to the intensity of painful feelings, but has proportionally diminished X 322 THE MENTAJL LAWS WHICH GIVE the vividness of pleasurable feelings, the general re- sult is, that painful feelings are rendered inordinately intense, while pleasurable feelings become so faint as to be no longer the object of mental consciousness. JllSE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 323 CHAPTER XI. THE INFIiUENCE OF ANY PREVAILING MORAL DISPOSI- TION MAY BE SO INCREASED BY A MORBIFIC EXCITE- MENT, AS TO BE PRODUCTIVE OF SPECTRAL IMPRES- SIONS OF A CORRESPONDING CHARACTER. " The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, Are of imagination all compact." — Shakspeare. Before proceeding in this investigation, a siunmary may be presented of some of the conchisions to which we have arrived in the foregoing chapters. Morbific excitements of the mind were, in their operations, considered as either partial or general. The indications of partial morbific excitements are manifested by the renovation of past feelings only in an intense state ; actual impressions continuing in general unaffected. Nor are the illusions which fol- low to be traced to affections common to every organ of sensation. Phantasms of vision, for instance, may accrue without being necessarily attended by equally intense ideas of sound or of touch. The indications of a general morbific excitement, or ecstacy, are manifested by actual impressions as well as recollected images of the mind having been ren- dered unduly intense ; ideas, however, being more vivid than sensations. With respect to the illusions 324 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE which follow, they are of so complete a nature as to indicate, that every organ of sensation has been more or less affected by the excitement. It was also explained, that hope and fear possessed a powerful vivifying influence, and that all mental illusions, whether arising from partial or general mor- bific excitements, were heightened in their effect, in proportion to the intensity of the natural emotions of hope or fear which the subject of them was calculated from moral causes to excite. These moral causes, therefore, it will be my pre- sent object to consider with more attention, but par- ticularly with reference to the occasions on which the susceptibility of the human mind to its various affec- tions is manifested. All the moral propensities or dispositions of man depend upon ultimate laws, determining on what de- finite occasions various degrees of vividness shall be dispensed to the pleasurable and painful feelings of the mind. Such definite occasions are connected with the acquisition or privation, 1*/, of knowledge ; '2idly, of power ; ^dly, of society ; AtJily, of the means of evincing gratitude ; 5thly, of the means of resentment; Qthly, of the esteem of our fellow-creatures. A sense of the acquisition of any of these objects is in each in- dividual attended with a more or less vivid degree of pleasure ; and a sense of the privation of any of them is attended with a more or less vivid degree of pain. Nor is it less favourable to the enjoyments of social intercourse, that there should exist a law by which the congratulations of sympathizing friends should add to the vividness of the joys we experience, or that RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 325 their condolence should allay the poignancy of the most bitter affliction. But with regard to the particular constitutional cir- cumstances of the human system, which may be deemed necessary for the development of laws upon which the moral character of man depends, I shall offer no opinion. I have already hinted, that the sus- ceptibility possessed by our mental feelings of various degrees of pleasui'e and pain may not depend upon one circumstance only connected with the animal eco- nomy, but may involve the co-operation of many causes far beyond the reach of human inquiry. It may depend in some measure upon certain peculiari- ties of the nervous system, contemplated as the source whence various degrees of mental vividness are derived; or it may depend upon the greater or less tendency of vascular organs to be affected by the nervous influ- ence ; or, lastly, it may involve some characteristic of the immaterial mind itself. Having explained the moral occasions upon which our feelings are excited, it may be added, that their vivifying influence extends to all impressions which may be connected with them in any known relation- ship. But as all pleasurable or painful trains of feel- ing, when renewed, shew a tendency, on each occasion of their recurrence, to become fainter and fainter, the anticipation of good or evil, which vivifies our feel- ings, excites them in a degree proportional to the na- tural susceptibility of the mind to receive more or less pleasure and pain on various moral occasions, and proportional to the probability or improbability of an expected possession or privation ; the affections thus 326 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE induced being those which we express by the terms Hope and Fear. These observations being premised, I shall now confine my attention far less to partial morbific causes of mental excitement, than to those general ones which conjointly influence both actual impressions and the renovated feelings of the mind. It was demonstrated, that during every ecstacy, or general excitement of the mind, either pleasurable feelings were excited and painful ones depressed, or, vice versa, painful feelings were excited, and pleasur- able ones depressed. Now, in each of these cases, the depressed feelings might be rendered so faint as to cease being the object of mental consciousness. But it was likewise observed, that a morbific cause, in imparting a pleasurable or painful addition to the vividness of our feelings, possesses nothing more than a co-operathig influence ; the proper quality of our feelings being previously determined b}' natural ob- jects of sensation, which, from the various modes in which they act, give to the different dispositions of mankind their peculiar character, and, thereby, come to be regarded in the light of moral agents. If a morbific cause, therefore, when operating on the states of the mind, should be endowed for the time with a pleasurable power, it merely singles out (as it were) and vivifies all the sensations and ideas which are of themselves naturally pleasurable, but has no direct in- fluence on feelings of an opposite quality; Rnc\, vice versa, the same rule holds good with a morbific cause capable of rendering painfxd feelings more vivid. According to this view, we must regard each mor- RISE TO SPKCTllAL ILLUSIONS. :i27 bific agent as very limited in its operations ; it may, for instance, be capable of adding to the vividness of pleasurable feelings, and consequently of depressing painful ones ; or, vice versa, of exciting painful feel- ings and depressing pleasurable ones. But, as long as moi-al agents are paramount in their vivifying in- fluence to such as are adventitious or morbific, it must always happen, that those feelings which may be con- nected with- a definite occasion of moral excitement will be rendered more disproportionally vivid than others of similar quality, whether pleasurable or pain- ful, which may be unconnected with the same moral occasion. A good general illustration of this effect is afforded by Burton, when speaking of patients whose temper and pursuits are evidently frivolous, but all of which may be so acted upon by morbific causes as to be rendered pre-eminently vivid. Patients of this kind " vary," says Burton, " upon every object heard or seen. If they see a stage-play, they run upon that a week after ; if they hear music or see dancing, they have nought but bagpipes in their brains ; if they see a combat, they are all for arms ; if r,bused, an abuse troubles them long after ; if crossed, they cross. Restless in thoughts, and continually meditating. More like dreamers than men awake ; they wake as others dream, and such, for the most part, are their imaginations and conceits ; absurd, vain, foolish toys, yet they are most curious and solicitous continually. As serious in a toy as it were a most necessary busi- ness of great moment, and still thinking of it. Though they do talk with you, and seem to be otherwise em- ployed, and to your thinking very intent and busy, 328 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE still that toy runs in their mind, that fear, that suspi- cion, that abuse, that vexation, that castle in the air, that pleasant walking dream, whatever it is." I shall likewise, on this occasion, repeat the re- mark which I made, that when Hope and Fear act on the mind without the co-operation of any morbific ex- citement, the tendency of these emotions is to render more vivid all the feelings of the mind that are actu- ally connected with the moral occasion which gave irth to them, and to reduce to as opposite a state of faintness all feelings of the mind that fail in being connected with the same moral occasion. Owing, then, to this principle, which no morbific agent is ca- pable of resisting, it is impossible that any quality of sensations and ideas, pleasurable or painful, can be excited or depressed with the least degree of uni- formity. I shall now illustrate this law by that passion which forms the chief theme of poets. In this instance, every idea of the object of the lover's hopes is unduly vivified, while every other object, particularly if it be ungrateful to the mind, appears to fade from the recollection. But no one has better described this effect than Dryden, in the truly affecting and natural strain of verse which he has put into the mouth of a heroine of one of his dramas : — " I am not what I was since yesterday; BIy food forsakes me, and my needful rest : I pine, I languish, love to be alone. Think much, speak little, and, in speaking, sigh : When I see Torrismond, I am unquiet ; And when I see him not I am in pain. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 329 They brought a paper to me to be sign'd ; Thinking on him, I quite forgot my name, And writ, for Leonora, Torrismond. I went to bed, and to myself I thought That I would think on Torrismond no more ; Then shut my eyes, but could not shut out him. I turn'd, and tried each corner of my bed, To find if sleep was there ; but .sleep was lost : Fev'rish for want of rest, I rose and walk'd, And by the moonshine to the windows went ; There, thinking to exclude him from my thoughts, I cast my eyes upon the neighb'ring fields, And, ere I was aware, sigh'd to myself, There fought my Torrismond." " With this illustration before us, (faithfully copied from nature, as most of my readers will, I think, admit,) it is easy to foresee the effect which must arise, when the vividness of a strong affection is in- creased by morbific causes of excitement. " A young man," says Pinel, " who had lost his reason amid the pangs of disappointed love, was influenced by so powerful an illusion, that he mistook every female visitor for his INIary Adelina, the object of his unfor- tunate attachment."t But this investigation becomes of considerable mo- ment, when we reflect upon the permanent effects which may result from the paramount influence of mo- ral laws, when viewed in connexion with the subordi- nate, yet co-operating, influence of morbific excite- " Spanish Fryer. -j- Pinel on Insanity, translation by Dr Davis, page 144. aSO THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE ments. Pinel has stated, that, out of one hundred and thirteen hmatic patients, the exciting causes of thirty-four of them might be traced to domestic mis- fortunes. Twenty-four had met with matrimonial obstacles, thirty had suffered from political events occasioned by the revolution, and twenty-five were disturbed by religious fanaticism. These are all the remarks I have to offer on the co- operation of morbific and moral agents in their influ- ence on the states of the mind. We are, therefore, I trust, entitled to expect, that when any quality of mental feelings, pleasurable or painful, is subjected to a vivifying action, an uniformity of excitement is by no means to be expected, and that the most intense ideas which may give rise to spectral illusions will be often found attributable to the predominant vivifying action of moral causes. But of this fact I shall now adduce several remarkable ILLUSTiRATIONS. In the first place, the force of the sexual and pa- rental ties will be often indicated by the subject of these visions. " When I accidentally fell into the sea," says a writer on the phantasms, to which he was subject from disease, " and, after swimming a certain time without assistance, began to despair of my situa- tion, the image of my dwelling, and the accustomed objects, appeared with a degree of vividness little dif- fering from that of actual vision. ]\Ir Stuart, M. P. when greatly in danger some years ago, by being HISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 331 wrecked in a boat on the Eddystone rocks, relates, in an account which appeared in the papers, that his family appeared to him in this extremity. ' He thought he saw them.'"* A vision of the same general character (though some little doubt may be expressed whether it was not a dream) occurred to Ben Jonson. But it is pro- bable that, in this case, the poet's mental excitement had resulted from a plethoric state of the system, the consequence of too generous a diet, which had co- operated with parental anxiety for the safety of a son, whom he had left exposed to a contagious fever raging at the time in London. Drummond was told by Jonson, " that when the King came to England, about the time that the plague was in London, he, being in the country at Sir Robert Cotton's house with old Cambden, saw in a vision his eldest son, then a young child and at London, appear unto him with the mark of blood upon his forehead, as if it had been with a sword, at Avhich, amazed, he prayed unto God, and in the morning he came unto Mr Cambden's chamber to tell him, who persuaded him it was but an apprehension, at which he should not be dejected. In the meantime, there came letters from his wife of the death of that boy in the plague. He appeared to him, he said, of a manly shape, and of that growth, he thinks, he shall be at the resurrection." Many other narratives, exhibiting indications of a similar excitement of feelings, may be found in various biographies, where they have only found a place, bc- * Nicholson's .Journal, vol. xv. p. 205. 332 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE cause a fortuitous coincidence with the subject of the phantasm and subsequent events, has served to coun- tenance the popular views entertained regarding the sacred mission of apparitions.* Of such a character was the well-known illusion of Dr Donne. This emi- nent poet married, against her father's consent, Anne, daughter of Sir George IMoore ; and to this lady he felt an attachment, which the verses of no poet have ever recorded in more fervent terms. And, that his declarations were no less sincere, numerous anecdotes, recorded of his life, have fully corroborated. The persecution which he suffered from his father-in-law on account of the marriage preyed upon a constitu- tion naturally delicate, and excited to an intense de- gree a temperament evidently melancholic ; so that it was far from remarkable, that, during such a state of mental excitement, spectral impressions should have resulted. Nor can it create much surprise, that the subject of his mental illusion should be a wife, whom, in an elegy which he composed upon parting from her, before he accompanied Sir Robert Drury to Paris, he has thus affectionately commemorated :— Oh, Fortune t » « • « Rend us in sunder, thou canst not divide Our bodies so, but that our souls are ty'd. And we can love by letters still and gifts, And thoughts, and dreams : Love never wanteth shifts. ***** » Sec Note (i. 3 RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 333 Be ever then yourself, and let no woe Win on your health, your youth, your beauty so; Declare yourself base Fortune's enemy ; Nor less by your contempt than her inconstancy ; That I may grow enaniour'd of your mind. When my own thoughts I here neglected find. And this, to th' comfort of my dear, I vow, My deeds shall still be what my deeds are now ; The poles shall move to teach me ere I start. And when I change my love I'll change my heart." It is evident, from the foregoing lines, under what frame of mind Dr Donne yielded to Sir Robert Drury's importunity to accompany him to Paris, and quitted the object of his connubial attachment. The fear that any woe should " win upon her health, her youth, and beauty," must have resulted from the circum- stance, that he had left her when she was not far from her expected confinement, — in an ill habit of body, and so unwilling to part with him, that, as it is added, " her divining soul boded some ill in his absence." Two days after Dr Donne had arrived in Paris, he was left alone in a room, where he had been dining with Sir Robert Drury and a few companions. Sir Robert returned about an hour afterwards. He found his friend in a state of ecstacy, and so altered in his countenance that he could not look upon him without amazement. The doctor was not able for some time to answer the question. What had befallen him 9 — but, after a long and perplexed pause, at last said, " I have seen a dreadful vision since I saw you ; — I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me tJn-ough this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a 334 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE dead child in her arms. This I have seen since I saw you." To which Sir Robert answered, — " Sure, sir, you have slept since I went out ; and this is the re- sult of some melancholy dream, Avhich I desire you to forget, for you are now awake." Donne replied, — " I cannot be more sure that I now live, than that I have not slept since I saw you ; and am as sure that at her second appearing she stopped, looked me in the face, and vanished." The poet's biographer (Isaac Walton) then adds, that a servant was dispatched to Drury-house, to know if Mrs Donne was living, and, if alive, in what condition ; who brought back word, that he found and left this lady very sad and sick in bed ; and that, after a long and dangerous labour, she had been de- livered of a dead child. It is also stated, that the abortion took place on the same day, and about the same hour, that the spectral impression occurred. Other subjects of spectral illusions are those which have been excited by strong friendship. Illustrations of this fact are familiar to most readers of the marvel- lous. The celebrated apparition of Ficinus was seen by Michael Mercato the elder, in consequence of an agreement made between these two fi-iends, that the first who died should acquaint the other with his final condition. This survivor was studying in his closet. He heard the trampling of a horse's feet, which sud- denly ceased at the door of his house. The well- known voice of Ficinus then vociferated in his ears, " O, Michael ! Michael ! those things are true !" IMercato immediately turned to the window, and had KISE TO SPECTllAl. ILLUSIONS. SSfi just time to behold his friend, dressed in white, and galloping- oft" on a pale horse, when he was seen no moi-e. At that very moment (says Baronius) Ficinus died at Florence. Regarding this story, of which I have given a brief abstract, Dr Ferriar, in his Theory of Apparitions, offers the following remarks : — " IMany attempts have been made to discredit it, but I think the evidence has never been shaken. I entertain no doubt that IMercato had seen what he described : in following the reveries of Plato, the idea of his friend, and of their compact, had been revived, and had produced a spectral impression, during the solitude and awful si- lence of the early hours of study."* In co-operation with morbific causes. Resentment, when highly excited, has contributed to [»roduce spec- tral impressions. This fact is strikingly illustrated in the life of the most undaunted of champions that was ever opposed to the enemies of the Protestant cause. " Martin Luther's life," says Atterbury, " was a con- tinual warfare ; he was engaged against the united forces of the papal world, and he stood the shock of them bravely, both with courage and success." In freely subscribing, however, to pay this great man the homage he so richly deserves from posterity, for the successfvd display of inost of those eminent vir- tues which were essential to the sacred cause that oc- • Another apparition of the same kind, sent likewisu into the world upon a similar errand, is that of Des Fontaines, as recorded by the Abbe de St Pierre. — See remarks in Note 7- 336 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE cupied his mind, it cannot be concealed, that he pos- sessed an irritable temper of resentment, too little softened by the inild tenets of Christianity. This im- petuousness, therefore, which often incorporated itself with purer motives of zeal, was unluckily fed by the unmerited cruelties he met with from the Romish church. Thus, in Captain Bell's translation of Lu- ther's Table-talk, there is the following self-confession of this great reformer : — " When I (said Luther) write against the Pope, I am not melancholic ; for then I labour with the brains and understanding, then I write with joie of heart; insomuch, that, not long since. Doctor Reisenpusch said unto mee, I much marvel that you can be so merrie ; if the case were mine, it would go near to kill me : whereupon I answered him, and said. Neither the Pope, nor all his shaven retinue, can make me sad ; for I know that they are Christ's enemies ; therefore I fight against him with joyful courage." But Luther's resentment was not wholly concen- trated against the assumed successor of St Peter. For, in the true spirit of the reforming age, he had considered the Pope as invoking the aid of the devil to dissipate the dawning light of religious truth. And when a temporary plethoric state of the system, occasioned by the sudden change from a spare to a generous diet, had given to this vivid image of his fancy an apparent form and substance, his resentment asrainst Satan resembled that which he had harboured against the pontifical coadjutor of the fiend ; — it was not merely spiritual, but even personal. " As I de- parted from Worms," said Luther, " and not far from IIISE TO SPKCTllAL ILLUSIONS. 337 Eisenach, was taken prisoner ; I was lodged in the castle of Wartzburg, my Patmos, in a chamber far from people, where none could have access unto me, but only two boyes that twice the daye brought me meat and drink ; now, among other things, they brought me hazel-nuts, which I put into a box, and sometimes I used to crack and eat of them. In the night times, my gentleman, the devil, came and got the nuts out of the box, and cracked them against one of the bed-posts, making a great noise, and a rumb- ling about my bed ; but I regarded him nothing at all. When afterwards I began to slumber, then he kept such a racket and rumbling upon the chamber stairs, as if many emptie hogsheads and barrels had been tumbled down ; and although I knew that the stairs were strongly guarded with iron barsj so that no pass- age was either up or down, yet I arose and went to- wards the stairs to see what the matter was ; but find- ing the door fast shut, I said, — ' Art thou there ? so be there still ;' — I committed myself to Christ, my Lord and Saviour, of whom it is written. Omnia suh~ jccisli pcdibus ejus." There is likewise another narrative told of this re- former to the same effect. " At such time," said Lu- ther, " when I could not be rid of the devil without uttering sentences out of the Holie Scripture, then I made him flie with jeering and ridiculous words and terms : I have recorded my sins in thy register. I said likewise unto him, ' Devil, if Christ's blood, which was shed for my sins, be not sufficient, then I desire thee that thou wouldst pray to God for me.' When he findeth me idle," said Luther, " and that I Y 338 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE have nothing in hand, then he is very busy, — and be- fore I am aware, he wringeth from me a bitter sweat ; but when I offer him the pointed spear, that is, God's word, then he flieth, — yet before he goeth he maketh me bloody armed, or else giveth me a grievous hurri- cane. When at the first I began to write against the Pope, and that the Gospel went on, then the devil laid himself strongly therein, he ceased not to rumble and rage about, for he willingly would have preserved purgatory at Blagdeburg, and discursum animarum."* On occasions of ambition, also, which give rise to a desire for the acquisition of power, various degrees of vividness are imparted to the feelings of the mind. — Another cause of mental vividness is connected with the love of knowledge. Ashmole was constantly vi- sited by a phantasm that solved his most intricate problems, the answers to which are said to still exist • Upon the subject of Luther's visions Mr Coleridge makes the following excellent comment : — " Had Luther been himself a prince, he could not have desired better treatment than he received during his eight months' stay in the Wartzburg ; and in conse- quence of a more luxurious diet than he had been accustomed to, he was plagued with temjjtations both from the ' flesh and the devil.' It is evident from his letters, that he suffered under great irritability of his nervous system, the common eflfect of deranged digestion in men of sedentary habits, who are, at the same time, intense thinkers ; and this irritability adding to and vivifying the impressions made upon him in early life, and fostered by the theo- logical systems of his manhood, is abundantly sufficient to explain all his apparitions, and all his mighty combats with evil spirits.''—- FJiend, by S. T. Cokridge, Esq. vol. ii. p. 236, RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 339 in one of his manuscript volumes, under the title of Rcsponsian Raphealis. In the last place, an anxiety for the esteem, or a fear for the reprobation of mankind, is a natural vivid af- fection which always influences our actions, and which often gives a corresponding character to the subject of spectral impressions. Thus, among visionaries who boast of divine missions, we trace, in the subject of their illusions, a lurking ambition to maintain, by this means, a conspicuous rank among their fellow-mortals. " The Rev. John Mason, a clergyman of Water-strat- ford, near Buckingham," remarks Dr Crichton, " was observed to speak rationally on every subject that had no relation to his wild notions of religion. He died in 1695, soon after he fancied he had seen our Saviour, fully convinced of the reality of the vision, and of his own divine mission. He was perfectly persuaded in his own mind that he was Elias, and that he was des- tined to announce the coming of Jesus, who was to begin the millennium at Water-stratford." » 340 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE CHAPTER XII. WHEN MORAL AGENTS WHICH EXERT A PLEASURABLE INFLUENCE ARE HEIGHTENED IN THEIR EFFECTS BY THE CO-OPERATION OF MORBIFIC EXCITEMENTS OF A SIMILAR PLEASURABLE QUALITY, THE MIND MAY BE RENDERED TOTALLY UNCONSCIOUS OF OPPOSITE OR PAINFUL FEELINGS. " Sweetly oppress'd with beatific views, I hear angelic instruments, I see Primeval ardours, and essential forms." Thompson's Progress of Sickness. I NOW trust that the view with which I set out is nearly established, — that the action of all morbific causes, capable of influencing the states of the mind, merely consists in an addition being made to the vi- vidness of such qualities of our feelings, as had pre- viously been rendered pleasurable or painful by the various objects which, from infancy, impress in a de- finite manner our several organs of sense. Thei-e is indeed no cause of mental excitement which, in this respect, exerts a more extensive influence over the mind than the nitrous oxide. This gas cannot abso- lutely change the quality of those mental states, which, from constitutional causes, are more or less painful, but its effect is to add an intensity of pleasure to feel- ings which are themselves grateful, and thereby to RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 341 diminish the vividness of painful sensations and ideas. Thus, we have traced its influence in rendering all painful feelings so faint as to cease being the object of consciousness. The law by which mental consciousness is regu- lated, meets with an ample illusti'ation in the effects imparted to our various feelings, by many of the mor- bific causes of mental vividness which I have enume- rated. That peculiar cause inducing insanity, for instance, which is referable to a highly-excited state of the sanguine temperament, gives an additional de- gree of vividness to the pleasurable feelings of the mind; hence impressions of pain are so propor- tionally enfeebled, that the mental consciousness of them is not excited. This fact is exemplified in those individuals who, according to Burton, " are com- monly ruddy of complexion and high-coloured, who are much inclined to laughter, witty, and merry, con- ceipted in discourse, pleasant, if they be not too farre gone ;" who, if they should happen to take such a de- light in dramatic scenes as the maniac recorded by Aristotle, are amused the whole day long with ima- ginary actors. But it is instructive, in contemplating the cause of any pleasurable excitement, to confine our attention to its effect in diminishing the intensity of painful impressions made on sensitive organs. Sir Humphrey Davy has stated, that the nitrous oxide, in its exten- sive operation, is capable of destroying physical pain, and we know, that the cause of tliat variety of amen- tia which is distinguished by pleasurable fancies and reveries has a similar effect. Indeed, the insensibility 342 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE of the maniac, during the greatest height of a parox- ysm;, to actual impressions, has been long a subject of remark. " The skin," says one writer, " is some- times as it were benumbed ; the patients feel every thing like cotton ; they do not feel punctures, blisters, or setons." About three or four centuries ago, when lunatics were unprotected by charitable asylums, this diminished or almost obliterated consciousness of sen- sations, was, vmfortunately for these hapless beings, too frequently put to the test, and thus became a sub- ject of popular observation and notoriety. The cruel deprivation to which they were liable resulted from the dissolution of the religious houses, which took place at the time of the Reformation. Maniacs, or Abraham-men, as they were then named, had no longer the benefit of those hospitals Avhich, during the papal establishment, were instituted for their relief. Deserted also by their friends, who superstitiously at- tributed the cause of their disorder to the possession of devils, they were allowed to ramble about the country almost naked, and exposed to every hardship which could result from famine and the inclemencies of the weather. Thus despised and shunned, they were compelled, in order to procure the sustenance necessary to satisfy the ci*avings of their hunger, to use not only prayers, but force ; and this practice at length suggested to idle and dissolute beggars the advantage to be derived from feigning madness, as a cloak for the compulsion which they might find it equally requisite to use in the collection of alms. But, in order to give a proper colouring to such a counter- feit, it was found necessary that the insensibility to RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 343 suffering which these poor Abraham-men evinced, should be also imitated.* Thus, in Decker's Bell- man of London, we have the following account of one of these dissembling madmen : — " He swears he hath been in bedlam, and will talk frantickly of purpose ; you see pins stuck in sundry places of his naked flesh, especially in his arms, which pain he gladly puts him- self to (being indeed no torment at all, his skin is either so dead with some foul disease, or so hardened with wea- ther) only to make you believe he is out of his wits." The disguise of one of these feigned bedlamites is as- sumed by Edgar in King Lear, who finds it no less necessary to imitate the maniac's corporeal insensi- bility : — " The country gives me proof and precedent Of bedlam-beggars, who, with roaring voices. Stick in their numb'd and mortified bare arms Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary ; And with this horrible object, from low farms, Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills, Some time with lunatic bans, some time with prayers, Inforce their charity." -|- * From this imitation arises the cant-term to sham Abraham, in use among the sailors. + It is scarcely in connexion with this subject to remark, that the horn which wandering madmen formerly carried about with them has excited much of the attention of antiquaries. ^Ir Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, observes, that Edgar, in order to be dressed properly, should, in the words of Randle Holme, " have a long staff and a cow or ox horn by his side, and be madly decked and dressed all over with ribbons, feathers, cuttings of 344 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE I shall, lastly, observe, that the symptomatic fe- ver, named hectic, has the power of imparting so grateful an addition of vividness to our pleasurable emotions as to render the mind unaffected by pain- ful emotions. Thus, in Phthisis Pulmonalis, how eloquently, yet faithfully, has a late eminent medi- cal practitioner, Dr Parr, described the unconscious- ness of pain, which, in the face of the most imminent and fatal symptoms, enables the patient to soar above despondency. " In the advanced stages," he remarks, " the irritation of the cough is incessant, the heat or perspiration almost constantly distressing, and when these are absent, the life seems exhausted from debili- ty. What, then, affords the cheering ray of expected relief.? Such, however, is afforded; for ingenuity in- vents every fallacious mode of eluding inquiries, and of giving the most favourable view of every symptom. The patient sinks to the grave with the constant as- surances of having attained greater strength, and a re- lief from every dangerous symptom ; with eager ex- pectations of another year, when life is limited by ano- ther day. Such, we would say, is the kind interposi- tion of Providence, was the same cheerfulness found in every disease, and was not, in many, the gloom as distressing to the patient as the ill-foimded expecta- tion of the consumptive victim is to the well-informed anxious friend. This cheerfulness is said to be owing cloth, and what not." The same excellent antiquary also remarks " That about the year 1700, a poor idiot, called Cuddie Eddie habited much in the same manner, and rattling a cow's Iiorn a»ainst his teeth, went about the streets of Hawick in Scotland." RISE TO SrECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 345 to the absence of pain ; but pain is not always absent : and the difficulty of breathing, the incessant cough, the burning heats, the deluging perspirations, Avould appear worse than the most poignant pain. Yet these are disregarded, represented as trifles, lessened in the report to the most inconsiderable inconveniences : it is truly singular."* It must inevitably follow from the foregoing re- marks, that the quality of all spectral illusions, whe- ther distinctly pleasurable, — distinctly painful, — or al- ternately pleasurable and painful, must depend upon the particular nature and excitability of its morbific cause. For we have seen that in the symptomatic fe- ver, named hectic, a morbific cause vivifies every plea- surable feeling which can possibly connect itself with a favourable prognosis. And if we grant, that this il- lusive hope of an immediate state of convalescence arises indiscriminately in the breast of the consump- tive patient, what reason is there, that an expectation equally extravagant should not extend to a probable state after death ; that scenes connected with the pros- pect of a blessed immortality should not rise before him, with all the vivid colouring that a hectic affec- tion is so capable of imparting to the images of fancy, or that spectral impressions of angel-visits, incidental to a morbidly-excited state of hope, should not alike be cherished by the good man as by the slave of vice ? The truth is, that the guardian spirits, who honour the beds of dying patients with a visit, adopt a line of conduct never to be depended upon for consistency. * Parr's liondon Medical Dictionary, vol. ii. ji. SOR. 346 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE As harbingers to heaven, they shew the same readi- ness in offering their services of introduction to sin- ners as to saints. This fact still continues to meet with confirmation from many modern superstitious nar- ratives, the subjects of which are the visible tokens of salvation, and beatific visions (if they may be so call- ed,) enjoyed by the most dissolute and abandoned of human beings at their hour of death ; and it is amus- ing to observe, how scriptural authority is in mysteri- ous language wrested from its plain and evident mean- ing, to account for an inconsistency so glaringly op- posed to all the conditions on which the joys of heaven are promised ; namely, that they should be the reward of virtuous integrity. These are all the illustrations which I have to offer on the first variety of general mental excitements that I took occasion to explain, Avhere the cause to which the affection may be referable, is found to add to the vividness of pleasurable feelings, but proportionally to diminish that of painful feelings : the general result being, that pleasurable feelings are by this means ren- dered inordinately intense, while painful feelings be- come so faint as to cease being the object of mental consciousness. niSE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 347 CHAPTER XIIL WHEN MORAL AGENTS WHICH EXERT A PAINFUL IN- FLUENCE ARE HEIGHTENED IN THEIR EFFECTS BY THE CO-OPERATION OF MORBIFIC EXCITEMENTS OF A SIMILAR PAINFUL QUALITY, THE MIND MAY BE REN- DERED TOTALLY UNCONSCIOUS OF OPPOSITE OR PLEA- SURABLE FEELINGS. " Mark how he trembles in his ccstacy." Comedy of Errors. I SHALL now consider the effect of those morbific agents, which exert a contrary influence on the states of the mind ; which impart an additional degree of vividness to painful ideas^ and thereby render propor- tionally faint all feelings of a pleasurable nature. When, from a highly-excited state of the melancholic temperament, a paroxysm of actual insanity is induced, the hideous phantoms incidental to it are not to be dis- pelled by the vividness of a single pleasurable emotion: " The darken'd sun Loses his light : the rosy-bosomW Spring To weeping Fancy pines : and yon bright arch Contracted, bends into a dusky vault. All nature fades, extinct." Burton, when speaking of persons " inelancholy « toto c&pore," observes, " that the fumes which arise 348 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE from this corrupt blood, disturbe the minde, and make them fearful and sorrowfull, heavy-hearted as the rest, dejected, discontented, solitary, silent, weary of their lives, dull, and heavy. And if farre gone, that which Apuleius wished to his enemy, by way of imprecation, is true in them ; dead men's bones, hobgoblins, ghosts, are ever in their mindes, and meet them still in every turne : all the bugbeares of the night and terrors, and fairy-babes of tombes and graves are before their eyes, and in their thoughts." The foregoing remarks of this very accurate de- scriber of the symptoms of melancholy but too plain- ly shew, how completely the undue excitement of painful ideas can reduce to an unconscious degree of faintness all joyous thoughts. And how well is this fact illustrated in the too correct, yet very uncharitable description of a melancholic scholar, as depicted by an early popular writer. " A melancholy man," says Sir Thomas Overbury, " is a stranger from the drove : one that nature made a sociable, because she made him man, and a crazed disposition has altered. Im- pleasing to all, as all to him ; straggling thoughts are his content, they make him dream waking, there's his pleasure. His imagination is never idle, it keeps his mind in a continuall motion, as the poise of the clocke : he winds up his thoughts often, and as often unwindes them ; Penelope's webbe thrives faster. He'le seldom be found without the shade of some grove, in whose bottome a river dwels. Hee carries a cloud in his face, never faire weatlier : his outside is framed to his inside, in that hee keepes a decorum, both iniseemly. Speake to him ; he lieares with his eyes, eares follow RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 349 his mind, and that's not at leysure. He thinkes busi- nesses but never does any : he is all contemplation, no action. He hewes and fashions his thoughts, as if hee meant them to some purpose ; but they prove unpro- fitable, as a piece of wrought timber of no use. His spirits and the sunne are enemies ; the sun bright and warme, his humour blacke and cold : variety of fool- ish apparitions people in his head, they suffer him not to breathe, according to the necessities of nature ; which makes him suji up a draught of as much aire at once as would serve at thrice. Hee denies nature her due in sleepe, and nothing pleaseth him long, but that which pleaseth his own phantasies : they are the con- suming evils, and evil consumptions that consume him alive. Lastly, he is a man onely in shew, but comes short of the better part ; a whole reasonable soule, which is man's chief pre-eminence, and sole marke from creatures sensible."* Another interesting elucidation of the view which I have attempted to explain, is afforded in a case related by Pinel, where it is evident that the feelings which a general state of mental excitement had morbidly af- fected, were, from the same principle of selection, vivified to a most painful degree. The patient was a young gentleman, endowed with a most vivid imagi- nation, who came to Paris to study the law. His ap- plication was said to have been laborious and painful in the extreme, the consequence of which was, that, along with frequent bleeding at the nose, spasmodic " Sir Thomas Overbury, His Wife, 1 4th edit. A. D. 1630. 350 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE oppressions of the chest, wandering pains of the bow- els, and a troublesome flatulence, he was seized with great depression of spirits, and a morbidly enervated sensibility. These symptoms daily increased, until, as a French physician adds, " complete lunacy at length established its melancholy empire. One night, he be- thought himself that he would go to the play, to seek relief from his own unhappy meditations. The piece which was presented, was ' The Philosopher without knowing it.' He was instantly seized with the most gloomy suspicions, and especially with a conviction, that the comedy was written on purpose, and repre- sented to ridicule himself. He accused me with hav- ing furnished materials for the writer of it, and the next morning he came to reproach me, which he did most angrily, for having betrayed the rights of friend- ship, and exposed him to public derision. His deli- rium observed no bounds. Every priest and monk he met in the public walks he took for comedians in disguise, despatched there for the purpose of studying his gestures, and of discovering the secret operations of his mind. In the dead of the night he gave way to the most terrific apprehensions, — believed himself to be attacked sometimes by spies, and at other times by robbers and assassins. He once opened his window with great violence, and cried out murder and assist- ance with all his might." It is evident, that, in the foregoing example, the morbific cause of the young gentleman's insanity had imparted such an additional degree of vividness to his painful feelings, as to render all pleasurable thoughts RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 351 so proportionally faint, that a perfect unconsciousness of them ensued. A general gloom, therefore, dark- ened all his reflections and emotions. The continuation of this patient's case has no imme- diate relation to the object of our inquiry, yet its in- terest is too great to be withheld. It appears that the young man v.as sent, under the protection of a proper person, to an asylum belonging to a little village in the vicinity of the Pyrenees. " Greatly debilitated both in mind and body," continues Pinel, " it was some time after agreed upon that he should return to his family residence, where, on account of his parox- ysms of delirious extravagance, succeeded by fits of profound melancholy, he was insulated from society. Ennui and insurmountable disgust with life, absolute refusal of food, and dissatisfaction with every thing, and every body that came near him, were among the last ingredients of his bitter cup. To conclude our affecting history, he one day eluded the vigilance of his keeper, and, with no other garment on than his shirt, fled to a neighbouring wood, where he lost him- self, and where, from weakness and inanition, he end- ed his miseries. Two days afterwards he was found a corpse. In his hand was the celebrated work of Plato on the Immortality of the Soul."* These are all the examples which I have to offer in illustration of the second variety of ecstacy that I have noticed, where tlie cause of mental excitement, to which the affection is referable, has added to the in- tensity of painful feelings, but has proportionally di- * Pinel's Treatise on Insanity. Trans, by Dr Davis, page 57- 352 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE minished the vividness of pleasurable feelings ; the general result being, that painful feelings are rendered inordinately intense, while pleasurable feelings become so faint as to be no longer the object of mental con- sciousness. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 353 CHAPTER XIV. PROOFS THAT, DURING INTENSE EXCITEMENTS OP THE MIND, NO LESS THAN DURING SYNCOPE AND SLEEP, THE CAUSES WHICH EXCLUSIVELY ACT UPON ORGANS OF SENSATION EVENTUALLY EXTEND THEIR VIVI- FYING INFLUENCE TO THE RENOVATION OF PAST FEELINGS. "• Perturbations and passions which trouble the phantasie, though they dwell between the confines of sense and reason, yet they rather follow sense than reason, because they are drowned in corporeal organs of sense." Anatomy of Melancholy, At the present day, it would appear the most idle of tasks to attempt a serious answer to a question as seriously proposed, — Why the ideas of sleep or of syn- cope, which are so faint as not to be the object of con- sciousness, may be rendered vivid by stimuli that act intensely on organs of sensation ? Ancient metaphy- sicians, however, thought very differently of the mat- ter. They often puzzled their brains to explain, why blows, for instance, which affected organs of touch only, should, in a fainting fit, occasion the full acti- vity of thought. They conceived of such agents as stimulating the blood in its purification and overheat- ing, — a process supposed to take place in the heart, — - Avhereby the vital fluid was the sooner enabled to throw off subtle vapours, which passed immediately z 354 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE to the cavities of the brain. These fumes or animal spirits, as they were commonly named, then put into movement the little cerebral gland, which is the seat of the soul, and thereby recalled or revived such spe- cies or ideas of things as had been seen or heard for- merly, and were there in a manner buried. Hence the rationale of the plan which Ralpho pursued, when he endeavoured to recover Hudibras from a fit into Avhich he had fallen. He inflicted some severe blows on the knight's breast, which had the effect of stirring up or of stimulating the blood nearest the heart, whereby animal spirits were the sooner concocted and enabled to make their escape from this fluid to the brain, so as to act upon the pineal gland, and assist it in resuscitating and liberating a few ideas :— " Then Ralpho gently raised the knight, And set him on his end upright : To rouse him from lethargic dump, He tweak'd his nose ; with gentle thump Knock'd on his breast, as if t had been To raise the spirits lodg'd within : They, waken 'd with the noise, did fly From inward room to window eye. And gently opening lid, the casement, Look'd out, but yet with some amazement." But, after all, it is a question of some importance to our present investigation. Why, during syncope or sleep, the causes which exclusively excite organs of sensation should eventually extend their vivifying in- fluence to the renovation of past feelings ? Now this effect can only be explained by an irritating cause, which primarily operates upon organs of sensation RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 355 eventually influencing the whole of the circulation, — to the varied conditions of which the general vivid- ness of sensations and ideas holds a more immediate correspondence than to states of the nervous system. Nor is a simple explanation of this kind without its use. It may assist us in reconciling the plan resorted to for a recovery from very vivid as well as from faint states of the mind, which, prima facie, seems to involve a contradiction. For it is very re- markable, that the self-same means should, under certain circumstances, be employed, not exclusively for the excitation, but even for the depression of in- tense mental states. Two illustrations in proof of this fact may be now adduced. The first of these is from an old dramatic author, who, from the incidents of common life, has but too faithfully depicted the rough practices, not altogether unknown at the present day, that are era- ployed for the purpose of stimulating the faint feel- ings of syncope : — Rut. Come, bring him out into the air a little : There set him down. Bow him, yet bow him mpre, Dash that same glass of water in his face : Now tweak him by the nose. Hard, harder yet : If it but call the blood up from the heart, I ask no more. See, what a fear can do ! Pinch him in the nape of the neck now ; nip him, nip him. Item.. He feels, there's life in him. Palate. He groans and stirs. Rut. Gi' him a box, hard, hard on his left ear. Interest. O ! Rut. How do you feel yourself ? Interest. Sore, sore ! 356 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE Rut. But where ? Interest. V my neck. Rut. I nipt him there. Interest, And i' my head. Rut. I box'd him twice or thrice to move those sinews. Bias. I swear you did. Polish. What a brave man's a doctor, To beat one into health ! I thought his blows Would e'en ha' kill'd him : he did feel no more Than a great horse.* With Doctor Rut's plan of exciting feelings, when in an extreme languid state, may be compared the mode, apparently self-same, that Cardan successfully employed, but with the opposite view of reducing his mental excitement, and thereby of dispelling the ec- static illusions to which he was almost daily subject. " I have found out," he observes, " that I cannot exist without a certain degree of pain ; for when it alto- gether ceases, I feel so impetuous a fury seize my mind, that a moderate quantity of voluntary pain is much more safe, and renders me much more respect- able. For this reason I bite my lips, distort my fin- gers, pinch my skin, and the tender fleshy part of the left arm, even to tears. Thus have I been able to ive without reproach." From these two illustrations, it is now, I trust, suf- ficiently evident, that whether an increase of mental vividness be meditated, as in the attempt to rouse the languid feelings of syncope, — or, on the contrary, whether a reduction of the intense ideas of ecstatic illusions be the object of medical treatment, one com- " Magnetic Lady, by Ben Jonson, act '.i, scene 4. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 357 mon mode of practice appears to be equally success- ful. But before this apparent anomaly can meet with an explanation, we must be compelled to admit, that, during intense excitements of the mind, no less than during syncope or sleep, an irritating cause, which con- fines its action to organs of sensation, must eventually influence the whole of the circulation, — to the varied conditions of which (as I have before observed) the general vividness of sensations and ideas, when con- jointly excited, holds a more immediate correspond- ence than to states of the nervous system. And thus the general effect must be, that the additional agents, which dui'ing an ecstacy exclusively excite organs of sensation, must, through the medium of the circula- tion, eventually extend their vivifying influence to the renovation of past feelings. It will also be expedient, in completing my expla- nation of this anomaly, to recall the attention to a law, lately noticed, regarding the effect which mental excitements have upon consciousness. The law was thus stated : — When a cause of mental excitement adds to the general vividness of our pleasurable feel- ings, every feeling of an opposite quality is in an in- verse proportion rendered less vivid ; and, vice versa, the same law holds good when a morbific agent adds to the vividness of all our painful feelings. It follows, then, that we must necessarily regard such causes as may act upon organs of sensation dur- ing an ecstacy, and may, by this means, impart an additional degree of vividness to renovated feelings under two distinct points of view. In the first place, an ecstacy may be pleasurable. 358 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE while the cause, which during its continuance imparts an additional degree of intensity to actual impres- sions, may also be pleasurable ; or, again, an ecstacy may be painful, while the cause, which, during its continuance, imparts an additional degree of intensity to actual impressions, may also be painful. Now, in each of these instances, it is almost unnecessary to add, that the effect must be, that the force or violence of the ecstacy will be increased. In the second place, the peculiar influence imparted by any cause, which acts during an ecstacy upon or- gans of sensation, may be of the same pleasurable or painful kind as that class of feelings may possess, which has been rendered so faint as to be no longer the object of consciousness. In this case, then, a dif- ferent result will ensue ; for, by virtue of the law to which I have often advei'ted, when any exciting cause of this kind, during a continuous operation, extends its vivifying influence to such pleasurable feelings as may have been rendered in an extreme degree faint, all intense feelings of an opposite or jmhiful quality must be proportionally rendered less vivid ; and, again, when any exciting cause of the same irritating nature extends its vivifying influence to such painful feelings as may have been rendered in an extreme degree faint, all intense feelings of an opposite or nleasurahle quality must, in a similar manner, be proportionally rendered less vivid. It is evident, then, that the revival of one quality of feelings, which has been rendered unduly faint, will be followed by the reduction of the other quality of feelings which has been rendered unduly intense ; and by this means RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 359 an ecstacy will be eventually removed. Of this prin- ciple, then. Cardan, whose ease has suggested these remarks, evidently availed himself. This remarkable man, who was born at Pavia in the year 1501, and was professor of mathematics at Milan, possessed a temperament which partook strongly of the sanguine description ; and this, no doubt, was a predisposing cause, which, with an excess of nervous irritability, materially conspired to render him liable to the trances, which form the subject of the i-emarkable narrative that he has published in his curious work, De Vita Propria. The symptoms preceding each trance, were those which so very frequently usher in many of the mental paroxysms that we have traced in other diseases, and the pathology of which is so well illustrated by the action of the nitrous oxide or febrile miasma. There was an increased intensity of pleasurable sensations. A peculiar feeling was expe- rienced in the head, which gradually diffused itself from this organ to other parts of the system along the course of the spinal cord. He perceived, as he ob- serves, a kind of separation from the heart, like the issuing forth of the soul, while so serious a departure was felt by the whole body, as if a door had opened ; and hence the impression which arose, that he was visited by supernatural impulses. Shortly after- wards, he was less sensible of actual impressions, while spectral illusions of the most vivid kind be- came the sportive objects of his imagination. The words of those who discoursed to him were but faintly heard, and in time were imperceptible. His organs of touch became less and less sensible to pain, until. 360 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE at length, he felt neither puilings nor pinches, nor was he in the least degree conscious of gouty tor- tures, but only of such causes as were without the body. And, as he adds, when he had naturally no pain, he would excite it by whipping himself with rods, by biting his lips and arms, or by squeezing his fingers. But he acted thus to prevent a greater evil ; for, in this complete state of insensibility to painful impressions, he felt such violent sallies of the imagi- nation, and peculiar affections of the brain, as were more insupportable to him than any corporeal suffer- ing which he could inflict upon himself. His plea- surable excitements could therefore be only subdued by exciting acute sensations of an opposite or painful quality. The general inference to be deduced from the illus trations which I have given is briefly this : — If we would impart to the faint feelings of sleep and syn- cope a degree of vividness, such as subsists in our cool waking hours, it is immaterial whether the acute impressions to which the organs of sense are subjected be pleasurable or painful. But if, on the contrary, our view should be the depression of intense feelings, this object can be effected in no other way than by opposing to them the influence of acute sensations, similar in their quality of pleasure or pain to such states of the mind as, during the ecstacy, have been rendered proportionally faint and languid. RISE TO SPECTUAL ILLUSIONS. 3G1 CHAPTER XV. WHEN MORBIFIC CAUSES OP MENTAL EXCITEBIENT EX- ERT TO THEIIl UTMOST EXTENT THEIR STIMULAT- ING POWERS, THEY OFTEN CHANGE THE QUALITY OF THEIR ACTION, AS FROM PLEASURE TO PAIN, OR FROM PAIN TO PLEASURE. " Pleasure and pain are convertible and mixed;" — " that which is now pleasure, by being strained a little too far, runs into pain, and pain, when carried far, creates again the highest pleasure, by mere cessation, and a kind of natural succession." Lord Shaftsbuuy's Cliaracteristlcs. I SHALL now make a few remarks on those morbi- fic agents, which, when exerting their utmost influ- ence over the states of the mind, have the effect of alternately increasing the vividness of pleasurable and painful feelings. The natural consequence of this action is, that the unconsciousness of grateful and un- grateful ideas undergoes a corresponding alternation. Alcohol possesses a subordinate influence of this kind. To a particular preparation of opium used in the East, the power is ascribed not only of rendering the mind by turns imconscious of pleasure or of pain, but of 362 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE eventually inducing proper ecstatic illusions. The traveller Chardin, while recounting the effects of a cer- tain drink prepared with a decoction of the head and seeds of the poppy, remarks, that " there is a decoc- tion" Qof this kind] " called Coquenar, for the sale of which there are taverns in every quarter of the town, similar to coffee-houses. It is extremely amusing to visit these houses, and to observe carefully those who resort there for the purpose of drinking it, both be- fore they have taken the dose, before it begins to operate, and while it is operating. On entering the tavern, they are dejected, sad, and languishing ; soon after they have taken two or three cups of this bever- age, they are peevish, and find fault with every thing, and quarrel with one another ; but, in the course of its operation, they make it up again, and each one giving himself up to his predominant passion, the lover speaks sweet things to his idol ; another, half-asleep, laughs in his sleeve ; a third talks big and blusters ; a fourth tells ridiculous stories ; in one word, a person would believe himself to be really in a madhouse. A kind of lethargy and stupidity succeeds to this unequal and disorderly gaiety ; but the Persians, far from treating it as it deserves, call it an ecstacy, and maintain that there is something supernatural and heavenly in this state. As soon as the effect of the decoction diminishes, each one retires to his own house." That peculiar insanity which is connected with a melancholic temperament presents analogous pheno- mena. " This progresse of melancholy," says Burton, " you shall easily observe in them that they have been so. affected; they goe smiling to themselves at first, at RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 363 length they laugh out ; at first solitary, at last they can endure no company ; or if they doe, they are now dizards, past sense and shame, quite moped ; they are not what they say or doe, all their actions, words, ges- tures, are furious or ridiculous. Upon a sudden, they whoop and hollow, or run away, and sweare they see or heare players,* divells, hobgoblins, ghosts, strike or strut, and grow humorous in the end." From this last illustration it is evident, that when there is an intense excitement of the melancholic tem- perament, painful and pleasurable feelings become al- ternately affected by the undue vivifying influence. During the interval that painful feelings are rendered intense, there is a perfect unconsciousness of pleasur- able feelings ; and {vice versa) during the interval that opposite or pleasurable feelings are excited, thei*e is a similar unconsciousness of painful feelings. But it is now time that these important phenomena, connected with the vivifying action of morbific causes, should meet with some explanation. I have before described the influence imparted by the brain and nerves to the sanguineous system. Hence the contractility of the involuntary fibres of the heart and blood-vessels, and the resistance which such fibres make to the dilating power of the blood, durinir the course of its circulation. Thus, when heat is partially applied to a blood-vessel, its first effect is to increase the dilatibility of the contained fluid, and with it, to give rise to a pleasurable feeling. But, up- " Probably the friglitful shapes of demons represented in an- cient mysteries are here alluded to. 364 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE on the farther continuation of this cause of excitation, the contractility of vascular fibres is opposed to the expansile influence of the contained fluid;, and a feel- ing of pain is the consequence. Arguing, then, by analogy, from the phenomenon of heat. Sir Humphrey Davy has supposed it probable, that " pleasurable feeling is uniformly connected with a moderate in- crease of nervous action ; and that this increase, when carried to certain limits, produces mixed emotions or sublime pleasure, and beyond those limits absolute pain."* Lately much countenance has been given to this opinion, by the publication of an experiment in which, from some idiosyncracy in the constitution of the indi- vidual who inhaled the nitrous oxide, a moderate dose of the gas was found to exert a most powerful action on the state of the mind. This effect was experienced by a student at Yale College in America. " A gentle- man," says Professor Silliman, " about nineteen years of age, of a sanguine temperament and cheerful tem- per, and in the most perfect health, inhaled the nitrous oxide, which was prepared and administered in the usual dose and manner. Immediately his feelings were uncommonly elevated, so that (as he expressed it) he could not refrain from dancing and shouting ! To such a degree was he excited, that he was thrown in- to a frightful delirium, and his exertions became so violent that he sunk to the earth exhausted ; and, hav- ing there remained till he in some degree recovered * Sir Humphrey Davy's Researches concerning the Nitrous Oxide, p. 552. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 365 his strength^ he ag;iin rose only to renew the most convulsive muscular efforts, and the most piercing screams and cries, until, overpowered by the intensity of the paroxysms, he again fell to the ground, appa- rently senseless, and panting vehemently. For the space of two hours these symptoms continued; he was perfectly imconscious of Avhat he was doing, and was in every respect like a maniac : he states, how- ever, that his feelings vibrated hetrveen perfect happi- ness and the most consmnmate misery. After the first violent effects had subsided, he was obliged to lie down two or three times from excessive fatigue, although he was immediately roused upon any one's entering the room. The effects remained in a degree for two or three days, accompanied by a hoarseness, which he attributed to the exertions made while un- der the influence of the gas."* This is a very singular experiment ; and is so far instructive, that the alternations of pleasure and pain, which indicate an extreme state of excitement, suffi- ciently well explain the mixed character of many of the visions of enthusiasts. St Teresa, for instance, of whom I have before sjooken, had ecstacies, wherein the vividness of her ideas was so intense, that, like the American student, she often " vibrated between perfect happiness and perfect misery ;" or, in other words, she had alternate prospects of heaven and of hell, of benignant spirits and of devils. She saw St Peter and St Paul, but she saw likewise foul fiends, whom " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for January 1 , I Ji23, page 204 366 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE she insulted by crossing herself, and by making signs of scorn, or whom she kept at bay, by sprinkling holy water on the ground. She had, afterwards, the felici- ty of seeing souls freed from purgatory, and carried up to heaven; but none, to her recollection, ever escaped the purifying flame, except Father Peter of Alcantara, Father Ivagnez, and a Carmelite friar. * " Townsend's Tour through Spain, vol. ii. p. 100 RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 307 CHAPTER XVI. U'HEN CAUSES ACT ACUTELY UPON ORGANS OF SENSA- TION, AND ARE UNREMITTINGLY PROLONGED, THEY OCCASIONALLY CHANGE THE QUALITY OF THEIR AC- TION ; AS, FOR INSTANCE, FROM PAIN TO PLEASURE. IDEAS LIKEWISE PARTAKE OF THIS CHANGE OF EX- CITEMENT. " The visage of a hangman frights not me : The sight of whips, racks, gibbets, axes, fires. Are scaffoldings by which my soul climbs up To an eternal habitation." — Massinger. It has been shewn in the last chapter, that when sen- sations and ideas are stimulated conjointly, and to an excessive degree, an ecstacy may ensue which is altei*- nately pleasurable and painful. An effect analogous to this may occur, when the organs of sensation alone are subjected to an acute excitement, as the following remarkable case, which is to be found in Dr Crichton's Dissertation on Mental Derangement, sufficiently well illustrates. It is a translation from the Gazette Lite- raire, published in France. " An extraordinary young man, who lived at Paris, and who was passionately fond of mechanics, shut himself up one evening in his apartment, and bound not only his breast and belly. 368 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE but also his arms, legs, and thighs, around with ropes, full of knots, the ends of which he fastened to hooks in the wall. After having passed a considerable part of the night in this situation, he wished to disengage himself, but attempted it in vain. Some neighbour- ing females, who had been early up, heard his cries, and calling the assistance of the patrol, they forced open the door of his apartment, where they found him swinging in the air, with only one arm extricated. He was immediately carried to the lieutenant-general of the police for examination, where he declared that he had often put similar trials into execution, as he experienced indescribable pleasure in them. He con- fessed that at first he felt pain, but that after the cords became tight, he was soon rewarded by the most ex- quisite sensations of pleasure."* As this curious fact requires explanation, I shall again advert to the remark which was made in a pre- ceding chapter, that an irritating cause, which primari- ly operates upon organs of sensation, may eventually influence the whole of the circulation, — to the varied conditions of which the general vividness of sensations and ideas holds a more immediate correspondence than to states of the nervous system. Again, it has been shewn, that an irritating cause, which excites to an intense degree organs of sensation, may change the quality of its operation, namely, from pain to pleasure. When, therefore, the same cause of irritation has so generally influenced the state of the circulating sys- tem, as to add to the influence of ideas of a similar * Crichton on Rlental Derangement, vol. i. p. 132. 3 RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 369 pleasurable quality, we are entitled to expect that ec- static illusions may ensue, such as have been described by the superstitious under the name of beatific visions. This explanation may assist us, in accounting for some incidents relative to the spectral impressions of many individuals, who, in times of religious persecu- tion, have been exposed to all the cruelties which in- tolerant power could devise. Thus it is recorded of Theodorus, that, in pursuance of the orders of Julian the Apostate, he was unremittingly toi'tured, even by a change of executioners, for an interval of ten hours. But at length the tyrant's engines of persecution ceased to have their wonted effect ; — instead of in- flicting pain, the sensations over which they had con- trol imparted a grateful influence, which was even- tually extended to the renovated feelings of the mind. The thoughts of this firm Christian had dwelt upon that blessed state of immortality, which was promised as a reward to those who were prepared to lay down their lives for the saci'ed cause they had espoused; and the indication of this state of mind was the subject of his illusions. For Theodorus has related, that while he was under the hands of the exe- cutioners, he was cheered by the aspect of a bright youth, conceived by him to be a messenger from heaven, who allayed his sufferings by wiping the per- spiration from his body, and by pouring cool water upon his irritated limbs. At length, as he has like- wise affirmed, he felt no pain at all. This confession has been supposed to afford a satisfactory explanation, why the sufferer continued on the scaffold, in the sight of all- men, smiling, and even singing, until it was 2 a 370 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE thought expedient to take him down. Ruffinus, to whom we are indebted for this narrative, remarks, that he had subsequently many conversations with Theodorus touching this supernatural interposition (for such it was readily conceived to be), and that the martyr uniformly assured him, that he was so com- forted and confirmed by it in the faith, that he could not but regard the hours which he passed under the hands of the torturers as imparting exquisite delight rather than pain. Such is the effect which may take place when causes of acute suffering are unremittingly prolonged, and when their influence, which has become grateful, is imparted to ideas. An incident, similar to the foregoing, is recorded by La Trobe, in the history which he has given of the Moravians. He relates, " That about the year 1458, the Brethren in Lititz, founders of the Moravians, did not cease to send to all places to strengthen the per- secuted in the faith, and to exhort them to patience. Among others, Gregory, nephew of Rokyzan, the archbishop of Prague, came to Prague ; but upon his having just held a meeting, he was surprised on a sudden, and, together with some others, committed to prison by the judge or justice, with these affecting words: — ' It is written, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ; therefore fol- low me, by command of the higher powers !' Under the rack he fell into a swoon ; during which, it is said, he had a vision of the three men, who were, six years after, elected the first bishops of the Brethren. They appeared as the guardians of a blooming tree. IIISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 371 on the fruit of which many lovely singing-birds were feeding." But examples of this kind have been so frequently recoi'ded, that poets have even attempted to dramatise them. Thus, Massinger, in his play of the Virgin Martyr :— ThEOI'HILUS. 'Tis not for life I sue for, Nor is it fit that I, that ne'er knew pity To any Christian, being one myself. Should look for any ; no, I rather beg The utmost of your cruelty ; I stand Accountable for thousand Christian deaths ; And, were it possible that I could die A day for every one, then live again. To be again tormented, 'twere to me An easy penance, and I should pass through A gentle cleansing fire ; but that denied me, It being beyond the strength of feeble nature, My suit is, you would have no pity on me. In mine own house there are a thousand engines Of studied cruelty, which I did prepare For miserable Christians ; let me feel, As the Sicilian did his brazen bull. The horrid'st you can find, and I will say, In death, that you are merciful. DiOCLESIAN. Despair not, In this thou shalt prevail. Go fetch them hitlier : Death shall put on a thousand shapes at once, And so appear before thee ; racks and whips ! — Thy flesh, with burning pincers torn, shall feed The fire that heats them ; and what's wanting to 372 THE MENTAL I-AWS WHICH GIVE The torture of thy body, I'll supply In punishing thy mind. Fetch all the Christians That are in hold ; and here, before his face. Cut them in pieces. Theophilus. Tis not in thy power : It was the first good deed I ever did. They are removed out of thy reach ; howe'er I was determined for my sins to die, I first took order for their liberty. And still I dare thy worst. DrOCLESIAN. Bind him, I say ; Make every artery and sinew crack : The slave that makes him give the loudest shriek Shall have ten thousand drachmas : wretch ! I'll force thee To curse the Power thou worship'st. Theophilus. Never, never : No breath of mine shall e'er be spent on him, [ They torment 7dm. But what sliall speak his majesty or mercy. I'm honour'd in my sufferings. Weak tormentors, Hlore tortures, more : — alas ! you are unskilful — For Heaven's sake, more ; my breast is yet untorn : Here purchase the reward that was propounded. The iron's cool, — here are arms yet, and thighs ; Spare no part of me. Maximinus. He endures beyond The sufferance of a man. Sapritius. No sigh nor groan. To witness he hath Icclini;. RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 373 DiOCLESIAN. Harder, villains ! Enter Dorothea in a white role, a crown upon her head, Jed in 6y Angelo ; Antoninus, Calista, and Christeta /o/. lowing, all iti white, but less glorious ; Angelo holds out a crown to Theophilus. Theophilus. Most glorious vision ! — Did e'er so hard a bed yield man a dream So heavenly as this ? I am confirm'd, Confirm'd, you blessed spirits, and make haste To take that crown of immortality You offer to me. Death, till this blest minute, I never thought thee slow-paced ; nor would I Hasten thee now, for any pain I suiFer. But that thou keep'st me from a glorious wreath. Which through this stormy way I could creep to, And, humbly kneeling, with humility wear it. Oh ! now I feel thee : — blessed spirits ! I come ; And witness for me all these wounds and scars, I die a soldier in the Christian wars. {Dies. But it is unnecessary to dwell longer upon such painful descriptions. All tormentors of human vic- tims^ Avhether residing among the savage wilds of the western continent^ or within the walls of an European inquisition, but too well know, that if they would prolong the duration of their meditated inflictions, they must occasionally allow their victim a brief re- spite. It is indeed evident, that acute sensations of this kind, when assiduously and unremittingly in- flicted, not only fail in their object, but occasionally prove grateful in their effects. Nor is the influence 374 THE MENTAL LAWS WHICH GIVE restricted to actual impressions ; — ideas partake of this pleasurable excitement, and become so stimulated as not unfrequently to induce ecstatic illusions. These are all the remarks which I have to offer on the causes that give rise to such a general state of mental excitement as is productive of spectral illu- sions ; and it will be now advisable to take a short re- vieAv of the conclusions at which we have arrived in some of the last chapters. Jt was considered, that in every ecstacy, or state of general excitement of the mind, either pleasurable feelings were excited and painful ones depressed, or, vice versa, painful feelings were excited, and pleasur- able ones depressed. A cause, then, -svhich, by stimulating organs of sen- sation, extends its vivifying influence to the renovated feelings of the mind, may modify an ecstacy in three ways: 1*^, It may impart a vivifying influence similar to that of any quality of feelings, pleasurable or painful, which is rendered intense, and may thus increase the force of the ecstacy, 2dlt/, It may impart a vivifying influence to any quality of feelings, pleasurable or painful, which is depressed ; and bj^ reducing this means, the intensity of the excited quality of feelings may shorten the du- ration of the ecstacy ; or, 3dly, It may, if acutely and unremittingly prolong- ed, change tlie nature of its action, as from pleasure to pain, or from pain to pleasure, and thus, according to RISE TO SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 375 the circumstances under which it acts, either increase the force of the generalexcitement, or shorten its du- ration. To all these varieties of effects, however, which re- sult from morbific causes of general excitement, there must evidently, from various idiosyncracies of consti- tution, arise frequent exceptions. For, among the numerous individuals who, about twenty years ago, imbibed the nitrous oxide, there were few whom it affected entirely alike. Indeed, to some persons, pain instead of pleasure resulted from the inhalation.* I have at length concluded my observations on what may be considered as the leading mental laws which are connected with the origin of spectral impressions. The general inference to be drawn from them is, — that Apparitions are nothing more than morbid SYMPTOMS, which ARE INDICATIVE OF AN INTENSE EXCITEMENT OF THE RENOVATED FEELINGS OF THE MIND. " One individual, after having imbibed the gas, experienced a pressure in all the muscles ; a second, felt as if the bulk of the body was increased without its gravity ; a third, as if a weight was pressing him to the ground ; a fourth, complained of a prick- ing sensation in his stomach, but this soon gave way, and was suc- ceeded by a lively delirium and laughter ; a fifth, endured inex- pressible uneasiness from a burning heat in the chest, and was af- terwards thrown into a syncope of some minutes in duration. PART V. SLIGHT REMARKS ON THE MODIFICATIONS WHICH THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTY OFTEN UNDER- GOES DURING INTENSE EXCITEMENTS OF THE MIND. PART V. SLIGHT REMARKS ON THR MODIFICATIONS WHICH THK INTELLECTUAL FACULTY OFTEN UNDERGOES DUR- ING INTENSE EXCITEMENTS OF THE MIND. " Hark, amid the wond'ring grove, Other harpings answer clear, Other voices meet our ear, Pinions flutter, shadows move. Busy murmurs hum around. Rustling vestments brush the ground ; Round, and round, and round they go, Through the twilight, through the sliade, Mount the oak's majestic head, And gild the tufted mistletoe." Mason's Caractacus. In the last part of this treatise, the research, as I ob- served at the time, was of a novel kind. Since appa- ritions are ideas equalling or exceeding in vividness actual impressions, there ought to exist some impor- tant and definite laws of the mind which have given rise to this undue degree of vividness. It was, chiefly. 380 THE JUDGMENT AFFECTED BY therefore, for the purpose of investigating such laws that this dissertation was written. But I have here entered into a perfectly new field of research, where far greater difficulties were to be encountered than I anticipated. The extent of these can only be estimated by the metaphysician. The last object of this dissertation was to have established, that all the subordinate incidents con- nected with phantasms might be explained on the following general principle : — That, in every undue excitement of our feelings, (as, for instance, when ideas become more vivid than actual impressions,) the operations of the intellectual faculty of the mind sustain corresponding modifications, by which the efforts of the judgment are rendered proportion- ally incorrect. But here I must pause. In order to give a full I'ationale of the phenomena which we have been lately contemplating, certain prin- ciples of the mind, to which I have yet but slightly adverted, require the fullest consideration. I allude to the laws connected with the intellectual faculty, and to the obstacles which are opposed to the correctness of its operations, during the extreme de- grees of intensity to which the states of the mind become liable from morbific causes. — But, can it be reasonably expected, that any individual would un- dertake an investigation of this kind, which demands the consideration of every phenomenon of the human mind as it is presented in health or disease, with the solitary object in view of explaining the subordinate incidents connected with apparitions ? For such a purpose, it would be necessary to incorporate within INTENSE MENTAL EXCITEMENTS. 381 this treatise a complete systematic view of the patholo- gy of the human mind, — a mark of attention, which, to the bugbears of popular superstition, I am not inclined to pay. Yet, not to avoid the question altogether, I shall in preference quote the opinion of other authors upon the subject, rather than submit to the reader any remarks of my own. This plan I prefer, because the explanation of my own views would comprehend the notice of many other mental principles, besides those which will now be quoted, that might require an extensive discussion. To any pneumatologist, therefore, who has more inclination than myself to persist in an investigation of this kind — who has the spirit to exclaim, with one of Dryden's heroes, " I'll face these babbling demons of the air, In spite of ghosts I'll on," the slight remarks and illustrations which appear in this paft of the work are, with due deference, sub- mitted. Dr Brown, in his Physiology of the Human Mind, remarks, " That the union of perception with con- ceptions that harmonize with it, does truly vivify those harmonizing conceptions, by giving a sort of mixed reality to the whole, is shewn by some of the most interesting phenomena of thought and emotion. It is, indeed, a law of the mind, which, though little heeded by metaphysical inquirers, seems to me far more important, and far more extensive, than many of those to which they have paid the greatest attention. Some of our most vivid emo- tions, — those of beauty, for example, — derive their 382 THE JUDGMENT AFFECTED BY intensity chiefly from this circumstance ; and many of the gay or sad illusions of our hopes and fears are only forms of this very illusion. To the su- perstitiousj in the loneliness of twilight, many wild conceptions arise, that impress them with awe, perhaps not with terror ; but if, in the moment of such imaginations, their eye turn on any objects of indistinct outline, that give as it were a body to the phantasms of their own mind ; the phantasms them- selves, in blending with them, become immediately, with spectral reality, external and terrifying objects of perception. How often, in gazing on a dim and fading fire, do we see, in the mixture of light and shade that plays before us, resemblances of well- known shapes, that grow more and more like as we continue to gaze on them. There is at first, in such a case, by the influence perhaps of the slightest pos- sible similarity, the suggestion of some form that is familiar to us, which we incorporate, while we gaze on the dim and shadowy film that flutters before us, till the whole seems one blended figure, with equal reality of what we conceive and what we truly see." Such is the explanation which Dr Brown has given of some of the illusions that we have been just con- sidering. Mr Coleridge, with no less acuteness, has adverted to the self-same principle, while proposing to account for Luther's apparitions. His words are the following : — " In aid of the present case I will only remark, that it would appear incredible to per- sons not accustomed to these subtle notices of self- observation, what small and remote resemblances, what mere hints of likeness from some real external INTENSE MENTAL EXCITEMENTS. 383 object, especially if the shape be aided by colour, will suffice to make a vivid thought consubstantiate with the real object, and derive from it an outward per- ceptibility."* This correct view cannot meet with a better illus- tration than in a German narrative, translated by Dr Crichton, to which I have before adverted. It is the case of a superstitious female, in whose mind the well- known morbid symptoms which precede a fit of epi- lepsy, such as the aura epUeptica, — the luminous sen- sations that are well known to occasionally impress the vision, — the illusive impressions of touch felt on various parts of the body, suggested many remote re- semblances connected with the angels and devils which formed the subject of her thoughts. These ideas had been recalled by the law of association, and having been rendered as intense as actual impressions, cojisubstan- tiated (to use ]\Ir Coleridge's term) with the morbid impressions that were the result of her disease, and were intimately blended with them. " While the angels," says this female in the account which she has given of her illusions, " thus spoke to me, a light, like that reflected from the river Diele, seemed to shine in the apartment. It moved up and down, and then disappeared, upon which I felt as if some person had pulled out the hairs of my head. But the pain was to be borne. The light came again, and the pain left me entirely ; it ceased to shine, and I felt as if the flesh on my back was torn from the bones by pincers. The light then returned, and I was better. It once more • Friend, by S. T. Coleridge, Esq. vol. i. p. 246. 384 THE JUDGMENT AFFECTED BY went away, and I felt as if my shoulder-blades were torn from each other ; my heart also felt as if it were torn out of my breast, and laid between my shoulders, whei'e it died. I thought these iriust be my last mo- ments ; and I then beheld the devil beside the young angel. He came fi'om behind the bed,with his back fore- most. All that I saw of him, however, was his arm, a tail about two spans thick, which resembled a ser- pent, and his neck, and the back part of his head. I had not time to examine him minutely, for the angel pushed him away with his elbow." Other incidents, referable to a similar law of the mind, but which more particularly regard hearing, are likewise mentioned by Dr Brown. " The old pi'overb, which says, that ' As a fool thinketh so the bell clinketh,' is a faithful statement of a physical phenomenon of the same kind. When both the air and the words of any song are very familiar to us, we scarcely can refrain from thinking, while the melody is performed by any instrument without a vocal ac- companiment, that the very words are floating in the simple tones which we hear. In like manner, if any one beat the time of a particular air, on a table or other sounding body that is incapable of giving the distinct tones, it may be difficult for a listener, how- ever well acquainted with it, to discover the particu- lar melody ; but, as soon as it is named to him, he will immediately discover in the same sounds, not the time merely, but the very tones, that are only concep- tions of his own mind, which, as they harmonize with the sounds that are truly external, seem themselves also to be external, and to convert into music what INTENSE MENTAL EXCITEMENTS. 385 before was unworthy of the name. I might add many other illustrations of the same principle ; for in the constitution of the mind^ as I have said, there is scarcely a principle of more extensive influence. But the examples which I have already adduced, may be sufficient to shew the vivifying influence of perception on the conceptions that harmonize and unite with it, and to throw light also on the mode in which I con- ceive this vivifying effect to take place, by the diffu- sion of the felt reality of one part of a complex group to the other parts of it, which are only inaaginary." To the same phenomena, when modified by disease, Mr Coleridge alludes. After expressing a wish to de- vote an entire work to the investigation of such illu- sions as are connected with popular superstitions, he thus proceeds, — " I might then explain, in a more satisfactory way, the mode in which our thoughts, in states of morbid slumber, become at times perfectly dramatic, (for in certain sorts of dreams the dullest wight becomes a Shakspeare,) and by what law the form of the vision appears to talk to vis in its own thoughts, in a voice as audible as the shape is visible ; and this to do often-times in connected trains, and not seldom even with a concentration of power which may easily impose on the soundest judgment, unin- structed in the optics and acoustics of the inner sense, for revelations and gifts of prescience." The best example of this view is, perhaps, to be found in the illusions of Tasso, as related by Mr Hoole. " At Bisaccio, near Naples, INIanso had an opportunity of examining the singular effects of Tasso's melancholy, and often disputed with him concerning 2b 386 THE JUDGMENT AFFECTED BY a familiar spirit which he pretended conversed with him ; Manso endeavoured in vain to persuade his friend that the whole was the illusion of a disturbed imagination ; but the latter was strenuous in main- taining the reality of what he asserted, and, to convince Manso, desired him to be present at one of the myste- rious conversations. Manso had the complaisance to meet him next day, and while they were engaged in discourse, on a sudden he observed that Tasso kept his eyes fixed on a window, and remained in a manner immoveable : he called him by his name, but received no answer ; at last Tasso cried out, ' There is the friendly spirit that is come to converse with me ; look ! and you will be convinced of the truth of all that I have said.' '' Manso heard him with surprise ; he looked, but saw nothing except the sunbeams darting through the window ; he cast his eyes all over the room, but could perceive nothing ; and was just going to ask where the pretended spirit was, when he heard Tasso speak with great earnestness, sometimes putting ques- tions to the spirit, sometimes giving answers ; deliver- ing the whole in such a pleasing manner, and in such elevated expressions, that he listened with admiration, and had not the least inclination to interrupt him. At last, the uncommon conversation ended with the de- parture of the spirit, as appeared by Tasso's own words, who, turning to Manso, asked him if his doubts were removed. Manso was more amazed than ever ; he scarce knew what to think of his friend's situation, and waved any farther conversation on the subject." INTENSE MENTAl. EXCITEMENTS. 387 It is with reluctance that I quit the notice of other similar cases. But to explain the laws that give rise to these illusions is one thing, — to explain the pheno- mena connected with them when they do occur, is another. An object of the last-mentioned kind cannot be attempted but in connexion with almost all the phenomena of the human mind. To pursue the sub- ject, therefore, any farther, would be to make a disser- tation on apparitions the absurd vehicle of a regular system of metaphysics. But, in expressing these sentiments, I would not be mistaken. While I am merely alhuling to the awkward- ness of accompanying a theory of apparitions with a complete investigation of the laws of the human mind, I am very far from underrating any well-recorded phenomena of this kind, although they should not be immediately connected with the morbid origin of such illusions. It is, indeed, one of the leading objects of this dissertation to prove, that they are of the greatest importance in explaining the laws of the human mind, as they occur in health, and as they are mo:lified by disease. PART VI SUMMARY OF THE COMPARATIVE DEGREE8 OF FAINTNESS, VIVIDNESS, OR INTENSITY SUBSIST- ING BETWEEN SENSATIONS AND IDEAS, DURING THEIR VARIOUS EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRES- SIONS. PART VI. INTRODUCTION. SUMMARY OF THE COMPARATIVE DEGREES OF PAINT- NESS, VIVIDNESS, OR INTENSITY SUBSISTING BE- TWEEN SENSATIONS AND IDEAs/dURING THEIR VA- RIOUS EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. My last object is, for the sake of more complete elu- cidation, to give a summai'y of those phenomena i*e- lative to consciousness, which are manifested during the excitements and depressions to which the feelings of the mind are constantly subject. The success of this investigation, however, must essentially depend upon a full statement of tlie pro- portional difference which subsists between sensations and ideas during their various transitions from faint- ness to intensity, or from intensity to faintness. But it is almost unnecessary to add, regarding a physiolo- gical inquiry of this kind, that it is a problem wliicli can never be satisfactorily accomplished : yet if, after all, for the mere sake of greater perspicuity, I should be induced to attempt a sort of tabular view of the various degrees of vividness to which our mental feelings are liable, it can have no other claim to re- 392 SUMMARY OF MENTAL gard than as a formula which, in the language of ma- thematicians, is empirical, or purely experimental. It is, in fact, a result obtained by repeated trials, the effect of which is rather to give an artificial consistency to certain successions of mental phenomena, than to pro- duce the conviction that the formula is in every re- spect agreeable to truth and to nature. In reference, then, to the annexed tabular sketch of the various proportional degrees of vividness sub- sisting among sensations and ideas, no fewer than fif- teen of such degrees are supposed to exist; these being represented on an ascending scale by horizon- tal lines. The lowest of such lines, marked 1, de- notes the faintest state of our mental feelings, while the highest in the series, marked 15, represents the most excited condition of them. The vertical lines by which the horizontal ones are intersected dispose the various degrees of vividness thus represented into eight columnar divisions, each of these including a distinct transition of the feelings of the mind from faintness to intensity, or from intensity to faintness. These several transitions will be next described, though not in the exact order which is represented in the general table now given. FORMULA (cc Degrees of intensity, vividness, or faintness. 1 Intense excitements ot the mind I necessary for the production j of spectral illusions. j J Vividness of emotions. ordinary mental } ) RIedium states of the mind, forming the ordinary tranquil state of watchfulness. Degree at which muscular mo- ■> tions obey the will. j Degree of vividness at which \ consciousness begins. / Faintness of mental feelings so extreme as not to excite con- sciousness. 15 14 13 12 11 10 (t 8 7 c 5 4 3 2 1 1st 1 From perfect Sleej. Sensations, from bi CGI Perfect Sleep. Ideas Sensations 1st Stage of ExcitemenI Ideas Sensations FORMULA (contained in a Tabular View) of the various comparative Degrees of Faintness, Vividness, or Intensity, supposed to subsist between Sensations and Ideas, when conjointly excited or depressed. IM TRANSITION, 2d TRANSITION. 3d TRANSITION, 4th TRANSITION, 6th TRANSITION, filh TRANSITION. 7th TRANSITION, Kih TRANSITION, l-rom perfect Sleep to Ihc common State of Waldi- fuiwM. from the tyrdinary tranquil SlaU of IVakhfuItum to extreme mciUal Bintement. From crtreme mental Excitement to the orditutrtf tranquil StaU of WaichfuliiCM. from lite common State nf Watchfuine** to perfect Sleep. From i^rfect Sleep to commoit Dreams aiul Somnamlfulism. From SomiKimbnliim anil mmmon Dreamt toper, feet Sleep. From Sleq' Irix eomplrte tn eommoH Drmnu In Sleep, as b^ore. Scnsatloiw, from beinn more faint than Ideas, be- come more vivid. Ideas, from iKUig less viviit than Sensations, bc- Ideas, Irom being more intense than Sensatioiu, be- come less nvld. come more fsinL The Ideas and Sensations of perfect Sleep an ex- cited uniformly. IdcAs and Sensations arc unifnnnly dcpres.*(il. Ideas and Seniuition* are cieited uni- formly. Ideas, from beln^t innrc vivid than Sen- sations, arc unifoniily depressed. ta,"/ Slnp. Eicitcmen Jd Stage of Elcittmcnt. SA Slflfic of ithsugcor EidtcmmL Wjilchful- l.t Stage of EiatCTncnt, SJSt^cof EioUinenL SdSUBCof li:iciUini;DL Ith stage ol Eidtcmi-DL EitiemG Itt .ttagcof Uepn^ion. Id stage of DiTr««ioD. 3dSlageof DeptcislaD. llh SU«c of Uqitcuiun. Walchful- 111 Stage of DeproulDD, *d stage of ;?^s."„' 4lh since of Dcpioston. PcrfMl Sleep. Itt Slagt of EualcmenL ;d Stage nr 5d Stage of Excitcmenc. l(h stage of Eidlemcnl Somnain- l.tstajteof M Stage of 3d Stage of DepttaainD. llhStucot steep IcB til Stage of Id Stage of 3d SconuT "buUim. •t SUgc of MSUscof .IdStflRCof IS Ideas Idc&s 14 ni.'ccMarv ft"' iht jirodudion i;t Ideas Sensations Sensations Ideas 12 Sensations Sensations Vkidnw.* of onlinary mi-nial 1 11 ...( Sensations Ideas* }■ { Sensadoni Ideas* ) cmoiionpi. } ] III !l Si satloni SensalionB ScnsB lions Ideaa Sensations Ideas Sensations SensAtion* Medium Hlalcs (>f ihc mind, foiminif llie ordimiy iramiuil state of wauh/ulntst. u ScnuationN ileas Idea« Ideas Ideas Sensationii Ideas Ideas Ideas Ideas Dcfirec nl which rounCTilar ino- » lion* obey ihc will. 1 VeKtiic of vividness m which 1 cotLsciounncas begins. I r, ...( SvnBation" Iduis* Idea« }•■• Ideas Sensations Ideas." )... Ideas Ideas Sensations Sensations Ideas Ideas Idou Ideas ScnsaUons iensalion Ideas Bensatloiw Ideas 4 Idea.-. Ideas Ideas Ideas Ideas Sensations Sensation Ideas Fointncsii of menial feellnBK ho cuiiimie Ds nol to excilc ctin- iiciousnc»s. ;( Ideas Sensations ScnsBiions Ideas Ideas Sensations Sensationi Bcnsationi . . . . . . Sensation Ideas Sensations Scnsntioni ' ■iinHutKins Sensationsbensations ... 1 , , 1 ,^. Sensation ... 1 ... • Ml en Scn!.aiion» and Idea* a ic of the sam degree ot vividnes s, all notion of present and of puft lini tnuxt naturally ceas . 01. in nlhcr words. here can be no mental consciousness of ou fi«Iing>. o n EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 393 CHAPTER I. THE VARIOUS EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS CON- NECTED WITH THE SLEEPING AND DREAMING STATES. " A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer-sky." Castle of Itidolence. In this chapter will be described the particular ex- citements and depressions connected with the sleeping and dreaming states; a reference being at the same time made to the general tabular view which I have given of the comparative degrees of faintness, vividness, or intensity, subsisting between sensations and ideas, during the various transitions to which they are sub- ject. Section I. TRANSITION (marked the 1st in the Table) Fiwn perfect Sleep to the common State of Watchfulness. The first transition to be noticed is from perfect sleep to that cool and collected state which charac- terizes our common waking moments. During intervals of deep slumber, sensations are 394 SUMINIARY OF MENTAL supposed to be more faint than ideas ; none of these mental states are, however, vivid enough to be the subject of consciousness. Sensations are accordingly placed on the annexed scale at the lowest degree, marked 1, while ideas occupy the graduated line marked 3. It is also assumed, that at each stage of excitement ideas increase less in vividness than sensations. Keeping the foregoing proportional increase in view, the several stages of excitement which occur during this transition may, in the subjoined table, be readily traced. TABULAR VIEW. Sensations, from being more faint than ideas, be- come more vivid. Conscious and j active states of j I- watchfulness. Muscles obey \ the will. J I Consciousness \ begins. J "1 Feelings so faint as not to !. excite con- I sciousness. J Degrees oi Vividness or Faint- ness. Perfect Sleep. 1st .Stage of Excite- ment. 2J Stage of Excite- ment. 5d Stage of Excite- ment. 4th Stage of Excite- ment. y 8 G 5 ■1 2 1 Sensations Ideas Ideas r Sen^tiims I I.lv.is • Uleas Ideas Sensations 1 * when sensations and ideas arc cquallyAivid there is no mental conscious- ness of them. 1*/ Stage of' Excitement. In the first stage of excitement, represented in the table, ideas are raised to degree 4, while sensations. EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 395 which are more excitable, follow them so close as to stand at the degree 3. These mental states, however, are still so faint, that no consciousness of them en- sues. 2(i Stage of Excitement. In the second stage, sensations and ideas, from their different excitabilities, each appear at the same degree of vividness. If they had proportionally differed in vividness, a mental consciousness of such states would have ensued. But, as I have remarked on a former occasion, (in part 4,) " when itjs considered that the human mind can form no notion of the present and of the past, but from the comparative degree of vi- vidness which, during our waking hours, subsists between sensations and ideas, and that the notion of present and past time enters into our definition of consciousness, it must follow, that] when sensations arrive at the same degree of vividness as ideas, a state of mental unconsciousness must necessarily be the result." Examples of this condition of our feelings are af- forded in those moments which immediately pi'ecede our recovery from sound sleep. 3d Stage of Excitement. In a third stage of excitement, sensations attain the 7th and ideas the 6th degree of vividness, theTormer becoming more vivid than the latter. The conscious- ness of the mind is now entire. An important law of the mind is now called forth, 396 SUMMARY OF MENTAL which may be thus briefly explained : — When mental feelings of any description attain a certain degree of vividness, muscular motions obey the impulse of the ivilL* For, in the faint feelings of our common dreams, there is a decided volition, but no contractions of the muscles follow. The particular degree necessary for muscular motions is represented in the scale as \X\e^ sixth. The effect induced is, however, but feeble : " The slumb'ring god, amazed at this new din, Thrice strove to rise, and thrice sunk down again : Listless he stretch'd, and gaping rubb'd his eyes. Then falter'd thus betwixt half words and sighs." Another character may yet be mentioned, which distinguishes this stage of excitement. The vividness of ideas approaches so nearly to that of sensations, that recollected images of thought are often con- founded with actual impressions. While, therefore, the various forms of fancy and of memory mingle to- gether in confusion, a lethargic faintness increases the indistinctness, by imparting to the whole a dull and feeble gloom : " The landskip such, inspiring perfect ease, M^'here Indolence (for so the wizard hight) Close-hid his castle 'mid imbowering trees, That half shut out the beams of Phoebus bright, And made a kind of ehecker'd day and night." -f * Regarding this curious law I could say much, but am prevent- ed by the limited nature of the present work. -}• Thomson's Castle of Indolence. EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 397 4th Stage of Excitement. In a fourth stage of excitement, sensations attain the 9th and ideas the 7th degree of vividness, the former now being more vivid than the latter. This stage of excitement is particularly favourable for the operations of the reasoning powers. Actual impressions possess such a superior degree of vivid- ness, that they are not easily confounded with the re- collected images of thought. The attainment of a state of mind such as this, free from depressing or exciting passions, has been recommended by all mo- ralists as indispensable for the discovery of truth. Thus the Roman writer Boethius : " Tu quoque si vis Luminc claro Cernere verum Tramite recto Carpere callem (iaudia pelle, Pcllc Timorcm, Nee dolor adsit, Spemque fugato. Nubila mens est, Vinctaque frenis Haec ubi regnant." Section II. TRANSITION (marked the 4th in the Table) From the common State of Watchfulness to perfect Sleep. A ^ecoMrf transition is from the ordinary state of ou waking hours to perfect sleep. 398 SUMMARY OF MENTAL It is unnecessary to dwell upon the phenomena of this depression of our mental feelings, which are the exact reverse of the stages of excitement just describ- ed. It is sufficient to state, that sensations, from being more vivid than ideas, become more faint. A suitable opportunity occurs, however, for noticing such mental depressions of feelings as are referable to morbific causes. These, in fact, are to be traced in all the stages of reduced vividness incidental to a tran- sition from the state of watchfulness to that of perfect sleep. But this view, which I have taken of the effects of depressing causes, will be rendered more explicit by the following table. TABULAR VIEW. States of the mind occurring from depressing- causes of a morbific nature. Conscious and active states of watchfulness. Muscles obey " the will. J Consciousness ■ begins. ' Feelings so faint as not to excite consci- ousness. } Degrees o Vividness and Faint ness. Active State. 1st Lethargic State. -diy, State dur ing Cata- lepsy. 5dly, Fainting states. 9 8 7 6 5 4 Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas* Ideas Sensations Ideas . . . Sensations « When sensations and ideas are equally vivid, Ihcro is no consciousness of them. EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 399 l,y/, or Lethargic State. The first state, arising from morbific causes of de- pression, is that which I have named tlie lethargic. It frequently results from paralytic affections of the ner- vous system, and is sometimes the consequence of intense thinking. After an imdue mental excitement has been caused by the ardent study of the abstract sciences, the drowsy god then displays his benumb- ing influence : " No passions interrupt his easy reign ; No problems puzzle his lethargic brain : But dull Oblivion guards his peaceful bed, And lazy fogs bedew his gracious head."" But this tendency of intense study to produce stu- por has been by no one better illustrated, than by Dr Crichton, in his valuable work on mental derange- ment. With one example, therefore, which he gives, I shall conclude my notice of the lethargic state in- duced by depressing causes. " A young Swiss gentleman, for six months, had given himself up wholly to the intense study of me- taphysics. An inertness of mind followed, which at last ended in a complete stupor. ' Without being blind,' it is said, ' he appeared not to see ; without being deaf, he seemed not to hear ; without being dumb, he did not speak. In other respects, he slept, drank, ate without relish and without aversion, with- out asking to eat, or without refusing to do so. This * Garth's Dispensary. 400 SUMMARY OF MENTAL state continued a whole year. At length a person read loudly to him, and it was noticed that he express- ed symptoms of acute suffering ; the experiment was tried again ; and his hearing was re-established on a similar principle. Every other sense was successive- ly excited on the same principle, and in proportion as he regained the use of it the stupidity appeared to be diminished."* 2d, State occurring in Catalepsy. In a second, or still more reduced stage of depres- sion, sensations and ideas are of equal degrees of vi- vidness when a state of unconsciousness ensues. I have supposed that this mental condition may be found in a variety of the affection called catalepsi/. For if sensations had differed from ideas in their relative degree of vividness, muscular contractions would have been excited ; but as in this case they partake of an equal degree of vividness, no mental consciousness of such feelings can possibly ensue, and, consequently, no voluntary influence can arise to affect the motific nerves which communicate with and regulate mus- cular fibres. Hence the muscles, while contracting, easily yield to any external impulse, and retain any given position.t A curious illustration of the state of the mental feel- * See the case given on the authority of Zimmerman, by Dr Crichton, in his work on Mental Derangement, vol. ii. p. 35. t This is but an imperfect explanation of a very important phenomenon, the rationale of which would be too long to investi- gate in this limited treatise. 7 EXCITEMENTS AND DEPKESSIONS. 401 ings (luring catalepsy is given by Dr Crichton, on the authority of Borellus. "^ George Giokatzki, a Polish soldier, deserted from his regiment in the harvest of the year 1677- He was discovered, a few days afterwards, drinking and ma- king merry in a common alehouse. The moment he was apprehended, he was so much terrified, that he gave a loud shriek, and immediately was deprived of the power of speech. When brought to a court-mar- tial, it was impossible to make him articulate a word ; nay, he then became as immoveable as a statue, and appeared not to be conscious of any thing which was going forward. In the prison to which he was con- ducted he neither ate nor drank. The officers and the priests at first threatened him, and afterwards en- deavoured to sooth and calm him ; but all their efforts were in vain. He remained senseless and immove- able. His irons were struck off, and he was taken out of the prison, but he did not move. Twenty days and nights were passed in this way, during which he took no kind of nourishment, nor had any natural evacuation ; he then gradually sunk and died." ^d, or Fainling States. States of syncope are nothing more than those of sleep, requiring, however, greater stimuli for their ex- citement. Section HI. TRAN81TION (the 5th m the Table) From perfect Sleep to common Dreams and Somnambulism. A third transition is from the state of perfect sleep to that of dreaming, or of somnambulism. Consis- 2 c 402 SUMMARY OF MENTAL tently with our view of the cause of sleep, the sensa- tions of perfect repose have been considered as fainter than ideas. It is now of importance to remark, that when causes of undue excitement, such as are known to induce states of dreaming and somnambulism, af- fect the mind, they do not, as in other circumstances enumerated, cause sensations to increase more than ideas in vividness, but, on the contrary, excite them uniformly. TABULAR VIEW. The ideas and sensations of perfect sleep are excited uniformly. Degrees of Vividness and Faint- ness. Perfect Sleep. 1st Stage of Excite- ment. 2d Stage of Excite- ment. 3d Stage of Excite- ment. 4th Stage of Excite- ment. Mii«;cles obev "> 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Ideas Sensations the wiU. i Consciousness ■< begins. Feelings so faint as not to excite consci- ousness. Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ist Stage of Excitement. In the first stage of excitement, ideas are to be found at the 4th and sensations at the 2d desrree of vividness. Neither description of feelings is, however, sufficiently vivid to excite mental consciousness. 2rf Stage of Excitement. In the second stage of excitement, ideas attain the EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 403 5th degree of vividness^ when a consciousness of them ensues. But the mind is not conscious of sensations, these being only found at the 3d degree. The dreaming state now commences, confined, however, to ideas : " When Reason sleeps, our mimic fancy wakes. Supplies her part, and wild ideas takes From words and things ill-suited and misjoin'd, Tlie anarchy of tliought and chaos of the mind." Sd Stage of Excitement. In the third stage, ideas appear at the Oth degree of vividness. That law of the mind, before alluded to, is now called into force, which is, — that when any mental feelings attain a certain degree of vividness, (at or about the 6th degree, as represented in the scale), muscular motions obey the impulse of the will. Yet at this degree, the actions of muscles are very feeble, so that no other phenomena are induced than those which are indicated by the low mutterings, or the startings of lively dreams. It may be observed of the sensations of this stage of excitement as of the last, that, rising no higher than the 5th degree, they are still too faint to excite consciousness. Alh Stage of Excitement. The fourth stage of excitement is that of somnam- bulism, the ideas of which, being at the 7th degree of vividness, are as vivid as those of complete watchful- ness. Accordingly, vigorous muscular motions obey 404 SUMINIARY or MENTAL the will. There is likewise a consciousness of sensa- tions, which ai-e to be found in the table, at the 5th degree of vividness. I shall now illustrate this stage of excitement by a case given on the authority of Mr Smellie, in his Philosophy of Natural History, wherein it is perfectly clear that ideas were more vivid than sensations. The individual who walked in her sleep was a servant-girl residing near Edinburgh. It will be likewise evi- dent from the ensuing narrative, that the fear of an imaginary bull, which the somnambulist supposed was about to attack her, had reduced to a state of ex- treme faintness every feeling which was not connected with the moral occasion that gave rise to her emo- tions. Hence, the infliction of wounds from a sharp- pointed instrument failed in producing sensations suf- ficiently vivid to be the object of mental conscious- ness. " I examined her countenance," says Mr Smellie, " and found that her eyes, though open, wild, and staring, were not absolutely fixed. / took a pin, and repeatedly pricked her arm, but not a muscle moved, not a symptom of pain was discoverable. At last she be- came impatient to get out, and made several attempts to escape by the door, but that was prevented by the domestics. Perceiving her inability to force the door, she made a sadden spring at the window, and endea- voured to throw herself over, which would have been fatal to her. To remove every suspicion of impos- ture, I desired the people, with proper precautions to prevent harm, to try if she would really precipitate herself from the window. A seemingly free access EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 405 was left for her escape, which she perceived, and in- stantly darted Avith such force and agility, that more than one-half of her body was projected before her friends were aware. They, however, laid hold of her, and prevented the dreadful catastrophe. She was again prevailed upon, though with much reluc- tance, to sit down. She soon resumed her former calmness, and freely answered such questions as were put to her. This scene continued for. more than an hour. I was perfectly convinced, notwithstanding my original suspicions, that the woman was actuated by strong and natural impulses, and not by any design to deceive. I asked if any of the attendants knew how to awaken her. A female servant replied that she did. She immediately, to my astonishment, laid hold of Sarah's wrist, forcibly squeezed and rubbed the projecting bones, calling out, at the same time, Sarah, Sarah ! By this operation Sarah awoke. She stared with amazement, looked around, and asked how so many people came to l)e in her own apartment at so un- seasonable an hour ? After she was completely awake, I asked her what was the cause of her restlessness and violent agitation ? She replied, that she had been dreaming that she was pursued by a furious bull, which was every moment on the point of goring her."* Section IV. TRANSITION (named the 6th in the Table) Frotn common Dreams and Somnambulism to perfect Slccj). A fourth transition is from somnambulism and com- mon dreaming to perfect sleep. As this series of " Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, vol. ii. p. 393. 406 SUMMARY OF MENTAL mental changes is indicated by phenomena, the exact reverse of the stages of excitement last described, they will be sufficiently explained by an inspection of the general table which I have given. It is sufficient for me to observe, that ideas and sensations are uni- formly depressed to a low degree of faintness. Section V. TRANSITION (marked the 7th in the General Table) From Sleep less complete to common Dreams and SomimmhuUstn. It is yet possible to conceive of other circumstances slightly differing from those just mentioned, under which common dreams and somnambulism may be induced. During the transition froin watchfulness to perfect sleep, there is an intermediate period of less complete repose, in which the following effects, re- sulting from a cause of mental excitement, may en- sue : — TABULAR VIEW. Ideas and sensations are excited uniformly. Muscles obey the will. Consciousness " begins. Feelings so faint .IS not to excite con- sciousness. Degrees of Vividness ax\A faint- ness. Sleep less complete. 1st stage of Kxcxtement. lid SUTge of Excitement. 3d Stage of Excitement. 7 (! ■1 1 Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 407 1st Stage of Excitement. In the first stage of excitement, ideas attain the 5th and sensations the 4th degree of vividness ; in which case there is a consciousness of the former feelings only, and the ordinary state of dreaming is induced. 2d Stage of Excitement. In the 2d stage, ideas attain the 6th and sensations the 5th degree of vividness. Muscular motions now slightly obey the will, and there is also a conscious- ness of actual impressions. 3rf Stage of Excitemetit. In the third stage, ideas are found at the 7th and sensations at the 6th degree of vividness. This change is characterized by all the phenomena of somnam- bulism. I know of no other way in which this last stage of excitement can be illustrated, than by shewing that causes of mental excitement, when inducing somnam- bulism, may operate before perfect sleep is induced. Thus, in a case which Mr Smellie has recorded in his Philosophy of Natural History, relative to a somnam- bulist, it is said, that " his ordinary sleep, which is seldom tranquil when about to be seized with a fit of somnambulism, is uncommonly disturbed. While in this state he is affected with involuntary motions ; his heart palpitates, his tongue falters, and he alternately rises up and lies down. On one of these occasions the gentleman i-emarked, that he soon articulated 408 SUMMARY OF MENTAL more distinctly, rose suddenly, and acted agreeably to the motives of the dream which then occupied his imagination." Another instance, wherein sleep-walking took place before perfect sleep was induced, may be found in the 9th volume of the Philosophical Transactions of Edinburgh. The somnambulist, to whose case I have alluded in the 2d part of this work, was a servant-girl, affected not only with sleeping, butwith waking visions. It is said, that " having fallen asleep, surrounded by some of the inhabitants of the house, she imagined herself to be living with her aunt at Epsom, and going to the races. She then placed herself on one of the kitchen- stools, and rode upon it into the rooin, with much spirit and a clattering noise, but without being wakened." Section VI. TRANSITION (marked the 8th in the General Table) From Somnambulism and common Dreams to less complete Sleep. This transition is the exact reverse of the last de- scribed. I shall therefore take no farther notice of it than by a reference to the general table wliich I have given. EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 409 CHAPTER II. TIIK OllDKn OF rUKNOillEXA OHSKRVABLE IN EXTREMK MENTAL EXCITEMENTS, WHEN SENSATIONS AND IDEAS ARE CONJOINTLY RENDERED MORE VIVID. " To the magic region's centre We are verging it appears ; licad us right, that we may enter Strange enchantment's dreamy spheres." Lord F. Gower's Faust. The transition next to be lioticed, is from those me- dium degrees of vividness which characterize our or- dinary waking moments, to the intense condition of mental feelings which gives rise to spectral illusions. In the common state of watchfulness, ideas, as I just have pointed out, are supposed to be less vivid than sensations ; at the end of this excitement, how- ever, they are rendered more intense. But a readier explanation of these phenomena will be afforded when they are arranged in a tabular form. 410 SUMMARY OF MENTAL TRANSITION From the ordinary tranquil State of Watchfulness to a State of extreme mental Excitement. Ideas, from being less vivid than sensations, be- come more intense. Intense excita- tions necessary for spectral impressions. Vividness of or- -v dinary emo- (. tions. j Medium states of the mind. f Degrees of Vividness or Intensity. Watchful- ness. 1st stage of Excite- ment. 2d Stage of Excite- ment. 3d stage of Excite- ment. 4th Stage of Excite- ment. 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 / Ideas Ideas Sensations Sensations Sensations Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas # Ideas 1 • When sensations and ideas are of the same degree of vividness, there is no mental consciousness of them. After these general remarks, I shall proceed to de- scribe the several stages of excitement which occur during this transition of the feelings of the mmd. 1*/ Stage qf Excitement. In the first stage sensations are to be found at the 10th and ideas at the 9th degree of the table, the comparative vividness of the former not increasing so much a.s that of the latter. EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 411 This comparative degree of intensity finds an illustra- tion in our ordinary mental emotions. The vividness of ideas approaches too near that of sensations^ so that tlie proper distinction which ought to subsist between them is less easily discerned ; and hence the reason why mental emotions do not allow of the decisions of cool judgment. The effect, likewise, of a vivifying influence, which acts in a particular manner upon ideaSj is to give them, when compared with sensations, an undue prominence in our thoughts. A farther consequence, therefore, of this action, is, — that rela- tions of comparison, such as subsist among all our va- rieties of feeling, are suggested in a much greater number and variety than when the mind is cool and tranquil. New resemblances, differences, forms^ or positions, unexpectedly arise, and, in the same un- looked-for manner, connect the recollected images of the mind with the external objects by which we are surrounded. Should no calmer reference then be made for the correctness of such relations to actual circumstances, we enter the wild realms of Phantasy, where sober deliberations, which have truth for their object, are exchanged for the reveries of fanatics, of poets, or of philosophical theorists : " Fledg'd with the feathers of a learned muse, They raise themselves unto the highest pitch, Marrying base earth and heaven in a thought." * When individuals labour under an evident defici- * Old comedy of Lingua. 412 SUMMARY OF MENTAL ency of the judging faculties, and wheuj at the same time, morbific causes impart a permanent influence to the too vivid state of ideas, then arises that distracted state of the thoughts, where little distinction is made between actual impressions and the renovated feelings of the mind. This variety of Amentia is happily illus- trated by Pinel in the case which he has given of one of his own countrymen, Avho had been educated in all the prejudices of the ancient noblesse. '' His passion- ate and puerile mobility was excessive. He constant- ly bustled about the house, talking incessantly, shout- ing, and throwing himself into great passions for the most trifling causes. He teased his domestics by the most frivolous orders, and his neighbours by his fool- eries and extravagancies, of which he retained not the least recollection for a single moment. He talked with the greatest volatility of the court, of his periwig, of his horses, of his gardens, without waiting for an an- swer, or giving time to follow his incoherent jargon," It is worthy of note, that the energy of muscular actions often keeps pace with this stage of mental ex- citement. This is happily illustrated in the effect which a variety of the Amanita Muscaria produces when used as an intoxicating ingredient by the inhabitants of the north-eastern parts of Asia. In a very interesting his- tory of this fungus, lately drawn up by Dr Greville of Edinburgh, particular mention is made of its influence on the movements of the muscles. This writer ob- serves, that " one large, or two small fungi, is a com- mon dose, when intended to produce a pleasant intoxi- cation for the whole day ;" he then adds, '' it renders some persons remarkably active, and proves highly EXCITEMENTS AND DEl'KESSIONS. 413 stimulant to muscular exertion : with too large a dose, violent spasmodic effects are produced. So very ex- citing to the nervous system in many individuals is this fungusj that the effects are often very ludicrous. If a person under its influence wishes to step over a straw or small stick, he takes a stride or a jump suffi- cient to clear the trunk of a tree ; a talkative person cannot keep silence or secrets ; and one fond of music is perpetually singing."* The last remark which I shall make on this stage of mental excitement is, that no other mental impres- sions of a spectral nature are experienced, than such as may be corrected by a slight examination of the natural objects to which they owe their origin. Illu- sions of sound are such as have been described after the following manner by IMr Coleridge : — " When we are broad awake," says this writer, " if we are in anxi- ous expectation, how often will not the most confused sounds of nature be heard by us as articulate sovnids ? For instance, the babbling of a brook will appear for a moment the voice of a friend, for whom we are wait- ing, calling out our own names." Illusions of vision are of the same nature as those which I took occasion to describe, when animadverting on the vivifying ef- fects of Hope and Fear. The leading features of some images of the mind, which, if present, would, from moral causes, create emotion, may be traced in such outlines of light and shade as in part compose the figures that are actually impressing the visual organs. Wernerian Transactions, vol. iv. p. 344. 414 SIIMINIAIIY OF MENTAL 2d Stage of Excitement. In this stage of excitement, sensations and ideas, from being excited in different proportions, each at- tain the same degree of vividness. {8ee degree 11 in the following table.) At the same time, as I have more than once explained, all knowledge of present and past time, which necessarily results from the comparative degrees of vividness that subsist been sensations and ideas, must totally cease ; and with it, of course, all mental consciousness. TABULAR VIEW. Ordinary Mental Emotions. ) Degrees of Intensity. 1st stage of Excitement. 2(1 stage of Excitement. 11 10 9 • * • Sensations Ideas f Sensations \ Ideas* « When sensations and ideas are of the same intensity there is no consciousness of them. This momentary state of unconsciousness is not un- frequently induced by violent emotions of the mind. Accordingly, in the descriptions which poets have given us of the effects of VcU'ious exciting passions, il- lustrations of such an incident will be commonly met with. One of the dramatis personce, for instance, in Dryden's tragedy of Aurengzebe, while expatiating on EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 415 the more than ordinary intensity which had been im- parted to his feelings by some source of enjoyment or other, very philosophically adds, " Nature Gives all she can, and, lab'ring still to give. Makes it so great, we can but taste and live ; So fills the senses that the soul seems fled, And tJwught itself does for the time lie dead."' By the same poet, this stage of mental excitenfient has been described as a sort of lethargy : " Thus long my grief has kept me dumb, Sure there's a letJuirgy in mighty woe."' And in the Conquest of Granada : Ev'n while I speak and look, I change yet more ; And now am nothing that I was before. I'm numb'd and fix'd, and scarce my eyeballs move ; I fear it is the lethargy of love ! This momentary unconsciousness is likewise at- tended with a corresponding cessation of all muscular motions, but more particularly of those which are concerned with vocal utterance. Thus, Shakspeare speaks of " the grief that does not speak."* But Dry- den, in his translation of Ovid, has more particularly described this peculiar affection : * Give sorrow words ; the grief that does not speak, Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break. Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 'S. 41^ SUMMARY OF MENTAL " She thus essay 'd to speak ; her accents hung, And, falt'ring, dy'd unfinish'd on her tongue, Or vanished into sighs : with long delay Her voice return'd, and found the wonted way." In violent ebullitions of passion, feelings occasionally arise of which we are alternately conscious and uncon- scious. The following tabular view will probably afford a rationale of this phenomenon, which depends upon our mental feelings undergoing a sort of vacilla- tion between the first and second stages of excitement which I have described. Ordinary (_ Emotions, ( Degrees of Vividness. Feelings of Conscious- ness. Momentary Unconscious- Bess. Conscious- ness returned. 11 10 9 Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas* Sensations Ideas * When sensations and ideas are of the same (degree of vividness, there is an unconsciousness of them. Alternate transitions of this kind, from one stage of excitement to another, have been alluded to by Rowe, in his admirable drama of the Fair Penitent: " At first her rage was dumb, and wanted words; But when the storm found way, 'twas wild and loud. Mad as the priestess of the Delphic god, Enthusiastic passion swcll'd her breast, Enlarg'd her voice, and ruffled all her form." I shall next remark, that the second stage of excite- ment, thus characterized by a temporary unconscious- 7 EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 417 ness, has been in a striking manner illustrated by the effects resulting from the inhalation of the nitrous ox- ide. Wlien Sir Humphry Davy had respired six quarts of nitrous oxide, the operation of which was not so rapid as usual, he remarked, " The thrilling was very rapidly produced. The objects around me were per- fectly distinct, and the light of the candle was not, as usual, dazzling. The pleasurable sensation was at first local, and perceived in the lips and ,aboat the cheeks. It gradually, however, diffused itself over the whole body, and in the middle of the experiment was for a moment so intense and pure as to absorb exist- ence. At this moment, and not before, I lost conscious- ness j it was, however, quickly restored."* — But some- times, when ideas arrive at the same degree of inten- sity as sensations, our feelings do not shew a tendency to increase in vividness ; in which case, a much longer state of unconsciousness subsists. Accordingly, this happened to another inhaler of the nitrous oxide, spoken of in Sir Humphry Davy's Researches. " I was Jbr some time," he remarks, " unconscious of ex- istence." But a more permanent state of unconsciousness may be brought on by morbific excitements ; on which occasion a variety of catalepsy may be induced, dif- fering from that which I have lately described. (See page 400). For, in the case already adduced, there was a more feeble excitement of the mind, and at the same time sensations and ideas acquired a similar de- gree of vividness. The vivifying influence, therefore, * Davy's liescarches couceniing the Nitrous Oxide, p. 492. 2d 418 SUMMARY OF MENTAL which stimulated muscles, notwithstanding the absence of all mental consciousness, only caused very faint con- tractions of them. But in a greater stage of excite- ment, such as that which we are now considering, the more vivid condition of mental feelings induces vigor- ous muscvilar actions. Yet, as long as there is no con- sciousness of the present and the past, the muscles maintain the same state of rest or motion which they had acquired prevmis to the excitement.* A recent example of this variety of catalepsy may be found in Dr Good's work on the study of medicine. t It is the case of a student of Gray's Inn, about nineteen years of age. " Having been attacked," says this author, " with a fit of catalepsy while walking, within a few minutes after having left his chambers, he continued his pace insensibly, and without the slightest know- ledge of the course he took. As far as he could judge, the paroxysm continued for nearly an hour, through the whole of which time his involuntary walking con- tinued ; at the end of this period he began a little to recover his recollection, and the general use of his external senses. He found himself in a large street, but did not know how he got there, nor what was its name. Upon inquiry, he learned that he was at the further end of Piccadilly, near Hyde-Park-Cornei', to which, when he left his chambers, he had no intention of going. He was extremely frightened, very much " This is a very curious fact. It will be more particularly no- ticed in a separate investigation, which has for some time occupied my attention. •j- See Good's Study of fliedicine, vol. iii. p. 580. EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 419 exhausted, and returned home in a coach. He was not couscions of any parliciilar train of ideas that had passed in his mind during the Jit.* 3d Stage of Excitement. In a third stage of excitement, ideas are to be found at the 13th and sensations at the 12th decree of vivid- ness. Spectral impressions now occur, ideas being more vivid than the actual impressions with which they are accompanied, and far more intense tlian the undisturbed and cool sensations of our proper waking hours. The momentary unconsciousness just described, occurs as the prelude of spectral impressions, — con- veying the notion that surrounding objects are va- nishing, or melting into air, when, in fact, it is sensa- tions themselves which are sinking into faint states of * As I am on the subject of catalepsy, some of my readers may perhaps expect me to notice the case adduced by 3Iartin, in his Treatise on the Second-sight of the Highlands, who lias stated, that " there was one in Sky, of whom his acquaintance observed, that when he sees a vision, the inner part of his eyelids turn so far upwards, that after the object disappears, he must draw tliem down with his fingers, and he sometimes employs others to draw them down, which he finds to be the much easier way." From this cir- cumstance, Dr Ferriar has conceived that the vision of the seer was connected with catalepsy. But this inference is a dubious one : " While thus the lady talk'd, the knight Turn'd th' outside of his eyes to white ; As men of inward light arc wont To turn their oplicks in iipon't." 420 SUMMAllY OF MENTAL unconsciousness. Immediately, howeverj this appa- rent evanescence is succeeded by ideas so intensely vivified, that the semblance is excited of a transmuta- tion of tangible objects into the fantastical images of a visionary world. " I thought," said Arise Evans, an accredited seer of the year 1653, " in a vision that I had presently after the King's death, that I was in a great hall like the King's hall, or the castle in Win- chester, and there was none there but a judge that sat upon the bench and myself; and as I turned to a window to the north-westward, and looking into the palm of my hand, there appeared to me a face, head, and shoulders, like the Lord Fairfax's, and presently it vanished. Again, there arose the Lord Cromwell, and he vanished likewise ; then arose a young face, and he had a crown upon his head, and he vanished also ; and another young face arose with a crown upon his head, and he vanished also ; and another young face arose with a crown upon his head, and he va- nished in like manner ; and as I turned the palm of my hand back again to me and looked, there did ap- pear no man in it. Then I turned to the judge, and said to him, there arose in my hands seven, and five of them had crowns ; but when I turned my hand, the blood turned to its veins, and these appeared no more.* • This vision, which, as Dr Ferriar has well remarked, resembled the royal shadows in Macbeth, was interjireted by Arise Evans after the following manner : — " The interpretation of this vision is, that, after the Lord Cromwell, there shall be kings again in England, which thing is signified unto us by them that arose after him, who were all crowned ; but the generations to come may look for a change of the blood, and of the name in the royal seat, after EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 421 But a transition of tliis kind, when real objects be- come evanescent and are succeeded by phantasms, I have endeavoured to explain by the following TABULAR VIEW. Intense nients Excite- f Ordinary Emotions. Degrees of Vividness. 13 1-2 11 10 !l Previous \ States of Mentiil States Feeling while con- while real Ob templating jects are va- real Objects, nishing. Sensations Ideas / Sensations \ Ideas ♦ Stales of Feeling which in luce Sjiectral Im- pressions. Ideas Sensations • When sensations and ideas are of the same degree of vividness, there is no consciousness of them. Again, an order of depression, the exact reverse of the excitement which is displayed in the foregoing table, will present us with the mode in which phan- tasms appear to vanish, and real objects again become manifest. Sometimes spectral impressions are ushered in by a more permanent state of unconsciousness, which was considered of great importance by old pneumato- logists. The temporary unconsciousness which pre- ceded an ecstacy, was attributed to the apprehensive five kings once passed," &c, &c. But enough of this : the inter- pretation is far more difficult to be admitted than the vision itself. (Sec Joiihi's licmarks on Ecclesiastical Ilistori/, Appendix to vol. i.) 422 SUMMARY OF MENTAL faculties of sense having left the body for the purpose of supernaturally exploring every thing " "\\'ithin earth's centre or heaven's circle found." As soon, therefore, as the senses had returned from their long journey, loaded with intelligence, the ec- stacy of the seer commenced : " He therefore sent out all his senses To bring him in intelligences, Which vulgars, out of ignorance, Mistake for falling in a trance ; But those that trade in geomancy, Affirm to be the strength of fancy." But there are other phenomena to be considered incidental to spectral illusions. When the feelings of the mind are under the influ- ence of an irregular excitement, it is not uncommon for them to fluctuate in their degrees of vividness ; or, in other words, ideas, from being more faint than actual impressions, become, in turns, more vivid. In this case, objects of sensation appear to vanish ; spectral images rise up and melt into air ; sensible objects re-appear ; and thus there is a constant alter- nation of realities and phantasms, which, when ra- pidly induced, gives origin to a painful delirium. But the mode in which realities and phantasms al- ternate with each other may find a readier explanation in the following EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 423 TABULAR VIEW. Defjreos of Intensity. Hrevious State of the Feelings. Ileal Objects vanish. Spectral Imjiressions. Phantasms Real ()l)jcct> vanish. return. 13 12 11 in 9 Sensations Ideas / Sensations \ Ideas • • • • Ideas Sensations • • • / Sensations \ Ideas* • • • Sen.sations Ideas • When sensations and ideas are of the same degree of intensity, there is an unconsciousness of them. An example of this alternation of realities and phantasms will be found in Dr Crichton's work on mental derangement. It is given on the authority of Bonnet. The case recorded is of a gentleman whose mental disorder had originated from some affection of the brain, aggravated by intense study. It is said, that " mansions arose suddenly before his eyes with all their external and appropriate decorations. At times, the appearance of the paper in his room seemed at once to be changed, and, instead of the usual figures which are on it, a number of fine landscapes appeared to his view. Some time after, not only all the landscapes and paper, but the furniture also, dis- appeared, and the bare walls presented themselves to his eyes." * Occasionally the states of the mind fluctuate be- tween the second and third stages of excitement, so that feelings of which we are unconscious, and spec- • Crichton on Mental Derangement, vol. ii. p. 39. 424 SUMMARY OF MENTAL tral impressions, are alternately produced. In this case, phantasms arise, — they vanish, — other illusions of the same sort take their place, — these again vanish, — and thus, there is a longer or shorter succession of spectral appearances, without the intervention of any impressions which may be suggested by natural ob- jects. These phenomena may be illustrated as before. TABULAR VIEW, Explanatory of the Mode in which Successions of Phantasms occur. Degrees of (ntensity. Previous State of Feelings. Real Objects vanish. Spectral [nipressions. Phantasms vanish. Other Phantasms appear. Phantasms again va- nish, &c. 13 12 11 10 9 ■■.'< Sensations Ideas* Ideas. Sensations. I Sensations Ideas* Ideas. Sensations. •• { Sensations Ideas* Ideas. * When sensations and ideas are of the same degree of intensity, there is an unconsciousness of them. Cowley, in some lines which he has written on Fancy, has very well depicted a similar succession of illusions, Avhich he attributes to the special operations of this assumed and personified principle of the mind : " Here, in a robe which does all colours show. Fancy, wild dame, with much lascivious pride, By twin-cameleons drawn, does gaily ride. Her coach then follows, and throngs round about, EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 425 Of shapes and airy forms an endless rout. A sea rolls on with harmless fury there ; Straight 'tis a field, and trees and herhs appear : Here in a moment are vast armies made, And a quick scene of war and blood display'd : Here sparkling wines and brighter maids come in, The bawds for sense and living baits for sin : Here golden mountains swell the cov'tous place, And centaurs ride themselves a painted race." An actual instance, however, of spectral impressions undergoing successive changes in the subject of them, is afforded in the ecstatic illusions which Cardan ex- perienced. These are minutely related. " I saw," he observes on one occasion, " different figures, as of brazen substances. They seemed to consist of small rings, like links of mail (although I had never yet seen chain-armour), ascending from a low corner of my bed, moving from right to left in a semicircular direction, and then melting as into air. I descried the shapes of castles, of houses, of animals, of horses with their riders, of herbs, of trees, of musical instruments, of the different features of men and of their different garments. Trumpeters appeared to blow their trum- pets, yet no voices or sounds were heard. I saw, more- over, soldiers, people, fields, and the form of bodies even to this day unknown to me ; groves and woods, some things of which I have no remembrance, and a mass of many objects rushing in together, yet not with marks of confusion, but of haste." ^th Stage of' Excitement. I have again supposed a fourth, or extreme stage of 426 SUMMARY OF MENTAL general mental excitement, where ideas attain the 15th and sensations the 13th degree of vividness, the foi'- mer being still more intense than the latter. This stage is shewn in the following table. TABULAR VIEW Of the two different Degrees of Excitements neces- sary for the Production of Spectral Impressions. Degrees of Intensity. 3d Stage of Excitement. 4th Stage of Excitement. 15 • • . Ideas Spectral im - 14 ... • • • pressions induced. 13 Ideas Sensations • 12 Sensations • • • Ordinary emotions. } 11 • • • . . . On a former occasion, I shewed that morbific excite- ments did nothing more- than impart an addition of vividness to feelings, which, from moral causes, were of themselves either pleasurable or painful ; but that, when inordinate vivifying actions were induced, spectral impressions followed, the subjects of which were alternately of a pleasurable and painful quality. This, then, is the peculiar character of the 4th and last stage of mental excitement, an illustration of which is afforded in the visions of Kotter, who, as Dr Ferriar has remarked, " was sincere in his enthu- siasm, and was as much a seer as any second-sighted prophet of the Hebrides." In the year 1616 an angel appeared to this prophet, who ordered him to inform EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 427 the civil powers that great evils were impending over Germany. He had, accordingly, many visions, which were supposed to have reference to the future, but they were not declared on oath to the magistrates be- fore the year 1619. I shall pass over several of the phantasies he experienced, contenting myself with the notice of one ecstacy only, which was so extremely intense as to shew evident marks that it was alter- nately pleasurable and painful. Supposing himself to be attended by two angels, Kotter thus proceeds : — " On the 13th day of September," says he, " both the youths returned to me, saying, ' Be not afraid, but observe the thing which will be shewn to thee.' And I suddenly beheld a circle like the sun, red as it were bloody, in which were black and white lines, or spots, so intermingled, that sometimes there appeared greater number of blacks, sometimes of whites ; and this sight continued for some space of time. And when they had said to me, ' Behold ! attend ! fear not! no evil will befall thee !' lo, there were three succes- sive peals of thunder, at short intervals, so loud and dreadful, that I shuddered all over. But the circle stood before me, and the black and white spots were disunited, and the circle approached so near, that I could have touched it with my hand. And it was so beautiful, that I had never in my life seen any thing more agreeable ; and the white spots were so bright and pleasant, that I could not contain my admiration. But the black spots were carried away in a cloud of darkness, in which I heard a dismal outcry, though I could see no one. Yet these words of lamentation were audible : — ' Woe unto us who have committed 428 SUMMARY OF MENTAL ourselves to the black cloud, to be withdrawn from the circle covered with blood of Divine Gi'ace^ in which the grace of God, in his well-beloved Son, had enclosed us !' " * I have at length concluded my account of the va- rious degrees of vividness which our mental feelings undergo in a transition from the ordinary ti'anquil state of our waking moments to that extreme mental excitement, which gives rise to spectral impressions. It has been assumed, that ideas, from being more faint than sensations, become more intense. Another transition remains to be briefly noticed, which is from the highest pitch of mental excitement to those medium states of the mind, which are cha- racterized by coolness and tranquillity. But it is useless to dwell long upon this depression of mental feelings, as it presents phenomena the exact reverse of the last-described stages of excitement. Ideas, from being more intense than sensations, are, Jirst, reduced to the same degree of vividness as actual im- pressions, when a mental unconsciousness, generally momentary, ensues ; and, lastly, they become more faint than sensations. * This vision I have quoted from Dr Ferriar's illustrations. See his Theory of Apparitions, page 78. EXCITEMENTS AND DErilESSlONS. 429 CHAPTER III. THE IMAGES OP SPECTRAL IMPRESSIONS DIFFER FROM THOSE OF DREAMS IN BEING MUCH MORE VIVID. Videre somnia est a fortitudine imaginationis ; sicut intelligere ea est a fortitudine intellectus. Abdala. In a former part of this work it was explained, that when ideas became more vivid than sensations, they were contemplated as present, or as actual impressions; while the least vivid feeling suggested the notion of past time. I then added, that the partial resemblance of spectral impressions to dreams would now perhaps be apparent ; but that there was still a difference to be noticed in the circumstances under which they are severally produced. Before spectral impressions covdd arise, the vivid ideas of our waking hours must be raised to an unusually high degree of intensity ; but during our moments of mental repose, a very slight degree of vividness imparted to the faint ideas of per- fect sleep was sufficient to excite a similar illusion. Hence the images of spectral impressions differ from those of dreams, in being much more vivid. It is then my object to illustrate, by a tabular viev/, the comparative degrees of vividness which subsist between the impressions of dreams and the illusive phantasms of our waking moments. 430 SUMMARY OF MENTAL O) 1=3 . T3 C N y. O) H Is, >_ *^^ -t-> (D (U > C •^ OS ^S (U o ~ bfj S£C c o . a II 11 Ideas Sensations • • • Ideas Sensations i 1 E C E S 1 D •a 2 g E J Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations 2 ^ ii ■" 8 If •a Ideas Sensations Ideas Sensations negrees of intensity, vividness, orfaintness. 15 11 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 5 3 2 1 ^ • ^ 1 Intense excitements of the mind necessary for the production of spectral illusions. Vividness of ordinary mental emo- tions. Medium states of the mind, form- ing the ordinary tranquil state of watchfulness. - Degree at which muscular motions i obey the will. Degree of vividness at which con- • sciousness begins. Faintness of mental feelings so ex- treme as not to excite conscious- ness. excite:ments and depressions. 431 I shall now give a few examples of those cases of spectral illusions, where an exciting cause has so gra- dually, yet powerfully, operated upon the ideas of dreams, as to make them more than usually intense. Dreams of this kind, after the impression has ceased, are often with difficulty recognised as sleeping or waking visions ; nor can the difference be often well determined by any inquiry we may institute, — If the illusion supervened to a state of absolute repose, or of watchfulness ? An instance of this uncertain species of phantasms is contained in a narrative translated by Dr Crichton, from the Psychological JMagazine of Germany, (some extracts from which have been before given,) relative to a female who was subject to trances. She is the narrator of her own case ; and, after de- scribing some cruel usage she experienced from her husband, which much affected the quality of her spec- tral impressions, she thus proceeds : — " My sorrows increased, and I went to bed in tears. I awakened about four o'clock in the morning, and imagined my- self in my father's house on the river Diele. I looked up into heaven, and saw a water-dog walking in the firmament. As soon as it passed by, the skies de- scended to me, and my eyes were changed on purpose to see new sights, for I saw many hundred thousand miles. The mansion of God stood in the centre, light- ly enveloped in clear blue clouds, and surrounded with a splendour of such various colours as are unknown to the world below. In each colour stood some millions of men, enrobed in garments of the same colour with that in which they stood ; for instance, those who stood in red were clad in red, and those in the yellow 432 SUMMARY OF MENTAL had robes of yellow ; and the faces of all these men were turned to the mansion of the Almighty. And there came out of the mansion a most lovely female, clothed in the brightest lustre of heaven, and a crown on her head. She was accompanied by three angels, one on her right hand and one on her left, the third walked beside her, and pointed out the crowd who stood in the splendid colours. " In a minute the heavens were closed, and again opened as formerly, but the woman and angels were not to be seen ; but our blessed Saviour came out of the mansion, followed by a long train of attendants, and he descended through all the splendour I have described. The Lord and his attendants all looked smilingly upon me. They were dressed in white, and wherever they went was a clear white. When he ap- proached me near enough, that I could touch his foot, I was frightened and awoke.* It was then half-past four o'clock ; I arose, and considered that my present life was not to be compared with such joys." With regard to the foregoing illusion, it is impossible to say whether it was a trance or a very vivid dream, particularly, as the same causes which contribute to the spectral impressions of a waking vision are calcu- lated to produce an intense dream. Most probably, however, it was the latter. Another authentic story, respecting which there is a doubt whether it is the narrative of a lively dream or of a waking illusion, is to be found in Bovet's " Tlie writer evidently means, that she awoke out of her trance, as she has before spoken of awakening from her sleep. 8 EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 433 Pandcemonium, or the Devil's Cloyster. The writer first informs us, that, about the year 1667, " he was with some persons of honour in the house of a nobleman in the west country, which had formerly been a nun- nery ;" he then continues his narrative after the fol- lowing manner : — " I must confess, I had often heard the servants and others, that inhabited or lodged there, speak much of the noises, stirs, and apparitions, that frequently disturbed the house, but had at that time no apprehensions of it ; for the house being full of strangers, the nobleman's steward, Mr C, lay with me in a fine wainscot room, called my lady's chamber. We went to our lodging pretty early, and having a good fire in the room, we spent some time in reading, in which he much delighted ; then having got into bed, and put out the candles, we observed the room to be very light by the brightness of the moon, so that a wager was laid between us, that it was possible to read written hand by that light upon the bed where we lay. Accordingly I drew out of my pocket a manuscript, which he read distinctly in the place where we lay. We had scarcely made an end of dis- coursing about that affair, when" \Jiere probably com- menced a dream~\ " I saw (my face being towards the door, which was locked) entering into the room, five appearances of very fine and lovely women. They were of excellent stature, and their dresses seemed very fine ; they covered all but their faces Avith their light veils, whose skirts trailed largely on the floor. They entered in a file, one after the other, and in that pos- ture walked round the room, till the foremost came and stood by that side of the bed where I lay, with 2 E 434 SUMMARY OF MENTAL my left hand over the side of the bed ; for my head rested on that arm, and I determined not to alter the posture in which I was. She struck me upon that hand with a blow that felt very soft, but I did never remember whether it were cold or hot. I demanded, in the name of the blessed Trinity, what business they had there, but received no answer. Then I spoke to Mr C, ' Sir, do you see what fair guests are here come to visit vxs }' before which they all disappeared. I found him in some kind of agony, and was forced to grasp him on the breast with my right hand (which was next him underneath the bedcloatlis) before I could obtain speech of him. Then he told me, that he had seen the fair guests I spoke of, and had heard me speak to them ; but withal said, that he was not able to speak sooner unto me, being extremely affrighted at the sight of a dreadful monster, which, assuming a shape between that of a lion and a bear, attempted to come upon the bed's foot. I told him I thanked God nothing so frightful had presented itself to me ; but I hoped through his assistance, not to dread the am- bages of hell." It is clear, that the subject of these visions was sug- gested by the popular superstitions of the old manor- house, and little doubt can be entertained but that by fear, and perhaps by other physical causes, it was impressed on the mind during a dream. It appears that, during the next night, the companion of Bovet, from dread, forsook the haunted room, so that the hero was left by himself to encounter the apparitions. " I ordered," he adds, " a Bible and another book to be laid in the room, and resolved to spend my time EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 435 by the fire in reading and in contemplation, till I found myself inclined to sleep ; and accordingly, hav- ing taken leave of the family at the usual hour, I ad- dressed myself to what I had proposed, not going into bed till past one in the morning. A little after I was got into bed I heard somewhat walk about the room, like a woman in a tabby-gown trailing about the room. It made a mighty rushelling noise, but I could see nothing, though it was near as light as the night be- fore. It passed by the foot of the bed, and a little opened the curtains, and thence went to a closet-door on that side, through which it found admittance, al- though it was close locked. There it seemed to groan, and to draw a great chair with its foot, in which it seemed to sit, and turn over the leaves of a large folio, which, you know, made a loud clattering noise. So it continued in that posture, sometimes groaning, sometimes dragging the chair, and clattering the book, till it Avas near day. Afterwards I lodged several times in this room, but never met with any molesta- tion." Regarding this latter apparition, Dr Ferriar is in- clined to think, that it did not occur during a dream, but that it was a proper waking illusion. This sup- position is, however, very doubtful, as the spectral impression ensued after the ghost-seer had found himself inclined to sleep. Another instance, however, may be adduced, in which the mental illusions of a waking vision were erroneously conceived, after much debate on the sub- ject, to be those of a dream. An able French writer. 436 SUMMARY OF MENTAL in a discourse which he published in the " Mercure Gallant " of the year 1690, describes a spectral im- pression that occurred to him after the following manner : — " I have already related to you one of my dreams, but must inform you of another, before explaining to you my thoughts more clearly upon the many pretended apparitions of souls and spirits, which are found in good as well as bad authors. I was sent very young to a town at a distance of seven leagues from my native place, in order that I might be weaned from home, and learn to wx-ite. Having returned from thence at the expiration of five or six months, I was directed to repair to the house of one of my re- latives, where my father, who was newly returned from the army, had arrived, and had sent for me. He examined my specimens of writing, and finding them good, failed not to express a suspicion of their being my own. As he was going out, therefore, one after- noon, along with the lady of the house, to pay a visit in the neighbourhood, he rec6mmended me to write ten or twelve lines in order to remove his doubts. Immediately upon my father's departure, my duty prompted me to go up to the chamber that had been al- lotted for us, and having searched for all my writing materials, I knelt down (being then a little boy) before an arm-chair, upon which I placed my paper and ink. " While engaged in writing, I thought I heard up- on the staircase people who were carrying corn to granaries ; having therefore risen from the place where I was kneeling, I turned a corner of the tapes- try, and saw a little room open, — and in this room my father seemed engaged in conversation with the EXCITEMENTS AND DEPRESSIONS. 437 lady of the house, being seated near her. As I had seen both one and the other get into a carriage, and set out from the chateau, I was much surprised at now perceiving them before me. Terror united it- self to astonishment ; I let go the tapestry, and, leav- ing the chamber, quickly descended the staircase. " Upon meeting with the housekeeper, she remarked some alteration in my face, and asked me what was the matter. I told her all about it. She honestly assured me that I had been dreaming, and that the marchio- ness and my father would not return for more than an hour. I would fain have discredited her assur- ance, and stood fixed near the door of her room, until at length I saw them arrive. My trouble was not a little increased at the sight ; for the present, however, I said nothing to my father ; but when, after supper, he would have sent me to bed before him, all the self- collection which I could muster on the occasion was to allow myself to be conducted out of his presence. Yet I waited for him to accompany me into our chamber, for I was unwilling to re-enter it but along with him. He was astonished, therefore, upon retir- ing, to find that I had lingered. He failed not to ask me what was the cause of it ; and, after some vain excuses, I confessed to him that I was terrified, be- cause spirits had appeared in the chamber. He de- rided my fear, and demanded of me to whom I was indebted for such foolish tales. I then told him my adventure; which he no sooner heard, than, intent upon undeceiving me, I was conducted by him to the granaries, or rather to the garrets to which the stair- case led. It was then made known to me that these 438 SUMMARY OF MENTAL garrets were not fit to be store-rooms for corn, — that there was actually none there, and that there never had been any. Upon my return, as I followed close to my father, he asked me to point out the place where I had lifted ixp the tapestry and seen the room open. I searched for it in all directions to shew him, but in vain. I could find no other door in the four walls of our chamber than that which led from the staircase. '' Events so opposite to what I had believed could be the case, alarmed me still more, and I imagined from what I had heard related of goblins * that some of them had caused these illusions in order to abuse my senses. My father then insisted that such alleged freaks of spirits were mere fables, — more fabulous even than those of ^sop or of Phaedrus, adding, that the truth was, I had slept while writing ; that I had dreamt during my sleep all which I now believed I had heard and seen, and that the conjoined influence of surprise and fear having acted on my imagination, had causejd the same effect upon it as would have been produced by truth itself. I had difficulty at the time to assent to this reasoning ; but was obliged to ac- knowledge it in the end as very just. — Observe, how- ever, how strong the impression of this dream was. I tliink candidly, that if the vision had not been falsi- fied by all the circumstances which I have just noted, I should, even at this time, have received it for a truth." The foregoing illusion scarcely requires comment. * In tlic original, csprits Jhllcts. EXClTKiMENTS AND DErilESSIONS. 439 There can be little doubt but that it was a proper waking impression, and not a dream, as the youth was reluctantly led to suppose by his father. These remarks conclude my general view of the comparative degrees of vividness subsisting among sensations and ideas, during their successive states of excitement and depression. The laws which we have been considering may, indeed, be applied to the solution of far more import- ant questions than those which belong to the subject of spectral impressions. While a knowledge of them may materially assist the physician in his treatment of the mental afflictions to which our humanity is liable, the moral philosopher may likewise discover, in the same laws, certain very important principles influenc- ing human actions and conduct, upon which doctrines of the highest value to the science of ethics may be securely built. NOTES. Aadtnt Svi.ll.luiu ..t HuluK.-H.ill, Lanc-aslurc Frou. .i Drawins l.y Captain Jones, 29Ui Kegiment. " Begone, chimeras, to your mother clouds !" CEdipus. NOTES. Note 1, p. 4. The Devils seen hij Benvenuto Cellini. — Extract from Mr Roscoe's Translation of his Life. " It liappened, through a variety of odd accidents, that I made acquaintance with a SiciHan priest, who was a man of genius, and well versed in the Latin and Greek authors. Happening one day to have some conversation with him, when the subject turned upon the art of necromancy, I, who had a great desire to know something of the matter, told him, that I had all my life felt a curiosity to be acquainted with the mysteries of this art. The priest made answer, ' That the man must be of a resolute and steady temper who enters upon that study.' I replied, ' That I had forti- tude and resolution enough, if I could but find an opportu- nity.' The priest subjoined, ' If you think you have the heart to venture, I will give you all the satisfaction you can desire.' Thus we agreed to enter upon a plan of necro- mancy. The priest one evening prepared to satisfy me, and desired me to look out for a companion or two. I invited one Vincenzio Romoli, who was my intimate acquaintance : he brought with him a native of Pistoia, who cultivated the black art himself. We repaired, to the Colosseo, and the priest, according to the custom of necromancers, began to draw circles upon the ground with the most impressive cere- monies imaginable : he likewise brought hither assafcetida, several precious perfumes, and fire, with some compositions also which diffused noisome odours. As soon as he was in readiness, he made an opening to the circle, and having 444 NOTES. taken us by the hand, ordered the other necromancer, his partner, to throw the perfumes into the fire at a proper time, intrusting the care of the fire and the perfumes to the rest ; and then he began his incantations. This ceremony lasted above an hour and a half, when there appeared several legions of devils, insomuch that the amphitheatre was quite filled with them. I was busy about the perfumes, when the priest, perceiving there was a considerable number of infer- nal spirits, turned to me and said, ' Benvenuto, ask them something.' I answered, ' Let them bring me into the company of my Sicilian mistress, Angelica.' That night we obtained no answer of any sort ; but I had received great satisfaction in having my curiosity so far indulged. The necromancer told me, it was requisite we should go a second time, assuring me, that I should be satisfied in whatever I asked ; but that I must bring with me a pure immaculate boy. " I took with me a youth who was in my service, of about twelve years of age, together with the same Vincenzio Ro- moli, who had been my companion the first time, and one Agnolino Gaddi, an intimate acquaintance, whom I likewise prevailed on to assist at the ceremony. When we came to the place appointed, the priest having made his preparations as before, with the same and even more striking ceremonies, placed us within the circle, which he had likewise drawn with a more wonderful art, and in a more solemn manner, than at our former meeting. Thus having committed the care of the perfumes and the fire to ray friend Vincenzio, who was assisted by Agnolino Gaddi, he put into my hand a pintaculo or magical chart,* and bid me turn it towards " " The most exact writers call it pentacoli, a sort of magical preparation of card, stone, and metal, on which are inscribed words and figures, considered very efficacious against the power of de- mons. Sec Ariosto Orl. F. c. iii. st. 21." — (^Note of the Trans- lator.^ NOTES. 445 the places that he should direct me ; and under the pinta- culo I held my boy. The necromancer having begun to make his tremendous invocations, called by their names a multitude of demons, who were the leaders of the several legions, and questioned them by the power of the eternal uncreated God, who lives for ever, in the Hebrew language, as likewise in Latin and Greek ; insomuch that the amphi- theatre was almost in an instant filled with demons more numerous than at the former conjuration. Vincenzio Ro- moli was busied in making a fire, with the assistance of Agnolino, and burning a great quantity of precious per- fumes. I, by the direction of the necromancer, again de- sired to be in the company of my Angelica. The former thereupon turning to me, said, — ' Know, they have de- clared, that in the space of a month you shall be in her company.' " He then requested me to stand resolutely by him, be- cause the legions were now above a thousand more in num- ber than he had designed; and, besides, these were the most dangerous; so that, after they had answered my question, it behoved him to be civil to them, and dismiss them quietly. At the same time the boy under the pintaculo was in a ter- rible fright, saying, that there were in that place a million of fierce men, who threatened to destroy us ; and that, moreover, four armed giants of an enormous stature were endeavouring to break into our circle. During this time, whilst the necromancer, trembling with fear, endeavoured by mild and gentle methods to dismiss them in the best way he could, Vincenzio Romoli, who quivered like an aspen leaf, took care of the perfumes. Though I was as much terrified as any of them, I did my utmost to conceal the terror I felt ; so that I greatly contributed to inspire the rest with resolution ; but the truth is, I gave myself over for a dead man, seeing the horrid fright the necromancer was in. 44G NOTES. The boy placed his head between his knees, and said, — ' In this posture will I die ; for wc shall all surely perish.' I told him that all these demons were under us, and what he saw was smoke and shadow ;* so bid him hold up his head and take courage. No sooner did he look up, but he cried out, — ' The whole amphitheatre is burning, and the fire is just falling upon us ;' so, covering his eyes with his hands, he again exclaimed, that destruction was inevitable, and he desired to see no more. The necromancer entreated me to have a good heart, and take care to burn proper perfumes ; upon which I turned to Romoli, and bid him burn all the most precious perfumes he had. At the same time I cast my eye upon Agnolino Gaddi, who was terrified to such a degree that he could scarce distinguish objects, and seemed to be half- dead. Seeing him in this condition, I said, — ' Agnolino, upon these occasions a man should not yield to fear, but should stir about and give his assistance ; so come directly and put on some more of these perfumes.' Poor Agnolino, upon attempting to move, was so violently terri- fied, that the effects of his fear overpowered all the perfumes we were burning. The boy hearing a crepitation, ventured once more to raise his head, when, seeing me laugh, he be- gan to take courage, and said, ' That the devils were flying away with a vengeance.' " In this condition we stayed till the bell rang for morn- ing prayer. The boy again told us, that there remained but few devils, and these were at a great distance. When the magician had performed the rest of his ceremonies, he strip- ped off his gown, and took up a wallet full of books which he had brought with him. We all went out of the circle * " This confirms us in the belief," says JMr Roscoe, " that the whole of these appearances, like a phantasmagoria, were merely the effects of a magic-lantern, produced on volumes of smoke from various kinds of burnin" wood." NOTES. 447 together, keeping as close to cacii other as we possibly could, especially the boy, who had placed himself in the middle, holding the necromancer by the coat, and me by the cloak. As we were going to our houses in the quarter of Banchi, the boy told us that two of the demons whom we had seen at the amphitheatre, went on before us leaping and skipping, sometimes running upon the roofs of the houses, and some- times upon the ground. The priest declared, that though he had often entered magic circles, nothing so extraordinary had ever happened to him. As we went along, he would fain persuade me to assist with him at consecrating a book, from which, he said, we should derive immense riches : we should then ask the demons to discover to us the various treasures with which the earth abounds, which would raise us to opulence and power; but that those love-affairs were mere follies, from whence no good could be expected. I answered, ' That I would readily have accepted his proposal if I understood Latin :' he redoubled his persuasions, assur- ing me, that the knowledge of the Latin language was by no means material. He added, that he could have Latin scholars enough, if he had thought it worth while to look out for them ; but that he could never have met with a partner of resolution and intrepidity equal to mine, and that I should by all means follow his advice. AVhilst we were engaged in this conversation, we arrived at our respective homes, and all that night dreamt of nothing but devils." Note 2, p. 16. Giant of the Broken. The following is the account given by a German traveller of the Giant of the Broken : — " In the course of my repeated tours through the Harz,* * " The Harz mountains are situated in Hanover." 448 NOTES. I ascended the Broken twelve times ; but had the good fortune only twice (both times about Whitsuntide) to see that atmospheric phenomenon, called the Spectre of the Broken, which appears to me worthy of particular attention, as it must no doubt be observed on other high mountains which have a situation favourable for producing it. The first time I was deceived by this extraordinary phenomenon, I had clambered up to the summit of the Broken very early in the morning, in order to wait for the inexpressibly beau- tiful view of the sun rising in the east. The heavens were already streaked with red : the sun was just appearing above the horizon in full majesty, and the most perfect serenity prevailed throughout the surrounding country, when the other Harz mountains in the south-west, towards the Worm mountains, &c. lying under the Broken, began to be covered by thick clouds. Ascending at that moment the granite rocks called the Tempelskanzel, there appeared before me, though at a great distance, towards the Worm mountains and the Achtermaunshohe, the gigantic figure of a man, as if standing on a large pedestal. But scarcely had I dis- covered it when it began to disappear, the clouds sunk down speedily and expanded, and I saw the phenomenon no more. The second time, however, I saw this spectre somewhat more distinctly, a little below the summit of the Broken, and near the Heinnichshohe, as I was looking at the sun rising, about four o'clock in the morning. The weather was rather tem- pestuous; the sky towards the level country was pretty clear, but the Harz mountains had attracted several thick clouds, which had been hovering round them, and which, begin- ning on the Broken, confined the prospect. In these clouds, soon after the rising of the sun, I saw my own shadow, of a monstrous size, move itself for a couple of seconds in clouds, and the phenomenon disappeared. It is impossible to see this phenomenon, except when the sun is at such an altitude 7 NOTES. 449 as to tlirow his rays upon the body in a horizontal direction; for, if he is higher, the shadow is thrown rather under the body than before it. In the month of September last year, as I was making a tour through the Harz with a very agree- able party, and ascended the Broken, I found an excellent account and explanation of this phenomenon, as seen by M. Haue on the 23d of May, 1797, in his diary of an excursion to that mountain. I shall therefore take the liberty of trans- cribing it : " ' After having been here for the thirtieth time/ says M. Haue, ' and, besides other objects of my attention, hav- ing procured information respecting the above-mentioned atmospheric phenomenon^ I was at length so fortunate as to have the pleasure of seeing it ; and perhaps my description may afford satisfaction to others who visit the Broken through curiosity. The sun rose about four o'clock ; and, the at- mosphere being quite serene towards the east, his rays could pass without any obstruction over the Heinnichshohe. In the south-west, however, towards the Achtermaunshohe, a brisk west-wind carried before it their transparent vapours, which were not yet condensed into thick heavy clouds. About a quarter past four I went towards the inn, and looked round to see whether the atmosphere would permit me to have a free prospect to the south-west, when I observed, at a very great distance towards the Achtermaunshohe, a human figure of a monstrous size. A violent gust of wind having almost carried away my hat, I clapped my hand to it by moving my arm towards my head, and the colossal figure did the same. The pleasure which I felt on this dis- covery can hardly be described ; for I had already walked many a weary step in the hope of seeing this shadowy image without being able to satisfy my curiosity. I immediately made another movement by bending my body, and the co- lossal figure before me repeated it. I was desirous of doing 2f 456 NOTES. the same thing once more, but my colossus had vanished. I remained in the same position, waiting to see whether it would return, and in a few minutes it again made its appear- ance in the Achtermaunshohe. I paid my respects to it a second time, and it did the same to me. I then called the landlord of the Broken; and having both taken the same position which I had taken alone, we looked toward the Achtermaunshohe, but saw nothing. We had not, however, stood long, when two such colossal figures were formed over the above eminence, which repeated our compliment by bending their bodies as we did ; after which they vanished. We retained our position, kept our eyes fixed upon the same spot, and in a little the two figures again stood before us, and were joined by a third. Every movement that we made by bending our bodies, these figures imitated ; but with this difference, that the phenomenon was sometimes weak and faint, sometimes strong and well defined. Having thus had an opportunity of discovering the whole secret of this phe- nomenon, I can give the following information to such of my readers as may be desirous of seeing it themselves : — When the rising sun, and accortling to analogy the case will be the same at the setting sun, throws his rays over the Broken upon the body of a man standing opposite to fine light clouds floating around or hovering past him, he needs only fix his eye steadfastly upon them, and in all probabi- lity he will see the singular spectacle of his own shadow ex- tending to the length of five or six hundred feet, at the dis- tance of about two miles before him. This is one of the most agreeable phenomena I ever had an opportunity of re- marking on the great observations of Germany.' "—Philoso' phical Magazine, vol. i. p. 232. NOTES. 451 Note 3, p. 195. Extract from Farmer on the Worship of Human Spirits in the ancient Heathen World. " All religious worship among the Gentiles, and indeed among all other people, has ever been adapted to the opinion they formed of its object. Those Gentiles who, by the sole use of their rational faculties, formed just conceptions of the spirituality and purity of the Divine Being, thought that he was best honoured by a pure mind. Such of them as re- garded the luminaries of heaven as beneficent and divine in- telligences that governed the world, worshipped them with hymns and praises,' in testimony of their gratitude ; or by kissing the hand and bowing- the headf to them, in acknow- ledgment of their sovereign dominion. This seems to have been the only homage they received from mankind in the most early ages of the world. At least, no other is taken notice of in the book of Job, or in the writings of Moses. When dead men were deified, it became necessary to frame a worship adapted to please and gratify human ghosts, or rather such spirits as they were conceived to be. And I will here attempt to shew, that the established worship of the Heathens was biiilt upon these conceptions, and that this circumstance points out the human origin of the more im- mediate objects of that worship. " Before we enter upon this argument, we must imagine ourselves in the same situation as the ancient Heathens were, fill our minds with the same ideas they had, and recollect • Mede's Works, p. 656. ■f" //■/ beheld the sun, or the moon, — and my mouth hath kissed my hand. Job xxxi. 20, 27. The Israelites are forbidden to xoorship, or, as the original word imports, to bend or l)0w down to the sun, moon, and stars. Deut. iv. 19. 452 NOTES. more especially what were their notions of human ghosts, and of their future state of existence. On the correspond- ence of their worship to these notions the force of the argu- ment depends. " The obvious distinction between the soul and body of man, and the permanence of the former after the dissolution of the latter, could not but be admitted by all the nations that worshipped the dead. Happy would it have been had they gone no farther, except to assert a future state of retri- bution. But they gave an unbounded scope to their ima- ginations. They not only ascribed to separate spirits, as in- deed they justly might, all their former mental affections,* but all the sensations,t appetites, and passions of their bodily state; such as hunger and thirst, J and the propensities founded upon the difference of sexes.§ Ghosts were thought to be addicted to the same exercises and employments as had • Of the parental affection we have an amiable example in the ghost of Anchises. Virg. JEn. VI. 685. Proofs of the hatred ghosts bore to their enemies, both when living and after their deaths, are produced by Potter, B. 4. c. 8. p. 2G1. I shall add the following passage from Ovid, in ibidem, v. 139 i'— Nee mors mihi finiet iras, SsBva sed in manes manibus arma dabit : Tunc quoque cum fuero vacuas dilapsus in auras, Exanimis manes oderit umbra tuos. See also Horace, Carm. V. 5., Virg. yEn. IV. 384, and the very characteristic description of the ghost of Ajax, Homer, Odyss. XI. 542, and of the other ghosts in the same book. -|- Hence that prayer, taken notice of above, that the earth might lie light or heavy on the dead. :{: This appears from their being provided, as it will be shewn they were, with the means of gratifying these appetites. § Hercules, though he feasted with the immortal gods, was wed- ded to Hebe. Homer, II. XI. (i02. Some have thought that ghosts could assume a human body. NOTES. 453 been their delight while men.* And though they could not be felt and handledt like bodies of flesh, and were of a larger size,| yet they had the same lineaments and features. Being an original part of the human frame, they were wounded whenever the body was, and retained the impression of their wound s.§ " Their idea of men's future state of existence was formed upon the model of our present condition. They lent money in this world upon bills payable in the next.|| Between both worlds there was thought to be an open intercourse, departed spirits bestowing favours upon their survivors, and receiving from them gifts and presents. These gifts were sometimes supposed to be conveyed into the other world in their ov/n natural form : for they put into the mouth of a dead man a piece of money, to pay Charon for his passage over Styx ; and a cake, of which honey was the principal ingredient, to pacify the growling Cerberus.^ Those things, whose natural outward form was destroyed, did not altogether perish, but " Pars in gramineis exercent membra palsestris, &c. Virg. Mn. VI. 642. . Quae gratia currum Armorumque fuit vivis, quEe cura nitentis Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. Id. ib. V. 653. Multo magis rectores quondam urbium recepti in coelum curam regendorum hominum Hon relinquunt. Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. l.i. c, 9. t Homer, Odyss, XI. 205, J Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago. Virg. .'En. IV. 654. § Homer, Odyss. XI. 40. Virg. ^n. VI. 495. II This is related of the Celts or Gauls. Pecunias mutuas, quae his apud inferos redderentur, dare solitos. Pythagoras approved the custom : for our author adds, Dicerem stultos, nisi idem brac- cati sensissent, quod palliatus Pythagoras credidit. Valerius 3Iaximus, lib. 2. c. 6. § 10. ^ Bos. Gr. Antiq. p. 410. 454 NOTES. passed into the other world. The souls of brutes survived the dissolution of their bodies ; and even inanimate sub- stances, after they were consumed by fire, still, in some de- gree, subsisted ! images flying off from them, which as ex- actly resembled them as a ghost did the living man. Hence it was, that, upon the funeral piles of the dead, they were accustomed to throw letters, in order to their being read by their departed friends.* And being able, as they imagined, to transmit to the dead whatever gifts they pleased, in one form or other ; food, t and raiment, J and armour, § were either deposited in their graves, or consumed in the same fire with their own bodies, together with their wives and concubines, || their favourite slaves, ^ and brute animals, *• • Diodorus Siculus, 1. v. p. 352, relates this circumstance of the Gauls. -|- See below, under Sacrifices. J Solon (according to Plutarch, vit. Solon, p. 90. C.) made a law to prevent the burying with the dead more than three garments. This law was afterwards adopted by the Romans, and inserted in the 12 tables. Sumtum minutio ; tria, si volet, ricinia adliibeto. The clothes of the dead were sometimes thrown upon the funeral pile. Bos. p. 422. Kennett, Rom. Antiq. p. 357. § The arms of soldiers were thrown upon their pyre. Bos. ch. 22, p. 422. II This is still a 'custom in some parts of the East, and it is of great antiquity. Evadne (by Ovid called Iphias) threw himself upon the funeral pile of Capaneus, uttering this prayer : Acc'ipc me, Capancii. Ovid. Ars. Am, 1. 3. v, 21, Statins, Thebaid. 1, 12. v. 801. Propertius, 1. 15, 21. 5[ Servi et clientes, quos ab iis dilectos esse constabat, justis funeribus confectis una cremabantur, Caesar, B. C. 1. G. c. 18. It was the same both in Mexico and Peru : on the death of the emperors and other eminent persons, many of their attendants were put to death, that they might accompany them into the other world, and support their dignity. See Robertson's Hist, of Nortii America, v. 3. p. 211, 259. *• Ca;sar, ubi supra. At the funeral of Patroclus, four horses and nine favourite dogs were thrown upon the pyre. Homer, H. 23, v. 171. NOTES. 455 and whatever else had been the object of their affection in life.' " Accordingly we find the parrot of Corinna, after his death, in Elysium. t Orpheus, when in the same happy abode, appears in his sacerdotal robe, striking his lyre ; and the warriors were furnished with their horses, arras, and chariots, which Virgil calls inaries, empty, airy, and vJisub- stantial, being such shades and phantoms of their former chariots as the ghosts themselves were of men. J In a word, whatever was burnt or interred with the dead, their ghosts were thought to receive and use. It is observable, that, as the ghosts appeared with the wounds made in them before their separation from the body, so the arms that had been stained with blood before they were burnt appeared bloody afterwards ; § and, in like manner, the money-bills, and letters that had been consumed in the flames, were certainly thought to retain the impression of what had been written in them. " Such notions of separate spirits can indeed for the most part be considered only as the childish conceptions of untu- tored minds, in the infancy of the world, or in ages of gross ignorance. Nevertheless, being consecrated to the purposes of superstition, and in length of time becoming venerable by their antiquity, they maintained their credit in more enlight- ened ages amongst the multitude, and, through policy, were patronized even by those who discerned their absurdity. " This general view of the notions which the Heathens • Moris fuerat, ut cum his rebus homines sepelirentur quas di- lexerant vivi. Servius on JEn. X. 827. See also Caesar, L 6. 18. + Psittacus has inter, nemorali sede receptus, Convertit volucres in sua verba pias. Ovid, Amor. 1. II. el. 6 v. 57. + Virg. jEn. VI. 645 — 655. § Homer, Od. XI. 41. 456 NOTES. entertained of human spirits, may prepare us to receive the farther account that will be given of them, and thereby of the ground of that particular kind of worship that was paid them. And, if the same worship was paid to the gods as to human spirits, and for the same reasons, it will appear high- ly probable, that both were of the same nature originally, though there was a difference of rank between them," * Note 4, p. 217. Prophetic Character of the Second-sight in the Highlands. It has been often supposed, but with the greatest incorrect- ness, either that the second-sight boasted of by the High- landers was a gift comparatively unknown to other tribes of Europe, or that it was a faculty which exclusively pointed to the divination assumed by the ancient priests of the Celts, who were well known under the name of Druids- Neither view, however, is exactly correct. In the first place, there is scarcely a people of Europe by whom a divining power of seeing objects invisible to all other eyes has not at one time or other been assumed ; and, secondly, the faculty of the Highland seer more agrees in its superstitious character with one that was familiar to the northern tribes of Europe, who were either of a Teutonic stock, or were allied to the Fins. Indeed I have often considered that most of the superstitions of the Highlands, particularly of the western districts of Scotland, north of the Clyde, may be more successfully traced to the Norwegian than to the Gaelic progenitors of this people. Entertaining, therefore, this view, I shall give some extracts from a work of the 17th century, viz. — Schef- fer's History of the Laplanders, in which a remarkable cor- respondence may be found to subsist between the spectral impressions of this people and those of the Highlanders. * See Farmer on the \'J''orship of Human Spirits, &c. p. 417, &c. NOTES. 457 " The melancholic constitution of the Laplanders," says Scheffer, " renders them subject to frightful apparitions and dreams, which they look upon as infallible presages made to them by the Genius of what is to befall them. Thus they are frequently seen lying upon the ground asleep, some sing- ing with a full voice, others howling and making a hideous noise not unlike w^olves." " Their superstitions may be imputed partly to their liv- ing in solitudes, forests, and among the wild beasts ; partly to their solitary way of dwelling separately from the society of others, except what belong to their own families, some- times at several leagues distance. Hereafter it may be added, that their daily exercise is hunting, it being observed that this kind of life is apt to draw people into various supersti- tions, and at last to a correspondence with spirits. For those who lead a solitary life being frequently destitute of human aid, have oftentimes recourse to forbidden means, in hopes to find that aid and help among the spirits, which they can- not find among men ; and what encourages them in it is im- punity, these things being committed by them, without as much as the fear of any witnesses ; which moved Mr Rheen to allege, among sundry reasons which he gives for the con- tinuance of the impious superstitions of the Laplanders, this for one : Because they live among inaccessible mountains, and at a great distance from the conversation of other men. Another reason is, the good opinion they constantly entertain of their ancestors, whom they cannot imagine to have been so stupid as not to understand what God they ought to worship ; wherefore they judge they should be wanting in their reverence due to them, if, by receding from their in- stitutions, they should reprove them of impiety and igno- rance.'' " The parents are the masters who instruct their own sons in the magical art : Those, says Torna?us, who have 458 NOTES. attained to this magical art by instructions receive it either from their parents, or from some body else, and that by de- grees, which they put in practice as often as an opportunity offers. Thus they accomplish themselves in this art, espe- cially if their genius leads them to it. For they don't look upon every one as a fit scholar ; nay, some are accounted quite incapable of it, notwithstanding they have been sufficiently instructed, as I have been informed by very credible people. And Joh. Tornaeus confirms it by these words: As the Laplanders are naturally of different inclinations, so are they not equally capable of attaining to this art. And in another passage, they bequeath the demons as part of their inherit- ance, which is the reason that one family excels the other in this magical art. From whence it is evident, that certain whole families have their own demons, not only differing from the familiar spirits of others, but also quite contrary and oppo- site to them. Besides this, not only whole families, but also particular persons, have sometimes one, sometimes more spirits belonging to them, to secure them against the designs of other demons, or else to hurt others. Olaus Petri Niu- renius speaks to this effect, when he says, — They are attend- ed by a certain number of spirits, some by three, others by two, or at least by one. The last is intended for their secu- rity, the other to hurt others. The first commands all the rest. Some of those they acquire with a great deal of pains and prayers, some without much trouble, being their attend- ants from their infancy. Joh. Tornseus gives us a very large account of it. There are some, says he, who naturally are magicians ; an abominable thing indeed. For those who the devil knows will prove very serviceable to him in this art, he seizes on in their very infancy with a certain distem- per, when they are haunted with apparitions and visions, by which they are, in proportion of their age, instructed in the rudiments of this art. Those who are a second time taken NOTES. 45M with this distemper, have more apparitions coming before them than in the first, by which they receive much more insight into it than before. But if they are seized a third time with this disease, which then proves very dangerous, and often not without the hazard of their Hves, then it is they see all the apparitions the devil is able to contrive, to accomphsh them in the magical art. Those are arrived to such a degree of perfection, that without the help of the drum,* they can foretel things to come a great while before ; and are so strongly possessed by the devil, that they foresee things even against their will. Thus, not long ago, a certain Laplander, who is still alive, did voluntarily deliver his drum to me, which I had often desired of him before; notwithstanding all this, he told me in a very melancholy posture, that though he had put away his drum, nor in- tended to have any other hereafter, yet he should foresee every thing without it, as he had done before. As an in- stance of it, he told me truly all the particular accidents that had happened to me in my journey into Lapland ; making at the same time heavy complaints, that he did not know what use to make of his eyes, those things being presented to his sight much against his will. " Lundius observes, that some of the Laplanders are seized upon by a demon, when they are arrived to a middle age, in the following manner : — Whilst they are busie in the woods, the spirit appears to them, where they discourse concerning the conditions, upon which the demon offers them his assist- ance, which done, he teaches them a certain song, which they are obliged to keep in constant remembrance. They must return the next day to the same place, where the same spi- rit appears to them again, and repeats the former song, in case he takes a fancy to the person ; if not, he does not ap- An instrument intended for the purpose of conjuration. 460 NOTES. pear at all. These spirits make their appearances under dif- ferent shapes, some like fishes, some like birds, others like a serpent or dragon, others in the shape of a pigmee, about a yard high ; being attended by three, four, or five other pig- mees of the same bigness, sometimes by more, but never ex- ceeding nine. No sooner are they seized by the Genius, but they appear in a most surprising posture, like madmen, be- reaved of the use of reason. This continues for six months ; during which time they don't suffer any of their kindred to come near them, not so much as their own wives and chil- dren. They spend most of this time in the woods and other solitary places, being very melancholy and thoughtful, scarce taking any food, which makes them extremely weak. If you ask their children, where and how their parents sustain themselves, they will tell you, that they receive their suste- nance from their Genii. The same author gives us a remark- able instance of this kind in a young Laplander called Olaus, being then a scholar in the school of Liksala, of about eighteen years of age. This young fellow fell mad on a sud- den, making most dreadful postures and outcries, that he was in hell, and his spirit tormented beyond what could be ex- pressed. If he took a book in hand, so soon as he met with the name of Jesus, he threw the book upon the ground in great fury, which after some time being passed over, they used to ask him, whether he had seen any vision during this ecstacy ? He answered, that abundance of things had appeared to him, and that a mad dog being tied to his foot, followed him wherever he stirred. In his lucid intervals he would tell them, that the first beginning of it happened to him one day, as he was going out of the door of his dwell- ing, when a great flame passing before his eyes and touching his ears, a certain person appeared to him all naked. The next day he was seized with a most terrible headach, so that he made most lamentable outcries, and broke every thing that came under his hands. This unfortunate per- NOTES. 461 son's face was as black as a coal, and he used to say, that the devil most commonly appeared to him in the habit of a mi- nister, in a long cloak ; during his fits he would say that he was surrounded by nine or ten fellows of a low stature, who did use him very barbarously, though at the same time the standers-by did not perceive the least thing like it. He would often climb to the top of the highest fir-trees, with as much swiftness as a squirrel, and leap down again to the ground, without receiving the least hurt. He always loved solitude, flying the conversation of other men. He would run as swift as a horse, it being impossible for anybody to overtake him. He used to talk amongst the woods to him- self no otherwise than if several persons had been in his company. " I am apt to believe, that those spirits were not alto- gether unknown to the ancients, and that they are the same which were called by Tertullian Paredri, and are mentioned by IMonsieur Valois, in his Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. " Whenever a Laplander has occasion for his familiar spi- rit, he calls to him, and makes him come by only singing the song he taught him at their first interview ; by which means he has him at his service as often as he pleases. And because they know them obsequious and serviceable, they call them Sveie, which signifies as much in their tongue, as the companions of their labour, or their helpmates. Lundius has made another observation, very well worth taking no- tice of, viz. — That those spirits or demons never appear to the women, or enter into their service ; of which I don't pretend to allege the true cause, unless one might say, that perhaps they do it out of pride, or a natural aversion they have to the female sex, subject to so many infirmities."* • History of Lapland, written by John Scheffer, Professor of Law, &c. at Upsal in Sweden. English translation, published A.D. 1704. 462 NOTES. Such is tlie remarkable similarity subsisting between the second-sight of the Highlanders and of the Laplanders, which, again, is like that of the Norwegians. But, before dismissing this subject, I shall remark, that one of the latest proofs of the prophetic character of the second- sight is afforded by Dr Ferriar in his Theory of Apparitions. " A gentleman," says this author, " connected with ray fa- mily, an officer in the army, and certainly addicted to no su- perstition,* was quartered early in life, in the middle of the last century, near the castle of a gentleman in the north of Scotland, who was supposed to possess the second-sight. Strange rumours were afloat respecting the old chieftain. He had spoken to an apparition, which ran along the battle- ments of the house, and had never been cheerful afterwards. His prophetic visions excited surprise even in that region of credulity ; and his retired habits favoured the popular opi- nion. My friend assured me, that one day, while he was reading a play to the ladies of the family, the chief, who had been walking across the room, stopped suddenly, and as- sumed the look of a seer. He rang the bell, and ordered the groom to saddle a horse ; to proceed immediately to a seat in the neighbourhood, and to inquire after the health of Lady ■ If the account was favourable, he then directed him to call at another castle, to ask after another lady whom he named. " The reader immediately closed his book, and declared that he would not proceed till these abrupt orders were ex- plained, as he was confident that they were produced by the second-sight. The chief was very unwilling to explain him- self, but at length he owned that the door had appeared to • Dr Ferriar might with much advantage have spared the remark which I have inserted in italics. NOTES. 463 open, and that a little woman, without a head, had entered the room ; that the apparition indicated the death of some person of his acquaintance ; and the only two persons who resembled the figure were those ladies after whose health he had sent to inquire. " A few hours afterwards the servant returned with an account that one of the ladies had died of an apoplectic fit, about the time when the vision appeared. " At another time the chief was confined to his bed by indisposition, and my friend was reading to him in a stormy winter night, while the fishing-boat belonging to the castle was at sea. The old gentleman repeatedly expressed much anxiety respecting his people ; and at last exclaimed, " My boat is lost !' The colonel replied, ' How do you know it, sir ?' — He was answered, ' I see two of the boatmen bring- ing in the third drowned, all dripping wet, and laying him down close beside your chair. The chair was shifted with great precipitation ; in the course of the night, the fisher- man returned with the corpse of one of the boatmen." It is perhaps to be lamented, that such a narrative as this should have been seriously quoted in Dr Ferriar's philoso- phic work on Apparitions. I have lately seen it advanced, on the doctor's authority, as favouring the vulgar belief in apparitions, and introduced in the same volume with the story of Mrs Veal ! Note 5, p. 237. lllmtration of the Mode in which the Narrative of a Case of Spectral Impressions, although published by and occurring to a medical Man, viay be distorted by superstitious Fears and vulgar Prejudices. In the London Magazine, for the year 1765, (page 234,) we find an extraordinary account, under the signature of Josephus, of a young man, a student of an academy in De- 464 NOTES. vonshire, who dreamt tliat he was paying a visit to his fa- ther's house in Gloucestershire, about a hundred miles dis- tant ; that, on his arrival there, " he first attempted to go in at the fore-door, — but, finding it fast, then went round to the back-door, where he gained an easy admission. Finding the family a-bed, he made the best of his way to the apartment where his father and mother lay. When he had entered the room, he first went to the side of the bed where his father was, whom he found fast asleep ;- on whichj without disturbing him, he went round to the other side of the bed, where he found his mother, as he apprehended, broad awake ; to whom he addressed him- self in these words : ' Mother ! I am going a long journey, and am come to bid you good b'w'ye.' On which she an- swered, in a fright, as follows: — ' O, dear son, thou art dead !' Immediately on which the undersigned awoke, and took no further notice of the affair than he would have done of any other ordinary dream. But, in a few days, that Is, as soon as the post could possibly reach him, he received a letter from his father, informing him that his mother had heard him such a night trying the doors of the house, and repeating precisely all the particulars of his dream as having been likewise exactly represented to her, while awake, in a spectral impression." The remark here made is, — " Such is the son's dream, and such the vision of the mother. This latter being a kind of counter-part to the former, — on which, however, nothing extraordinary turned up on either side." This idle account, given under a fictitious signature, would be unworthy the least comment, were it not for the attempted explanations to which it gave rise, — but more par- ticularly for the illustrations with which such explanations were accompanied. A correspondent of the Magazine (cre- dulous soul !) having called upon his fellow- contributors to afford some key to the mystery, a physician, (proh pudor!) NOTES. 465 Dr J. Cook, relates the following account of some apparitions which occurred to his observation, having first appealed for the truth of them " to the living God, before whom he must be severely judged, if he told a falsity, or intended thereby to deceive any one:" — " Ever since I was three and twenty years of age," con- tinues the superstitious doctor, who certainly laboured very long under genuine spectral impressions, " I have had an invisible being, or beings, attend me at times, both at home and abroad, that has by some gentle token or other given me warning and notice that shortly I should certainly lose a particular friend or a patient. It began and continued from our marriage till the decease of my first wife, in May 1728, and her infant daughter. After that they came sel- dom, but so gentle, civil, and familiar, that I chose rather to have them about my house than not, and would not, if I was to sell it, part with the same without some extraordinary consideration upon that very account; and I really hope they will never leave me as long as I live, though my spouse wishes otherwise, to whom they are not so agreeable. " I may be reckoned by several to be a whimsical vision- ary, or what not, — but I know I am far from it, being nei- ther superstitious, enthusiastic, nor timorous ; and I am cer- tain, too, I am not deceived by others, we all having had many and various impressions from invisible agents ; and I myself, by no fewer than three of my senses, and those so often repeated, that they became quite easy and familiar, without any terror or amazement. I take the hint at once, and wait for the certain and infallible issue. I have spoke to it often, but never received any answer, and think I have courage enough to stand a private conference. " Sometimes we have had these hints frequent and close to- gether ; at other times but seldom, and at a great distance 2g 466 NOTES. of time. But thi.s I have observed, that rarely any patient, or friend, that I respected, or that valued me, departs hence, but I have some kind of sensible notice or warning of it ; — but yet so discreet and mild, as never to flutter or frighten me. This notice, which is either by seeing, feeling, or hear- ing, is not fixed to any certain distance of time previous to their deaths, — but I have had it a week, a month, and more, before their decease, and once only three days. " At first, in 1 728, I kept a book of account, where I en- tered every notice or warning, with the particular circum- stances attending, and the event that succeeded such no- tices ; but they were then so frequent and numerous, that I grew quite weary in writing them down, — so left off that method, resolving to take them for the future just as they came. The very last hint I had was on Saturday night, the 6th of July, 1765, in my chamber, about eleven o'clock, as I was walking to my bed, being from home attending a pa- tient I was that morning sent for to, and which I lost the 20th day of the same month. For the first five days I saw no danger, yet doubted the event ; but, when I have more than one patient dangerously ill at a time, the issue only de- termines the case ; and, though I lay no stress upon such notices so as to affect my practice, yet I fear the most ; and, though the use of means is then to no purpose, yet it ren- ders me the more diligent for conscience sake. " To relate the particular circumstances of the several no- tices intimated on this or any other occasions, would be here entirely useless, as only affording matter of mirth to the light and unthinking, and those who know nothing of the matter. But this I again solemnly declare, that I have many times, even above a hundred, I believe, been made sensible of the existence of a different kind of beings from us, subtle and volatile inhabitants, as I take it, of the air, who see and know our worldly affairs here below, and have a concern for NOTES. 467 us and our welfare. Twice only have I seen spectres, but heard and felt them times innumerable. " Angels they cannot be, those high and glorious beings being too grand and noble for such low offices, and are much better employed above. Devils they are not, as owing no good service at all to the lapsed race of mankind ; and de- parted souls have no more business here, but are gone to their place. " That there are innumerable inferior spiritual beings in our atmosi)here, was the opinion of the ancients, of Milton, and the moderns ; and I think they solve all difficulties at- tending this abstruse subject at once, and may remove the foolish fear so generally attending such odd stories. As no created space is absolutely void of all being, why should our gross atmosphere be without such inhabitants as are most suitable to such an element, — who may be, as it were, the lowest step of the spiritual scale, and the first gradation of a superior order ? " All histories of this sort, both divine and profane, by ancients and by moderns also, cannot be without some foun- dation ; and the learned Whiston and Le Clerc both say the opinion of spectres is neither unreasonable nor unphilosophi- cal, but may very well exist in the nature of things. " In short, I could write a whole volume on the subject ; but that I know it would be but to little purpose, and could serve none but such as are, like myself, in the secret ; therefore it need never be expected. Yet I shall be ready, at any time, to satisfy the curiosity of all sober, sensible, and inquisitive people, by private letters, if desired ; and so- lemnly protest I have no selfish end, interest, design, nor deceit herein ; but the truth I must credit, and always speak, though but three people alive believe me ; and yet I am as much averse to the many idle stories of hobgoblins, and the like vain and villanous impositions, as any man liv- 468 NOTES. ing. But yet the abuse of a thing is no good argument against the use of it, be it eitlier in practice or knowledge. " Nay, what is more wonderful still, besides ray seeing these aerial shades in such vehicles, or something like them, which once I did in my own house at noonday, directed thereto by the barking of my little dog at the same, who saw it first, — I once heard onis of them pronounce very audi- bly and articulately, but most emphatically and pathetically, in my chamber, just as I had put out my candle, and was laid down in my bed, these words : ' / a?n gone.' My second cousin, a visitor, died on the Monday morning following, the fourth day after, who was seemingly well till two days before her decease. My spouse was fast asleep by me, so missed being witness of that notice, though she often is, and some of my sons too, and many others. " But some will say, cui bono, of what use is all this } Suppose we could not resolve the question ; what then ? Can we, poor, dull, finite beings of a day, pretend to account for all phenomena about us ? nay, can we exactly account for any ? — Yet I will humbly offer my thoughts about it, and tell to what good use you may apply them ; and then their intimations may not be altogether in vain. " Look, as I do, upon all such uncommon impressions from invisible powers as a sensible proof, and manifest de- monstration of another and future state of existence after this, and that the present is the first and lowest of all we are successively to pass through. — Betake yourself earnestly to prayer," &c. &c., " and let such secret impressions, items, and hints, be no longer matter of laughter, but of serious meditation," &c., &c., &c. " J. Cook, M.D." [Dated] " Leigh, Sept. IS, 1765." This strange narrative, as we might expect, provoked the replies of many commentators. The first of these, under the NOTES. signature of W., calls his case " a discrasy of the brain, oc- casioned, perhaps, by an uncommon concern for his patients, and anxiety for their welfare." A second critic, in the course of a very learned metaphysical stricture on Dr Cook's illusions, thinks it is very probable that one of the ghosts which visited him was of Irish extraction, and certainly no grammarian ; for, " once, indeed," he adds, " you heard the spiritual agent form an articulate voice, and utter these words, — ' I am gone ;' which you say was fulfilled by the sudden death of your cousin's daughter three days after. — A vain mortal should not presume to dictate expressions to a nobler being ; but certainly his meaning had been less ambiguous, less mysteriously oracular, had he plainly said, * Your cousin's daughter is going.' For no good reason can, I think, be given, why spirits, if they use our language, should not be as much confined as men in the articles of grammar and good sense, if they hope for any respect in this world." I cannot spare room to notice Dr Cook's reply to these let- ters, nor to advert to the remarks of other commentators; but it appears from several contributions of his to the periodical journals, that he was often in an infirm state of health, arising from attacks of the gout. To this mor- bid source then we must probably look for the produc- tion of his phantasms. With regard to the doctor's family being joint witnesses of his ghostly visitants, a moral rather than a medical explanation may afford a key to this asser- tion. IIa^ilet. " Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a camel? POLONIUS. By the mass, arid 'tis like a camel indeed. Hamlet. They fool me to the top of my bent." 470 NOTES. Addition to Note 5. With the foregoing narrative may be compared one which I received, since the first edition of this work was pubhshed, from a respectable individual of Edinburgh, who has favoured me with his name and address. The writer, after making me acquainted with the fanciful impressions of his infancy, the subject of which was derived from the wonderful stories to be found in treatises on demonology, as well as from the popular traditional stories of Scotland, then relates the course of studies by which, in a more ma- ture age, he escaped from the trammels of superstition. This discipline led him to regard, as a mere mental illusion, an incident which others would have considered as super- natural. " About a dozen of years ago,'' remarks my correspondent, " a gentleman, with whom I had been long and intimately acquainted, died very suddenly. The information of his de- cease reached me soon after, and produced no slight emotion in my mind, which, although banished by the business in which I was employed, was occasionally renewed by the con- versation of those with whom I associated. At dinner the subject was talked of in my family. I again pursued my vocation ; and being more than usually busy, if it oc- curred again, it was only for a moment, and the feeling far less intense. About nine in the evening I went up stairs, and joined my family ; the circumstance was not again mentioned by any one, we being engaged in talking over some family-matters in which we were interested. After supper, according to my usual custom, I went down stairs to take a walk in the court behind my house. This court was a parallelogram, and mostly paved, from thirty to forty feet in length ; its breadth more than half as much ; in part it was bounded by extensive open gardens, from NOTES. 471 which it was divided by a low parapet-wall, surmounted with a light railing ; the extremities at both ends were the walls of offices belonging to the house. The sky was clear, and the night serene ; and there was no light from my win- dow which could either fall or produce any shadow in the court. (You will instantly perceive my reason for relating these minute particulars.) " When I went down stairs, I was musing on a subject by no association of ideas connected with my deceased friend, and for several hours did not note him in my mind. My entrance to the court was at an angle ; and I had proceeded at a slow pace, nearly half-way across, still pursuing my ru- minations, when the figure of my departed friend seemed suddenly to start up right before rac, at the opposite angle of the court. I do not at this moment see the pen in my hand, nor the paper on which I am writing, more visibly and distinctly, than he appeared to me ; so that I could at a glance discern his whole costume. He was not in his usual dress, but in a coat of a different colour, which he had for many months left off wearing ; I could even remark a fi- gured vest, which he had also worn about the same time ; also a coloured silk handkerchief around his neck, in which I had used to see him in a morning ; and my powers of vision seemed to become more keen as I gazed on the phan- tom before me. It seemed to be leaning in the angle with its back to the wall, and gave me a bow, or rather a fami- liar nod of recognisance, making a slight motion with the right hand. I acknowledge that I started, and an indescrib- able feeling, which I shall never forget, shot through my frame; but after a pause of, I suppose, from twenty to thirty seconds, I became convinced that it was either an optical deception, or some sudden and temporary hallucination of the mind. I recovered my fortitude ; and, keeping my eye intently fixed on the spectre, walked briskly up to the spot. 472 NOTES. It vanished, not by sinking into the earth, but by seeming insensibly to melt into viewless air. I brought my hand in contact with the wall on which it seemed to lean, felt no- thing, and the illusion was vanished for ever- " There is no doubt that all this happened in consequence of the previous strong excitement of my feelings, and the deep impression left on my mind ; but I have never been able to comprehend how it should have occurred, after the subject had been banished from my memory, and when my thoughts were employed on a very different subject ; nor can I conceive how the external organs of sight should so readily be united with imagination, in producing the extra- ordinary illusion, especially with one who was so decidedly sceptical on the subject.* " I have talked over this strange occurrence with friends, but have never heard a satisfactory solution, either physical or philosophical, of what could produce this temporary alie- nation of the reasoning faculties. One clerical friend, who, although otherwise not a weak-minded man, endeavoured to convince me, not only of the possibility, but even of the probability, that it was a real apparition which had so sud- denly appeared before me. To this I replied, ' If so, to what purpose did it appear ? or what good was promoted by its un- expected appearance .'' It neither reprimanded me for the past, nor admonished me for the future. The intrusion produced no consequences, except a momentary alarm, and some sub- sequent musings on how little I knew of my own frame, either physical or intellectual.' " • I would remark, to my intelligent correspondent, who had not at the time seen my work, that these truly pertinent questions are frequently discussed in the course of this dissertation, but more particvdarly in some chapters of the Fourth Part of (he present edition, commencing at page 224, and ending at page 304. S. II. NOTES. 473 Note cJ, pp. 331 and 33'^. In page 331, &c., I made a remark, that many narratives of ghosts may be found in various biographies, where they have only found a place because a fortuitous coincidence with the subject of the phantasm and subsequent events has served to countenance the popular views entertained regarding the sacred mission of apparitions. This remark, of course, applies no less to the phantasms of dreams than to those of waking impressions. Since committing this passage to paper, however, I have met with the publication of a case of an opposite kind, and it is really the only one which I know of that has been re- corded. It is to be found in an able letter addressed to a friend of the writer, " on the Vanity of Dreams, and upon the Appearance of Spirits," which was published in " Le Mercure Gallant," for January, 1690. " The last proof, my dear friend," says the writer, " which I can give on the vanity of dreams, is ray surviving after one that I experienced on the 22d of September, 1679. I awoke on that day at five o'clock in the morning, and liav- ing fallen asleep again half an hour after, I dreamt that I was in my bed, and that the curtain of it was undrawn at the foot (two circumstances which were true), and that I saw one of my relations, who had died several years before, enter the room, with a countenance as sorrowful as it had formerly been joyous. She seated herself at the foot of my bed, and looked at me with pity. As I knew her to be dead, as well in the dream as in reality, I judged by her sorrow that she was going to announce some bad news to me, and perhaps death ; and foreseeing it with sufficient indifference, — ' Ah well !' said I to her, ' I must die then ?' She re- plied to me, ' It is true.' — ' And when ?' retorted I. ' Im-^ mediately?' — ' To-day,' replied she. I confess to you the 7 474 NOTES. time appeared short ; but, without being concerned, I in- terrogated her further, and asked her ' in what manner ?' She murmured some words which I did not understand, and at that moment I awoke. The importance of a dream so precise made me take notice of my situation, and I re- marked, that I had lain down upon ray right side, my body extended, and both hands resting upon my stomach. I rose to commit ray dream to writing, for fear of forgetting any part of it ; and, finding it accompanied by all the circum- stances which are attributed to mysterious and divine visions, I was no sooner dressed, than I went to tell my sister-in- law, that, if serious dreams were infallible warnings, she would have no brother-in-law in twenty-four hours. I told her afterwards all that had happened to me, and likewise informed some of my friends, but without betraying the least alarm, and without changing in any respect ray usual conduct, resigning myself to the entire disposal of Provi- dence. " Now, if I had been weak enough to give up my mind to the idea that I was going to die, perhaps I should have died, and it would have happened to me, as to those men, of whom Procopius, the Greek historian, has spoken, who, when the plague prevailed, were struck with this scourge from God, for having only dreamt that demons touched them, or said to them that they would be soon in the tomb. I likewise should have paid by the shortening of ray days for yielding up ray belief to these dreams, and violating the law of God, which forbids such a superstition. At least it is certain, that a Canadian would not have escaped ; for he would have even had recourse to precipices, or to his own hands, in order that his dreara might not be a futile one. For the people of that country are absolutely persuaded, that they cannot dream of any thing which ought not to happen as a matter of course." NOTES. 475 Note 7, p. 335. There is not a more frequent subject of marvellous narra- tions, whether true or false, than the ghost of some departed friend appearing to an individual in fulfilment of a previous compact made before death. But the writer in " Le Mer- cure Gallant," of the year 1690, whom I have before quoted, though uttering his sentiments in a superstitious age and country, has not hesitated to express some doubts on the subject. " Souls do not take flight from their bodies to return to them, the tarrying-place being too indifferent for such spirits, however delightful it may be in young persons. If it was otherwise, I should have seen Plusside since her death. This beauty, of whom you have heard me say so much, had sworn to me, in the strength of our affections, one day in Easter, at the foot of the altar, that if she died before me, she would come and see me, and tell me all the news of the other state. I also made her the same promise, and sancti- fied it with an oath. Nevertheless, many years have elapsed since she has paid the debt of nature, without having accom- plished what she owed to friendship and to her word. " THE KND. PRINTED BY OLIVER it BOVI>. ^ ^^^^^^ university of CaUforma ^ SOUTHERN REGIONAL L,BRARY^FACn..TY^ 305 De Neve Drive ■ P^r'^mQ^NlA 90095-1388 LOS ANGELES, CALi»-un. borrowed. 7/Sl ^^l w ^ ziE REC'DC.LAPR0 4'Q5 APR :-. t^ ii 'T' c ::K ^^MBN1VER5/^ ^lOSANCI Ufwersiiy 0* California Los Angeles L 005 493 279 3 zn >- \ f-^tf^^ — "^AajAii "V UC SOUTHERN REG'ONAL LIBRARY FACILl^^^ AA 000 505 738 5 \f\C AriTM ,▼•- . r I tnn » »^v ^ il-3^' ■'UU3. .4^ '^^Atfv •'UUJI ^OFC r ^