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NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
a state of ignorance persons are liable to numerous
impositions ; they are easily imposed- on by rumours
IbSj
ar* reports which they have not the power of investid
pat'nS> and still more easily imposed on by their own
iMCiMiSSffi impressions or notions. Of all the impositions which
have vexed the ignorant, a belief in the reality of spectral appear
ances has been one of the most ridiculous, yet one of the longest
and most zealously supported. This belief was once current even
among men reputed for their learning—that is, a kind of learning, not
founded on a correct knowledge of nature—but, by the progress of
inquiry, it has gradually been abandoned by persons of education,
and now is maintained only by those whose minds have not been
instructed on the subject. Considering that this belief, like every
other error, is injurious to happiness, and that, in a particular
manner, the young require to be put on their guard against it, we
propose, in the present paper, to explain the theory of spectral
illusions—how they originate in the mind, and are in no respect
supernatural in their character.
To obtain right ideas of this curious, and, to many, mysterious
subject, it is necessary to understand, in the first place, what kind
of a thing the human mind is, and how it operates in connection
with the senses, or at least two of them—seeing and hearing. The
seat of the mind is in the brain ; in other words, the brain is the
organ or mdss of organs by which the thinking faculties act. Like
No. 159.
,
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
an instrument finely tuned, the brain, when in a sound state of
health, performs its part in our economy with fidelity. Shut up in
the skull, however, it has no communication with external nature
except through the medium of the senses. The senses are the
channels of intelligence to the brain. When the eye receives the
impression or picture of a thing presented to it, that impression iscarried by a nerve to the brain, where the consciousness or mind
recognises it; and the same thing occurs with the ear in the trans
mission of sound. The ordinary notion, therefore, that the eye sees,
is scarcely correct. It is the mind, through the operation of the
brain, the optic nerve, and the eye, which sees. The eye is only an
instrument of vision and recognition. Such is the ordinary process
of seeing, and of having a consciousness of what is presented to the
eye ; and we perceive that the outer organ of vision performs but an
inferior part in the operation. There is, indeed, a consciousness of
seeing objects, without using the eyes. With these organs shut, we
can exert our imagination so far as to recall the image of objects
which we formerly have seen. Thus, when in an imperfect state of
sleep, with the imagination less or more active, we think that we
see objects, and mingle in strange scenes ; and this is called dream
ing. Dreams, therefore, arise principally from a condition of partial
wakefulness, in which the unregulated imagination leads to all kinds
of visionary conceptions. In a state of entire wakefulness, and with
the eyes open, unreal conceptions of objects seemingly present may
also be formed; but this occurs only when the system is disordered
by disease.
We are now brought to an understanding of the cause of those
illusions which, under the name of ghosts, apparitions, or spectres,
have in all ages disturbed the minds of the credulous. The disorder
which leads to the formation of these baseless visions may be
organic or functional, or a combination of both. Organic disorder
of the body is that condition in which one or more organs are
altered in structure by disease. Functional disorder is less serious
in character : it is that condition of things where the healthy action
of the organ or organs, in part or whole, is impeded, without the
existence of any disease of structure. Lunacy, if not arising from
organic disorder, hovers between it and functional derangement, in
either case producing unreal conceptions in the mind. Functional
disorder may arise in various ways, and be of different kinds. It
may be said that violent excitement of the imagination or passions
constitutes functional mental disorder : ‘ Anger is a short madness/
said the Romans wisely. As for functional bodily disorder, tem
porary affections of the digestive organs may be pointed to as
common causes of such cases of physical derangement. All these
disorders, and kinds of disorders, may appear in a complicated
form; and, what is of most importance to our present argument,
the nervous system, on which depend the action of the senses, the
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powers of the will, and the operation of all the involuntary functions
(such as the circulation of the blood, and digestion), is, and must
necessarily be, involved more or less deeply in all cases of constitu
tional disorder, organic or functional. These powers of the nerves,
which form, as we have seen, the sole medium by which mind and
body act and react on each other, are clearly, then, connected with
the production of every kind of illusory impression.
In lunacy, from organic derangement, these impressions are
usually the most vivid. Every lunatic tells you he sees spectres, or
unreal persons ; and no doubt they are seemingly present to his
diseased perceptions. The same cause, simple insanity, partial or
otherwise, and existing either with or without structural brain disease,
has been, we truly believe, at the foundation of many more apparition
cases than any other cause. By far the greatest number of such
cases ever put on record, have been connected with fanaticism in
religious matters ; and can there be a doubt that the majority of the
poor creatures, men and women, who habitually subjected themselves,
in the early centuries of the church, to macerations and lacerations,
and saw signs and visions, were simply persons of partially deranged
intellect ? St Theresa, who lay entranced for whole days, and who,
in the fervour of devotion, imagined that she was frequently addressed
by the voice of God, and that St Peter and St Paul would often in
person visit her solitude, is an example of this order of monomaniacs.
That this individual, and others like her, should have been perfectly
sensible on all other points, is a phenomenon in the pathology of
mind too common to cause any wonder. We would ascribe, we
repeat, a large class of apparition-cases, including these devotional
ones, to simple mental derangement. The eye in such instances
may take in a correct impression of external objects, but this is not
all that is wanting. A correct perception by the mind is essential to
healthy and natural vision, and this perception the deranged intellect
cannot effect.
We should go further than this for a complete elucidation of
spectral illusions. At the time the spectre makes its appearance,
the mind may be neither altogether diseased nor altogether health
ful ; the perceptive powers may recognise through the eye all
surrounding objects exactly as they appear, but, almost in the same
instant of time, the mind may mix up an unreal object with them.
How, then, is the unreal object introduced into the scene ? There
is the strongest ground for believing that the unreal object—the
spectre—is an idea of the mind acting on the optic nerve, and
impressing a picture on the retina, just as effectually as if the object
were external to the person. The mind, as it were, daguerreotypes
the idea—the flash of thought—on the retina, or mirror of the eye,
where it is recognised by the powers of perception. That spectres
are mental pictures, is forcibly stated as follows by Sir David
Brewster : ‘ I propose to shew that the “ mind’s eye ” is actually the
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
Tody’s eye, and that the retina is the common tablet on which both
classes of impressions are painted, and by means of which they
receive their visual existence according to the same optical laws.
Nor is this true merely in the case of spectral illusions. It holds
good of all ideas recalled by the memory, or created by the imagina
tion, and may be regarded as a fundamental law in the science of
pneumatology.
‘ In the healthy state of the mind and body, the relative intensity
•of these two classes of impressions on the retina are nicely adjusted.
The mental pictures are transient, and comparatively feeble, and in
ordinary temperaments are never capable of disturbing or effacing
'the direct images of visible objects. The affairs of life could not be
• carried on if the memop' were to intrude bright representations of
‘•the past into the domestic scene, or scatter them over the external
{-landscape. The two opposite impressions, indeed, could not co
exist. The same nervous fibre which is carrying from the brain to
the retina the figures of memory, could not at the same instant be
carrying back the impressions of external objects from the retina to
the brain. The mind cannot perform two different functions at the
same instant, and the direction of its attention to one of the two
classes of impressions necessarily produces the extinction of the other.
But so rapid is the exercise of mental power, that the alternate
appearance and disappearance of the two contending impressions is
710 more recognised than the successive observations of external
objects during the twinkling of the eyelids.’ *
With these general observations, we proceed to an analysis of the
-different kinds of spectre-seeing, beginning with a short explanation
of dreaming and somnambulism, with which apparitional illusions
are intimately associated.
DREAMS—SOMNAMBULISM.
Dreaming is a modification of disordered mental action, arising
usually from some kind of functional derangement. In sound sleep,
■The functions of digestion, the circulation of the blood, and all others,
may be said to be duly in action, and the mind is accordingly not
•disturbed. If, however, any of the bodily functions be in a state of
derangement ; if, in particular, the digestion be incommoded, which
it ordinarily is in an artificial mode of life, the senses, the nerves,
"the mind, will also be probably affected, and an imperfect sleep,
with an imperfect consciousness, is the result. According to the
Test writers on the subject, it has been ascertained that, in beginning
To sleep, the senses do not unitedly fall into a state of slumber, but
drop off one after the other. The sight ceases, in consequence of
The protection of the eyelids, to receive impressions first, while all
* Letters on Natural Magic.
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�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
the other senses preserve their sensibility entire. The sense of tasteis the next which loses its susceptibility of impressions, and then the
sense of smelling. The hearing is next in order ; and, last of all,,
comes the sense of touch. Furthermore, the senses are thought to
sleep with different degrees of profoundness. The sense of touch
sleeps the most lightly, and is the most easily awakened; the next
easiest is the hearing ; the next is the sight ; and the taste and
smelling awake the last. Another remarkable circumstance deserves
notice ; certain muscles and parts of the body begin to sleep before
others. Sleep commences at the extremities, beginning with the feet
and legs, and creeping towards the centre of nervous action. The
necessity for keeping the feet warm and perfectly still, as a prelimi
nary of sleep, is well known. From these explanations, it will not
appear surprising that, with one or more of the senses, and perhaps
also one or more parts of the body imperfectly asleep, there should
be at the same time an imperfect kind of mental action, which pro
duces the phenomenon of dreaming.
A dream, then, is an imperfectly formed thought. Much of the
imperfection and incoherency of such thoughts is from having no
immediate consciousness of surrounding objects. The imagination
revels unchecked by actual circumstances, and is not under the
control of the will. Ungoverned by any ordinary standards of
reason, we, in dreaming, have the impression that the ideas which.,
chase each other through the mind are actual occurrences: a mereill-formed thought is imagined to be an action. As thought is veryrapid, it thus happens that events which would take whole days or
a longer time in performance, are dreamed in a few moments. Sowonderful is this compression of a multitude of transactions into the
very shortest period, that when we are accidentally ‘ awakened from
a profound slumber by a loud knock at, or by the rapid opening of,
the door, a train of actions which it would take hours, or days, or
even weeks to accomplish, sometimes passes through the mind.
Time, in fact, seems to be in a great measure annihilated. An
extensive period is reduced, as it were, to a single point, or rather a
single point is made to embrace an extensive period. In one
instant we pass through many adventures, see many strange sights,,
and hear many strange sounds. If we are awaked by a loud knock
,
*
we have perhaps the idea of a tumult passing before us, and knowall the characters engaged in it—their aspects, and even their very
names. If the door open violently, the flood-gates of a canal mayappear to be expanding, and we may see the individuals employed,
in the process, and hear their conversation, which may seem an
hour in length ; if a light be brought into the room, the notion of
the house being in flames invades us, and we are witnesses to the
whole conflagration from its commencement till it be finally extin
guished. The thoughts which arise in such situations are endless,,
and assume an infinite variety of aspects.
5.
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
' ‘ One of the most remarkable phenomena attendant upon dream
ing, is the almost universal absence of surprise. Scarcely any event,
however incredible, impossible, or absurd, gives rise to this emotion.
We see circumstances at utter variance with the laws of nature, and
yet their discordancy, impracticability, and oddness never strike us
as at all out of the usual course of things. This is one of the
strongest proofs that can be alleged in support of the dormant
Condition of the reflecting faculties. Had these powers been awake
and in full activity, they would have pointed out the erroneous
nature of the impressions conjured into existence by fancy, and
shewn us truly that the visions passing before our eyes were merely
the chimeras of an excited imagination—the airy phantoms of
imperfect sleep.’*
Dreams are in general connected with snatches of waking recol
lections, and assume a character from the dreamer’s ordinary'
pursuits and feelings. Shakspeare has admirably described the
effects of dreams of different classes of persons; and the subject
has been also well illustrated by Stepney in the following lines :
‘ At dead of night imperial reason sleeps,
And Fancy with her train her revels keeps.
Then airy phantoms a mixed scene display,
Of what we heard, or saw, or wished by day;
For memory those images retains
Which passion formed, and still the strongest reigns.
Huntsmen renew the chase they lately run,
And generals fight again their battles won.
Spectres and fairies haunt the murderer’s dreams;
Grants and disgraces are the courtier’s themes.
The miser spies a thief, or a new hoard ;
The cit’s a knight; the sycophant a lord.
Thus Fancy’s in the wild distraction lost,
With what we most abhor, or covet most.
Honours and state before this phantom fall;
For sleep, like death, its image, equals all.’
Chaucer’s description, versified by Dryden, is also worthy of being
quoted :
.
‘ Dreams are but interludes which Fancy makes ;
When monarch reason sleeps, this mimic wakes;
Compounds a medley of disjointed things,
A court of cobblers, and a mob of kings :
Light fumes are merry, grosser fumes are sad:
Both are the reasonable soul run mad ;
And many monstrous forms in sleep we see,
That neither were, or are, or e’er can be.
* Macnish’s Philosophy of Sleep.
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind,
Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
The nurse’s legends are for truth received,
And the man dreams but what the boy believed;
Sometimes we but rehearse a former play,
The night restores our actions done by day;
As hounds in sleep will open for their prey.
In short, the farce of dreams is of a piece
In chimeras all; and more absurd or less.’
In ordinary dreaming, the powers of voluntary motion are often
exercised to a slight extent. A dreamer, under the impression • that
he is engaged in an active battle, will frequently give a bed-fellow
a smart belabouring. Often also, in cases of common dreaming,
the muscles on which the production of the voice depends are set
in action, through the instrumentality of that portion of the brain
which is not in a quiescent state, and the dreamer mutters, or talks,
or cries aloud. Sometimes nearly all the senses, along with the
muscles of motion, are in activity, while part of the cerebral organs
are dormant, and in this condition the dreamer becomes a somnam
bulist, or sleep-walker. ‘ If we dream,’ says Mr Macnish, 1 that we
are walking, and the vision possesses such a degree of vividness
and exciting energy as to arouse the muscles of locomotion, we
naturally get up and walk. Should we dream that we hear or see,
and the impression be so vivid as to stimulate the eyes and ears,
or more properly speaking, those parts of the brain which take
cognizance of sights and sounds, then we both see any objects, or
hear any sounds, which may occur, just as if we were awake. In
some cases the muscles only are excited, and then we simply walk,
without hearing or seeing.’ In other cases we both walk and see,
and in a third variety we at once walk, see, and hear. In the same
way the vocal organs alone may be stimulated, and a person may
merely be a sleep-talker; or, under a conjunction of impulses, he
may talk, walk, see, and hear.
Cases of persons in a state of somnambulism rising from bed and
walking to a distant part of the house, or of looking for some object
of which they were dreaming, and so forth, are exceedingly common,
and the seeming marvel is explained by the fact already noticed—
only certain senses and portions of brain are asleep while others are
waking. The boy who, according to the common story, rose in his
sleep and took a nest of young eagles from a dangerous precipice,
must have received the most accurate accounts of external objects
from his visual organs, and must have been able to some extent to
reason upon them, else he could never have overcome the difficulties
of the ascent. He dreamed of taking away the nest, and to his great
surprise found it beneath his bed in the morning in the spot where
he only thought himself to have put it in imagination. The follow
ing case, mentioned by Mr Macnish, is scarcely less wonderful. It
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occurred near one of the towns on the Irish coast. ‘About two
o’clock in the morning, the watchmen on the Revenue Quay were
much surprised at descrying a man disporting himself in the water,
about a hundred yards from the shore. Intimation having been
given to the Revenue boat’s crew, they pushed off, and succeeded in
picking him up ; but, strange to say, he had no idea whatever of his
perilous situation, and it was with the utmost difficulty they could
persuade him he was not still in bed. But the most singular part
of this novel adventure was, that the man had left his house at
twelve o’clock that night, and walked through a difficult and to him
dangerous road, a distance of nearly two miles, and had actually
swum one mile and a half when he was fortunately discovered and
picked up.’ The state of madness gives us, by analogy, the best
explanation of the condition of these climbers and swimmers. With
one or more organs or portions of his brain diseased, and the
rest sound, the insane person has the perfect use of his external
senses, yet may form imperfect conclusions regarding many things
around him. The somnambulist, with one or more of his senses in
activity, but with some of his cerebral organs in a torpid state, is
in much the same position as regards his power of forming right
judgments on all that he hears or sees.
A respectable person, captain of a merchant-vessel, told Sir
Walter Scott the following story, in illustration of illusion from
somnambulism. While lying in the Tagus, a man belonging to his
ship was murdered by a Portuguese, and a report soon spread that
the spirit of the deceased haunted the vessel. The captain found,
on making inquiry, that one of his own mates, an honest, sensible
Irishman, was the chief evidence respecting the ghost. The mate
affirmed that the spectre took him from bed every night, led him
about the ship, and, in short, worried his life out. The captain knew
not what to think of this, but he privately resolved to watch the mate
by night. He did so, and, at the hour of twelve, saw the man start
up with ghastly looks, and light a candle ; after which he went to
the galley, where he stood staring wildly for a time, as if on some
horrible object. He then lifted a can filled with water, sprinkled some
of it about, and, appearing much relieved, went quietly back to his
bed. Next morning, on being asked if he had been annoyed in the
night, he said : ‘Yes; I was led by the ghost to the galley ; but I
got hold, in some way or other, of a jar of holy-water, and freed my
self, by sprinkling it about, from the presence of the horrible phantom.’
The captain now told the truth, as observed ; and the mate, though
much surprised, believed it. He was never visited by the ghost
again, the deception of his own dreaming fancy being thus discovered.
Had the mate burned his hand with the candle, and, by the same
mode of reasoning which led him to believe in the banishment of
the ghost by holy-water, formed the conclusion that the spectre had
touched his hand to imprint on it a perpetual mark, what would
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have been said of the matter by his comrades and himself in the
morning, supposing no watching to have taken place? They would
assuredly have held the scar as an indubitable proof of the super
natural visitation, and the story would have remained as darkly
mysterious as could be desired.
The condition of nightmare, in which the sufferer is under the
feeling of some terrible oppression, is one of the most afflicting kinds
of dreaming. In the more simple order of cases of nightmare, the
dreamer is only labouring under the influence of indigestion; but in
the more severe, the cause is ascribed to cerebral disorder. A
gentleman in Edinburgh was afflicted for years with a night
mare which rendered existence almost unsupportable. On falling
asleep, he dreamed that he was chased by a bull; and frequently, in
terror of being tossed by the horns of the infuriated animal, he leaped
from the bed to the opposite side of the room, on one occasion doing
himself a serious injury. At the death of this unhappy gentleman,
his head was opened, and a portion of his brain found to be affected
with a deep-seated ulcer. In cases of this kind, the spectral
illusions of the dreamer are usually most vivid, and on awakening,
it requires a strong effort of reason to be convinced that the appear
ances were nothing more than airy phantoms of the disordered brain.
With these explanations on the subject of dreaming, we are pre
pared for a consideration of those unreal impressions made on the
mind while in a wakeful condition.
ILLUSIONS FROM CONGESTION OF THE BLOOD-VESSELS.
One of the more simple kinds of functional disorder producing
false impressions on the mind, is an overfulness of blood in the
circulatory vessels. Persons who have followed the discommendable
practice of blood-letting periodically, and have neglected it for more
than the usual length of time, are the most liable to this species of
illusion. Upwards of seventy years ago, Nicolai, a celebrated book
seller in Berlin, experienced the feeling of seeing spectres from this
cause. According to an interesting account he has given on the
subject, it appears that he was a man of a vivid imagination and
excitable temperament, who, some years previous to the occurrences
he relates, was troubled with violent vertigo, which he relieved by
periodical bleeding with leeches. It became with him a custom to
be bled twice in the year; but at length having on one occasion
neglected this means of relieving the system, his mind became
depressed, and apparitions began to be seemingly present to his eyes.
The following is his narration of this painful condition :
‘ My wife and another person came into my apartment in the
morning in order to console me, but I was too much agitated by a
series of incidents, which had most powerfully affected my moral
feeling, to be capable of attending to them. On a sudden I perceived,
159
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at about the distance of ten steps, a form like that of a deceased
person. I pointed at it, asking my wife if she did not see it. It was
but natural that she should not see anything; my question, therefore,
alarmed her very much, and she immediately sent for a physician.
The phantom continued about eight minutes. I grew at length more
calm, and being extremely exhausted, fell into a restless sleep, which
lasted about half an hour. The physician ascribed the apparition to
a violent mental emotion, and hoped there would be no return; but
the violent agitation of my mind had in some way disordered my
nerves, and produced further consequences which deserve a more
minute description.
‘At four in the afternoon, the form which I had seen in the
morning reappeared. I wp.s by myself when this happened, and, •
being rather uneasy at the incident, went to my wife’s apartment,
but there likewise I was persecuted by the apparition, which, how
ever, at intervals disappeared, and always presented itself in a
standing posture. About six o’clock there appeared also several
walking figures, which had no connection with the first. After the
first day the form of the deceased person no more appeared, but its
place was supplied with many other phantasms, sometimes repre
senting acquaintances, but mostly strangers ; those whom I knew
were composed of living and deceased persons, but the number of
the latt'er was comparatively small. I observed the persons with
whom I daily conversed did not appear as phantasms, these repre
senting chiefly persons who lived at some distance from me.
‘ These phantasms seemed equally clear and distinct at all times
and under all circumstances, both when I was by myself and when
I was in company, as well in the day as at night, and in my own
house as well as abroad; they were, however, less frequent when I
was in the house of a friend, and rarely appeared to me in the street.
When I shut my eyes, these phantasms would sometimes vanish
entirely, though there were instances when I beheld them with my
eyes closed; yet when they disappeared on such occasions, they
generally returned when I opened my eyes. I conversed sometimes
with my physician and my wife of the phantasms which at the
moment surrounded me; they appeared more frequently walking
than at rest; nor were they constantly present. They frequently
did not come for some time, but always reappeared for a longer or
shorter period, either singly or in company; the latter, however,
being most frequently the case. I generally saw human forms of
both sexes ; but they usually seemed not to take the smallest notice
of each other, moving as in a market-place, where all are eager to
press through the crowd; at times, however, they seemed to be
transacting business with each other. I also saw several times
people on horseback, dogs, and birds.
‘ All these phantasms appeared to me in their natural size, and as
distinct as if alive, exhibiting different shades of carnation in the
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uncovered parts, as well as different colours and fashions in their
dresses, though the colours seemed somewhat paler than in real
nature. None of the figures appeared particularly terrible, comical,
or disgusting, most of them being of an indifferent shape, and some
presenting a pleasing aspect. The longer these phantasms continued
to visit me, the more frequently did they return, while at the same
time they increased in number about four weeks after they had first
appeared. I also began to hear them talk: these phantoms sometimes
conversed among themselves, but more frequently addressed their
discourse to me ; their speeches were commonly short, and never of
an unpleasant turn. At different times there appeared to me both
dear and sensible friends of both sexes, whose addresses tended to
appease my grief, which had not yet wholly subsided : their consolatory speeches were in general addressed to me when I was alone.
Sometimes, however, I was accosted by these consoling friends while
I was engaged in company, and not unfrequently while real persons
were speaking to me. These consolatory addresses consisted some
times of abrupt phrases, and at other times they were regularly
executed.’
Having thus suffered for some time, it occurred to him that the
mental disorder might arise from a superabundance of blood, and he
again had "recourse to leeching. When the leeches were applied, no
person was with him besides the surgeon ; but during the operation
his apartment was crowded with human phantasms of all descriptions.
In the course of a few hours, however, they moved around the
chamber more slowly; their colour began to fade; until, growing
more and more obscure, they at last dissolved into air, and he ceased
to be troubled with them afterwards.
ILLUSIONS FROM DERANGEMENT IN DIGESTION.
Any derangement of the digestive powers acts on the brain; when
the derangement is excessive, and the health otherwise impaired,
the mind becomes affected, so as to deceive the senses and to produce
spectral illusions. Sir David Brewster, in his Letters on Natural
Magic, narrates the case of a lady of high character and intelligence,
but of vivid imagination, who was so affected from only simple
derangement of the .stomach. The facts were communicated by
the husband of the lady, a man of learning and science, and are as
follow:
‘ I. The first illusion to which Mrs A. was subject was one which
affected only the ear. On the 26th of December 1830, about half
past four in the afternoon, she was standing near the fire in the hall,
and on the point of going up stairs to dress, when she heard, as she
supposed, her husband’s voice calling her by name : “------------ J
come here! come to me 1” She imagined that he was calling at
the door to have it opened; but upon going there and opening the
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door, she was surprised to find no person there. Upon returning to
the fire, she again heard the same voice calling out very distinctly
and loudly: “----- , come; come here!” She then opened two
other doors of the same room, and upon seeing no person, she
returned to the fireplace. After a few moments, she heard the same
voice still calling: “------------ , come to me! come! come away!”
in a loud, plaintive, and somewhat impatient tone. She answered
as loudly: “Where are you? I don’t know where you are;” still
imagining that he was somewhere in search of her : but receiving no
answer, she shortly after went up stairs. On Mr A.’s return to the
house, about half an hour afterwards, she inquired why he called to
her so often, and where he was ; and she was of course greatly sur
prised to learn that he had not been near the house at the time.
‘2. The next illusion which occurred to Mrs A. was of a more
alarming character. On the 30th of December, about four o’clock
in the afternoon, Mrs A. came down stairs into the drawing-room,
which she had quitted only a few minutes before, and on entering
the room she saw her husband, as she supposed, standing with his
back to the fire. As he had gone out to take a walk about half an
hour before, she was surprised to see him there, and asked him why
'he had returned so soon. The figure looked fixedly at her with a
serious and thoughtful expression of countenance, but did not speak.
Supposing that his mind was absorbed in thought, she sat down in
an arm-chair hear the fire, and within two feet at most of the figure,1
which she still saw standing before her. As its eyes, however, still
continued to be fixed upon her, she said, after the lapse of a few
minutes: “Why don’t you speak,----- ?” The figure immediately
moved off towards the window at the farther end of the room, with
its eyes still gazing on her, and it passed so very close to her in
doing so, that she was struck by the circumstance of hearing no step
nor sound, nor feeling her clothes brushed against, nor even any
agitation in the air. Although she was now convinced that the figure
was not her husband, yet she never for a moment supposed that it
was anything supernatural, and was soon convinced that it was a
spectral illusion. The appearance was seen in bright daylight, and
lasted four or five minutes. When the figure stood close to her, it
•concealed the real objects behind it, and the apparition was fully as
vivid as the reality.
‘ 3. On these two occasions Mrs A. was alone, but when the next
phantasm appeared her husband was present. This took place on
the 4th of January 1831. About ten o’clock at night, when Mr and
Mrs A. were sitting in the drawing-room, Mr A. took up the poker
to stir the fire, and when he was in the act of doing this, Mrs A.
exclaimed : “Why, there’s the cat in the room !” “ Where?” asked
Mr A. “ There, close to you,” she replied. “ Where ?” he repeated.
“ Why, on the rug to be sure, between yourself and the coal-scuttle.”
Mr A., who had still the poker in his hand, pushed it in the direction
'
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
y
mentioned. “Take care,” cried Mrs A.; “take care, you are hitting
her with the poker.” Mr A. again asked her to point out exactly
where she saw the cat. She replied : “Why, sitting up there close
to your feet on the rug : she is looking at me. It is Kitty—come
here, Kitty ?” There were two cats in the house, one of which went
by this name, and they were rarely if ever in the drawing-room. At
this time Mrs A. had no idea that the sight of the cat was an illusion.
When she was asked to touch it, she got up for the purpose, and
seemed as if she were pursuing something which moved away. She
followed a few steps, and then said : “ It has gone under the chair.”
Mr A. assured her it was an illusion, but she would not believe it.
He then lifted up the chair, and Mrs A. saw nothing more of it..
The room was then searched all over, and nothing found in it. There was a dog lying on the hearth, which would have betrayed great
uneasiness if a cat had been in the room, but he lay perfectly quiet.
In order to be quite certain, Mr A. rung the bell, and sent for the
two cats, both of which were found in the housekeeper’s room.
‘ 4. About a month after this occurrence, Mrs A., who had taken
a somewhat fatiguing drive during the day, was preparing to go
to bed about eleven o’clock at night, and, sitting before the dressing
glass, was occupied in arranging her hair. She was in a listless
and drowsy state of mind, but fully awake. When her fingers were
in active motion among the papillotes, she was suddenly startled
by seeing in the mirror the figure of a near relation, who was then
in Scotland, and in perfect health. The apparition appeared over
her left shoulder, and its eyes met hers in the glass. After a few
minutes, she turned round to look for the reality of the form over
her shoulder; but it was not visible, and it had also disappeared
from the glass when she looked again in that direction.’
Passing over from the fifth to the ninth cases, we come to the
tenth. ‘ On the 26th of October, about two P.M., Mrs A. was sitting
in a chair by the window in the same room with her husband. He
heard her exclaim : ‘ What have I seen ! ’ And on looking at her,
he observed a strange expression in her eyes and countenance.
A carriage and four had appeared to her to be driving up the
entrance road to the house. As it approached, she felt inclined
to go up stairs to prepare to receive company, but, as if spell-bound,
she was unable to move or speak. The carriage approached, and
as it arrived within a few yards of the window, she saw the figures
of the postilions and the persons inside take the ghastly appearanceof skeletons and other hideous figures. The whole then vanished
entirely, when she uttered the above-mentioned exclamation.
‘11. On the morning of the 30th October, when Mrs A. was
sitting in her own room with a favourite dog in her lap, she distinctly
saw the same dog moving about the room during the space of about
a minute or rather more.
‘12. On the 3d December, about nine P.M., when Mr and Mrs
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A. were sitting near each other in the drawing-room, occupied in.
reading, Mr A. felt a pressure on his foot. On looking up, he
observed Mrs A.’s eyes fixed with a strong and unnatural stare on
a chair about nine or ten feet distant. Upon asking her what she
saw, the expression of her countenance changed, and upon recover
ing herself, she told Mr A. that she had seen his brother, who was
alive and well at the moment in London, seated in the opposite chair,
but dressed in grave-clothes, and with a ghastly countenance, as
if scarcely alive 1
‘ From the very commencement of the spectral illusions,’ observes
Sir David in conclusion, ‘ both Mrs A. and her husband were well
aware of their nature and origin, and both of them paid the most
minute attention to the circumstances which accompanied them,
not only with the view of throwing light upon so curious a subject,
but for the purpose of ascertaining their connection with the state
of health under which they appeared.’
ILLUSIONS
FROM
DELIRIUM
TREMENS.
A bodily disorder, which in itself ought to afford a solution of
nearly all apparitions, is that called delirium tremens, or vulgarly
blue devils. This is most commonly induced, in otherwise healthy
subjects, by continued intemperance in intoxicating liquors. It is a
disorder intimately connected with a derangement of the digestive
functions. So long as the drinker can take food, he is comparatively
secure against the disease, but when his stomach rejects (jommon
nourishmept, and he persists in taking stimulants, the effects are
for the most part speedily visible, at least in peculiarly nervous
constitutions. The first symptom is commonly a slight impairment
of the healthy powers of the senses of hearing and seeing. A ringing
in the ears probably takes place; then any common noise, such
as the rattle of a cart on the street, assumes to the hearing a
particular sound, and arranges itself into a certain tune perhaps,
or certain words, which haunt the sufferer, and are by and by rung
into his ears on the recurrence of every noise. The proverb, ‘ As
the fool thinks, so the bell tinks,’ becomes very applicable in his
case. His sense of seeing, in the meanwhile, begins to shew equal
disorder; figures float before him perpetually when his eyes are
closed at night. By day also, objects seem to move before him
that are really stationary. The senses of touch, taste, and sfnell
are also involved in confusion. In this way the disturbance of
the senses goes on, increasing always with the disorder of the
alimentary function, until the unhappy drinker is at last visited,
most probably in the twilight, by visionary figures as distinct in
outline as living beings, and which seem to speak to him with the
voice of life. At first he mistakes them for realities; but, soon
discovering his error, is thrown into the deepest alarm. If he
14
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
has the courage to approach and examine any one of the illusory
figures, he probably finds that some fold of drapery, or some shadow,
has been the object converted by his diseased sense into the appari
tion, and he may also find that the voice was but- some simple house
hold sound, converted by his disordered ear into strange speech:
for the senses, at least in the milder cases of this sort, rather convert
than create, though the metamorphosed may differ widely from the
real substance. The visitations and sufferings of the party may
go on increasing, till he takes courage to speak to the physician,
who, by great care, restores his alimentary organs to a state of
health, and, in consequence, the visions slowly leave him. If, how
ever, remedies are not applied in time, the party will probably sink
under the influence of his disorder. The spectral figures and voices
being solely and entirely the creation of his own fancy, will seem
to do or say anything that may be uppermost in that fancy at
the moment, and will encourage him to self-murder by every possible
argument—all emanating, of course, from his own brain. The whole
consists merely of his own fancies, bodied forth to him visibly and
audibly in his seeing and hearing organs. His own poor head is
the seat of all; there is nothing apart from him—nothing but
vacancy.
Dr Alderson, a respectable physician, mentions his being called
to a keeper of a public-house, who was in a state of great terror, and
who described himself as having been haunted for some time with
spectres. He had first noticed something to be wrong with him on
being laughed at by a little girl for desiring her to lift some oyster
shells from the floor. He himself stooped, but found none. Sooh
after, in the twilight, he saw a soldier enter the house, and, not
liking his manner, desired him to go away; but receiving no answer,
he sprang forward to seize the intruder, and to his horror found the
shape to be but a phantom ! The visitations increased by night and
by day, till he could not distinguish real customers from imaginary
ones, so definite and distinct were the latter in outline. Sometimes
they took the forms of living friends, and sometimes of people long
dead. Dr Alderson resorted to a course of treatment which restored
the strength of the digestive organs, and gradually banished the
spectres.
,
ILLUSIONS FROM SEVERE DISORDERS.
Among the other varieties of bodily ailments affecting either
structure or function, which have been found to produce spectral
illusions, fevers, inflammatory affections, epileptic attacks, hysteria,
and disorders of the nerves generally, are among the most pro
minent. As regards fevers and inflammatory affections, particularly
those of the brain, it is well known to almost every mother or
member of a large family, that scarcely any severe case can occur
l5
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
without illusions of the sight to a greater or less extent. In hysteric
and epileptic cases also, where fits or partial trances occur, the same
phenomena are frequently observed. But we shall not enlarge on
the effects produced by the influence of severe and obviously exist
ing maladies, as it is in those cases only where the spectre-seer has
exhibited apparent sanity of mind and body that special wonder has
been excited. It is so far of great importance, however, to notice
that these diseases do produce the illusions, as in most cases it will
be found, on inquiry, that the party subject to them, however sound
to appearance at the time, afterwards displayed some of these
complaints in full force; and we may then rationally explain the
whole matter by supposing the seeds of the ailments to have early
existed in a latent state. A German lady, of excellent talents and
high character, published an account some years back of successive
visions with which she had been honoured, as she believed, by
Divine favour. The case of this lady throws so much light on
delusions arising from deranged temperament and kindred maladies,
that we take the liberty of extracting it from the interesting work of
Dr Hibbert.
‘The illusions which the lady experienced first came on in the
fourth year of her age, while she was sitting with her little doll upon
her knees; and, for the greater convenience of dressing and
undressing it, resting her feet upon a large folio Bible. “ I had
scarcely taken my place,” she observes, “ above a minute, when I
heard a voice at my ear say: ‘Put the book where you found it;’
but as I did not see any person, I did not do so. The voice, how
ever repeated the mandate, that I should do it immediately; and,
at the same time, I thought somebody took hold of my face. ' I
instantly obeyed with fear and trembling; but not being able to
lift the book upon the table, I called the servant-maid to come
quickly and assist me. When she came, and saw that I was alone
and terrified, she scolded me, as nobody was there.” It may be
remarked of this part of the account, that the voice which the
narrator heard can only be regarded as a renovated feeling of the
mind, resulting from some prior remonstrances that she might have
incurred from her protectors, whenever she treated with unbecoming
irreverence the holy volume ; while the impression of a person
taking hold of her face, may be referred to some morbid sensation
of touch, incidental to many nervous affections, which would easily
associate itself with the imaginary rebuke of her mysterious monitor,
so as to impart to the whole of the illusion a certain degree of
connection and consistency. The patient (for such I shall call her)
next describes the extreme diligence and the peculiar delight with
which, as she grew up in years, she read twice over, from the
beginning to the end, the pages of the Scriptures ; and she likewise
dwells upon her constant endeavour to render the Bible more
intelligible, by often hearing sermons and reading religious books.
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�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
It is certainly of importance to know the subject of her incessant
and anxious studies, as it is well calculated to explain the nature of
her visions, which, as we might expect, were generally of a religious
description. We are, in the next place, told by the lady, that after
she had reached her seventh year, she saw, when playing, a clear
flame which seemed to enter through the chamber door, while in
the middle of it was a long bright light about the size of a child of
six years old. The phantasm remained stationary for half an hour
near the stove of the room, and then went out again by the room
door ; the white light first, and the flame following it. After this
vision, we hear of no other until the lady is married, when, unfor
tunately, her husband made her life so bitter to her, that she could
think only of death. Hence must have necessarily arisen the
combining influence of strong mental emotions, which could not
but act as powerful exciting agents upon a frame the mental feelings
of which, from constitutional causes, were of the most intense kind.
Spectral illusions would of course become very frequent. Thus, on
one occasion, when she had received some ill-treatment from her
husband, she made a resolution to desist from prayer, thinking the
Lord had forsaken her; but, upon further consideration, she
repented of this purpose, and, after returning thanks to Heaven,
went to bed. She awakened towards the morning, and then, to her
astonishment, found that it was broad daylight, and that at her bed
side was seated a heavenly figure in the shape of a man about sixty
years of age, dressed in a bluish robe, with bright hair, and a
countenance shining like the clearest red and white crystal. He
looked at her with tenderness, saying nothing more than ‘■'■Proceed,
proceed, proceed!” These words were unintelligible to her, until
they were solved by another phantasm, young and beautiful as an
angel, who appeared on the opposite side of the bed, and more
explicitly added : “ Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in
trials” After this incident, a strange light appeared, when she
immediately felt herself pulled by the hairs of her head, and pinched
and tormented in various ways. The cause of this affliction she
soon discovered to be the devil himself, who made his debut in
the usual hideous form under which he is personated, until at length
the angel interfered and pushed away the foul fiend with his elbow.
“Afterwards,” as the lady added, “the light came again, and both
persons looked mournfully at it. The young one then said : ‘ Lord,
this is sufficientand he uttered these words three times. Whilst
he repeated them, I looked at him, and beheld two large white
wings on his shoulders, and therefore I knew him to be an angel
of God. The light immediately disappeared, the two figures
vanished, and the day was suddenly converted into night. My
heart was again restored to its right place, the pain ceased, and I
arose.” ’
Dr Crichton, author of an able work on insanity, found that this
17
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
unfortunate lady was always affected with the aura epileptica during
the prevalence of the illusions ; or, in other words, that she was
labouring under slight attacks of epilepsy. Thus simply was
explained a series of phenomena which, from the high character
for veracity of the subject of them, astonished a great part of
Germany.
ILLUSIONS OF THE IMAGINATION.
Persons in a desponding or gloomy state of mind are exceedingly
liable to be deceived by their fancies. The morbid imagination
catches at every seemingly mysterious appearance, and transforms
it into a spectre, or warning of approaching dissolution. ‘ A man
who is thoroughly frightened,’ observes a popular American writer,
*
* can imagine almost anything. The whistling of the wind sounds
in his ears like the cry of dying men. As he walks along trembling
in the dark, the friendly guide-post is a giant; the tree gently waving
in the wind is a ghost; and every cow he chances to meet is some
fearful apparition from the land of hobgoblins. Who is there that
•cannot testify, from personal experience, of some such freaks of
imagination? How often does one wake up in the night and find the
clothes upon the chair, or some article of furniture in the room,
assuming a distinctly defined form, altogether different from that
which it in reality possesses!
‘ There is in imagination a potency far exceeding the fabled power
of Aladdin’s lamp. How often does one sit in wintry evening
musings, and trace in the glowing embers the features of an absent
friend! Imagination, with its magic wand, will there build the
city with its countless spires—or marshal contending armies
—or drive the tempest-shattered ship upon the ocean. The
following story, relate.d by Scott, affords a good illustration of
this principle :
‘ “ Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had filled,
while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a literary friend,
to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged, during
the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of the
publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of the
distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had
enjoyed the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he
was deeply interested in the publication, which contained some
particulars relating to himself and other friends. A visitor was
sitting in the apartment, who was also engaged in reading. Their
sitting-room opened into an entrance-hall, rather fantastically fitted
up with articles of armour, skins of wild animals, and the like. It
was when laying down his book, and passing into this hall, through
• Scientific Tracts (Boston, 1832).
18
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
which the moon was beginning to shine, that the individual of whom
I speak saw right before him, in a standing posture, the exact repre
sentation of his departed friend, whose recollection had been so
strongly brought to his imagination. He stopped for a single
moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with which fancy
had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of dress and
position of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion,
he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary accuracy
of the resemblance, and stepped onward towards the figure, which
resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of which
it was composed. These were merely a screen occupied by great
coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as are usually found in
a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot from
which he had seen the illusion, and endeavoured with all his power
to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this he
was unable to do. And the person who had witnessed the appari
tion, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the means of
raising it, had only to return into the apartment, and tell his
young friend under what a striking hallucination he had for a
moment laboured.”
‘Most persons under such circumstances would have declared
unhesitatingly that the ghost of the departed had appeared to them,
and they would have found great multitudes who would have believed
it. When the imagination has such power to recall the images of
the absent, is it at all wonderful that many persons should attribute
such appearances to supernatural visitations? Had the poet himself
been in the place of the screen, he probably would not have been
more vividly present. How many, then, of the causes of vulgar fear
are to be attributed to the effect of imagination 1 A lady was once
passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a stormy
evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child. The
clouds were thick—the rain beginning to fall; darkness was increas
ing ; the wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The
lady’s heart almost failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk
through the woods in the gathering gloom. But the reflection of
the situation of her friend forbade her turning back. Excited and
trembling, she called to her aid a nervous resolution, and pressed
onward. She had not proceeded far, when she beheld in the path
before her the movement of some very indistinct object. It appeared
to keep a little distance in advance of her, and as she made efforts
to get nearer to see what it was, it seemed proportionably to recede.
The lady began to feel rather unpleasantly. There was some pale
white object certainly discernible before her, and it appeared
mysteriously to float along at a regular distance, without any effort
at motion. Notwithstanding the lady’s good sense and unusual
resolution, a cold chill began to come over her. She made every
effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing nearer the
19
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the features
of her friend’s child, cold in death, wrapped in its shroud. She
gazed earnestly, and there it remained distinct and clear before her
eyes. She considered it a monition that her friend’s child was dead,
and that she must hasten on to her aid. But there was the apparition
directly in her path. She must pass it. Taking up a little stick,
she forced herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal
scampered away. It was this that her excited imagination had
transformed into the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet. The
vision before her eyes was undoubtedly as clear as the reality could
have been. Such is the power of imagination. If this lady, when
she saw the corpse, had turned in terror and fled home, what
reasoning could ever have satisfied her that she had not seen some
thing supernatural? When it is known that the imagination has
such a power as this, can we longer wonder at any accounts which
are given of unearthly appearances ?’
The numerous stories told of ghosts, or the spirits of persons who
are dead, will in most instances be found to have originated in
diseased imagination, aggravated by some abnormal defect of mind.
We may mention a remarkable case in point; it is told by the com
piler of Les Causes Celebres. Two young noblemen, the Marquises
De Rambouillet and De Precy, belonging to two of the first families
of France, made an agreement, in the warmth of their friendship,
that the one who died first should return to the other with tidings of
the world to come. Soon afterwards, De Rambouillet went to the
wars in Flanders, while De Precy remained at Paris, stricken by a
fever. Lying alone in bed, and severely ill, De Precy one day heard
a rustling of his bed-curtains, and turning round, saw his friend De
Rambouillet in full military attire. The sick man sprung over the
bed to welcome his friend, but the other receded, and said that he
had come to fulfil his promise, having been killed on that very day.
He further said that it behoved De Precy to think more of the after
world, as all that was said of it was true, and as he himself would
die in his first battle. De Precy was then left by the phantom ; and
it was afterwards found that De Rambouillet had fallen on that day.
De Precy recovered, went to the wars, and died in his first combat.
Here, a'fter a compact—the very conception of which argues credu
lousness or weakness of mind—we not only have one of the parties
left in anxiety about the other, but left in a violent fever, and aware
that his friend was engaged in a bloody war. That a spectral illusion
should occur in such a case, is a thing not at all to be wondered at, as
little as the direction and shape that the sick man’s wanderings took.
The fulfilment of the prophecy is the point of interest; and regard
ing it we would simply use the words of Dr Hibbert, in referring to
the story of Lord Balcarras and Viscount Dundee. Lord Balcarras
was confined as a Jacobite in the castle of Edinburgh, while Dundee
was fighting for the same cause ; and on one occasion the apparition
20
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
of the latter came to the bedside of Balcarras, looked at him stead
fastly, leaned for some time on the mantel-piece, and then walked
away. It afterwards appeared that Dundee fell just about the time
at Killiecrankie. ‘ With regard to this point,’ says Dr Hibbert, ‘ it
must be considered that, agreeably to the well-known doctrine of
chances, the event [of Dundee’s death] might as well occur then as
at any other time ; while afar greater proportion of other apparitions,
less fortunate in such a supposed confirmation of their supernatural
origin, are allowed quietly to sink into oblivion? This observation
applies equally as well to the case of De Precy as to that of Balcarras,
each of whom knew that his friend was then hotly campaigning, and
could most probably even guess, from the latest bulletins, on what
day the hostile armies would decisively meet. We are not told
whether or not Balcarras, like De Precy, was in ill health, but the
Scottish lord was confined on a charge of high treason, and on
Dundee’s life or death, victory or defeat, the fate of the prisoner
must have been felt by himself to rest. This was enough to give his
lordship a vivid dream, and even to give him a waking portraiture of
Dundee, after the fashion of the bust of Curran case.
But though explanations may thus be given of the common run
of apparition cases, it may seem to some that there are particular
cases not to be so accounted for. Of this nature, such readers
may say, is the well-warranted story of the Irish lady of rank, who,
having married a second time, was visited in the night-time by the
spirit of her first husband, from whom she received a notification of
the appointed period of her own death. The lady was at first
terrified, but regained her courage. ‘ How shall I know to-morrow
mom,’ said she boldly to the spectre, ‘ that this is not a delusion of
the senses—that I indeed am visited by a spirit ?’ ‘ Let this be a
token to thee for life,’ said the visitant, and, grasping the arm of the
lady for an instant, disappeared. In the morning a dark mark, as
if of a fresh burn, was seen on the wrist, and the lady kept the scar
covered over while she lived. She died at the time prophesied.
This story is told with great unction by some memoir writers,
and the circumstances are said to have been long kept secret by
the lady’s family. For argument’s sake let us admit the most striking
points of the case to be true. As for the circumstance of her death
at the time foretold, it is well known how powerful imagination is in
causing fulfilment in these cases ; and at all events, one instance of
such a fulfilment is no great marvel amid hundreds of failures.
But the black mark—what of it ? We confess to the reader, that if
we had actually seen the scar upon the wrist of the lady, we should
not have been one step nearer to the admission of supernatural
agency. Supposing, however, that the mark actually existed, could it
not have been explained by somnambulism ? The lady may readily
have risen in her sleep, burnt her hand against the bedroom grate,
and, conscious of an unpleasing sensation, though not awakened by
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it, her fancy may have formed the whole story of the preternatural
visitation, precisely as the Irish mate of the merchant vessel in
vented the circumstances connected with the holy-water. When
we find that such an explanation of the matter is accordant with
observed and unquestionable facts, it would be irrational to over
look it, and seek a solution in a supposed breach of the laws of
nature.
In some instances, it may be difficult to decide whether spectral
appearances and spectral noises proceed from functional derange
ment or from an overwrought state of mind. Want of exercise and
amusement may also be a prevailing cause. A friend mentions to
us the following case. An acquaintance of his, a merchant in London,
who had for years paid a very close attention to business, was one
day, while alone in his counting-house, very much surprised to hear,
as he imagined, persons outside the door talking freely about him.
Thinking it was some acquaintances who were playing off a trick, he
opened the door to request them to come in, when, to his amazement,
nobody was there. He again sat down at his desk, and in a few
minutes the same dialogue recommenced. The language employed
was now very alarming. One voice seemed to say : ‘ We have the
scoundrel safe in his counting-house ; let us go in and seize him.’
‘ Certainly,’ replied the other voice ; ‘ it is right to take him ; he has
been guilty of a great crime, and ought to be brought to condign
punishment.’ Alarmed at these threats, the bewildered merchant
rushed to the door; and there again no person was to be seen. He
now locked his door and went home ; but the voices, as he thought,
followed him through the crowd, and he arrived at his house in a
most unenviable state of mind. Inclined to ascribe the voices to
derangement in mind, he sent for a medical attendant, and told his
case ; and a certain kind of treatment was prescribed. This, how
ever, failed: the voices menacing him with punishment for purely
imaginary crimes continued, and he was reduced to the brink of
despair. At length a friend prescribed entire relaxation from business,
and a daily game of cricket; which, to his great relief, proved an
effectual remedy. The exercise banished the phantom voices, and
they were no more heard.
In bygone times, when any kind of nonsense was believed without
investigation, the Lowland Scotch, as they alleged, occasionally saw
wraiths, or spectral appearances of persons who were soon to quit
this mortal scene ; the Irish were also accustomed to the spectacle
offetches; and the Highlanders had their second-sight; the whole,
be it observed, being but a variety of mental disease or some
kind of delusion. In some instances the appearances were a
result of atmospheric refraction, but generally they were nothing
more than the phantoms of a morbid and overexcited fancy. The
progress of education and intelligence has almost everywhere
banished such delusions.
28
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
ILLUSIONS
FROM
DERANGEMENT
OF
THE
EYES.
In our preliminary observations, it was shewn that spectral appear
ances produced by mental disorder were really formed or daguerreotyped on the eye; but an unsound state of the eye itself may
also cause these phantoms. Dr Abercrombie mentions two cases
strikingly illustrative of this fact. In one of these, a gentleman of
high mental endowments, and of the age of eighty, enjoying unin
terrupted health, and very temperate in his habits, was the person
subject to the illusions. For twelve years this gentleman had
daily visitations of spectral figures, attired often in foreign dresses,
such as Roman, Turkish, and Grecian, and presenting all varieties
of the human countenance, in its gradations from childhood to old
age. Sometimes faces only were visible, and the countenance of
the gentleman himself not unfrequently appeared among them.
One old and arch-looking lady was the most constant visitor, and
she always wore a tartan plaid of an antique cut. These illusory
appearances were rather amusing than otherwise, being for the most
part of a pleasing character. The second case mentioned by Dr
Abercrombie was one even more remarkable than the preceding.
‘ A gentleman of sound mind, in good health, and engaged in active
business, has all his life been the sport of spectral illusions, tosuch an extent that, in meeting a friend on the street, he has first
to appeal to the sense of touch before he can determine whether
or not the appearance is real. He can call up figures at will by
a steady process of mental conception, and the figures may either
be something real, or the composition of his own fancy? Another
member of the family was subject to the same delusive impressions.
These very curious cases indicate, we think, a defective condition,
of the retina, which may be held as one distinct and specific source
of spectral deceptions. That defective condition seems to consist
in an unusual sensitiveness, rendering the organ liable to have
figures called up upon it by the stimulus of the fancy, as if impressed
by actual external objects. In ordinary circumstances, on a friend
being vividly called to one’s remembrance, one can mentally form
a complete conception of his face and figure in their minutest
lineaments. ‘ My father ! ’ says Hamlet; ‘ methinks I see him now !’’
‘Where, my lord?’ ‘In my mind's eye, Horatio? In Hamlet’s
case, an apparition is described as having followed this delineation
by the memory, and so may a vivid impression of any figure or
object be transferred from the mind to the retina, where the latter
organ is permanently or temporarily in a weak or peculiarly sensitive
state. In this way the spectral illusions seem to have been
habitually caused in the two cases described. There the defect in
the retina was the fundamental or ultimate cause of their existence,
and the fancy of the individual the power which regulated their
23 •
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
frequency and character. Slighter cases of this nature are of com
paratively common occurrence—cases in which the retina is for a
short time so affected as to give the impression of an apparition.
Every one is aware that a peculiarly bright or shining object, if long
gazed upon, does not leave the retina as soon as the eye is with
drawn from it. It remains upon the nerve for a considerable time
afterwards, at least in outline, as may be observed by closing the
eyelids on such occasions. This retentive power, when aided by
the imagination, and perhaps by a little bodily derangement with
which the senses sympathise, may be carried so far as to produce
an actual and forcible spectral illusion. A gentleman, who had
gazed long and earnestly on a small and beautiful portrait of the
Virgin and Child, was startled, immediately on turning his eye
from the picture, by seeing a woman and infant at the other end
of his chamber of the full size of life. A particular circumstance,
however, disclosed in a moment the source of the appearance.
The picture was a three-parts length, and the apparitional figures
also wanted the lower fourth of the body, thus shewing that the
figures had merely been retained on the tablet of the eye. But
the retina may retain an impression much longer than in this case;
or rather may recall, after a considerable time, an impression that
has been very vividly made at the first. A celebrated oculist in
London mentioned to us that he had been waited on by a gentle
man who laboured under an annoying spectral impression in his
eye. He stated that, having looked steadfastly on a copy of the
Lord’s Prayer, printed in minute characters within a circle the size
of a sixpence, he had ever since had the impression of the Lord’s
Prayer in his eye. On whatever object he turned his organs of
vision, there was the small round copy of the Lord’s Prayer present,
and partly covering it.
It appears, then, from the cases described, that the eye, through
defectiveness of its parts, or through the power of the retina in
retaining or recalling vivid impressions, may itself be the main
agent in producing spectral illusions. From one particular circum
stance, we may generally tell at once whether or not the eye is the
organ in fault on such occasions. In Dr Abercrombie’s cases,
the spectral figures never spoke. This is equivalent to a positive
indication that the sense of hearing was not involved in the derange
ment ; in short, that the eye, and not the whole of the senses, or
general system, constituted the seat of the defect.
ILLUSIONS EXPLAINED BY PHRENOLOGY.
In previous sections, it has been stated that maladies of various
kinds are capable of producing spectral illusions by their effects on
the brain and nervous system. In some cases, it was stated that the
brain is directly diseased; in other cases, that the perceptions made
24
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
by that organ are only indirectly deranged by sympathy with some
bodily malady. Madness, for example, having its origin in diseased
cerebral structure, may be attended with spectral illusions ; and
disorder of the alimentary organs, caused by dissipation, may be an
indirect source of them; the senses, and the brain which forms per
ceptions through their reports, being functionally disordered from
sympathy. That a peculiar temperament of body, and, in part, a
particular mental constitution, are requisite to give a predisposition
to the affection, there can be little doubt. Some mental philosophers
go a great way further. The phrenologists hold that it is chiefly on
a particular development of one portion of the brain, which they
describe as the seat of the sentiment of Wonder, that the tendency
to see visions depends. It is observed by them that this ‘sentiment,
when in a state of extreme exaltation (great development and high
excitement), may stimulate the perceptive faculties to perceive objects
fitted to gratify it; and that spectres, apparitions, spirits, &c. are
the kind of ideas suited to please an inordinate Wonder.’ They
class pretenders to supernatural messages and missions, the seers of
visions and dreamers of dreams, and workers of miracles, among
such patients. Separating the remark just quoted from its reference
to the organology of the phrenological science, we may hold it to
signify that the sentiment of wonder, when predominant in an
individual’s mind, will stimulate those faculties which take cognizance
of the forms, colours, sizes, &c. of material existences, to such a
pitch of activity, that illusory perceptions of objects, characterised by
qualities fitted to gratify wonder, will be formed in the brain. The
following case, contributed by Mr Simpson to the Phrenological
Journal, No. 6, affords an interesting example of the manner in
which spectral illusions are accounted for by the strict rules of this
science.
‘Miss S. L., a young lady under twenty years of age, of good
family, well educated, free from any superstitious fears, and in perfect
general health of body and soundness of mind, has, nevertheless,
been for some years occasionally troubled, both in the night and in
the day, with visions of persons and inanimate objects, in numerous
modes and forms. She was early subject to such illusions occasion
ally, and the first she remembers was that of a carpet spread out in
the air, which descended near her, and vanished away.
‘ After an interval of some years, she began to see human figures
in her room as she lay wide awake in bed, even in the daylight of
the morning. These figures were whitish, or rather gray, and trans
parent like cobweb, and generally above the size of life. At this
time she had acute headaches, very singularly confined to one small
spot of the head. On being asked to point out the spot, the utmost
care being taken not to lead her to the answer, our readers may
judge of our feelings as phrenologists when she touched with her
forefinger and thumb each side of the root of the nose, the com
as
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
mencement of the eyebrows, and the spot immediately over the top
of the nose—the ascertained seats of the organs of Form, Size, and
Individuality! Here, particularly on each side of the robt of the
nose, she said the sensation could only be compared to that of
running sharp knives into the part. The pain increased when she
held her head down, and was much relieved by holding'her face
upwards. Miss S. L., on being asked if the pain was confined to
that spot, answered, that ‘ some time afterwards the pain extended
to right and left along the eyebrows, and a little above them, and
completely round the eyes, which felt often as if they would have
burst from their sockets.’ When this happened, her visions were
varied precisely as the phrenologist would have anticipated, and she
detailed the progress without a single leading question. Weight,
Colouring, Order, Number, Locality, all became affected-; and let us
■observe what happened. The whitish or cobweb spectres assumed
the natural colour of the objects, but they continued often to present
themselves, though not always, above th'e size of life. She saw a
beggar one day out of doors, natural in size and colour, who
vanished as she came up to the spot. Colouring being overexcited,
began to occasion its specific and fantastical illusions. Bright spots,
like stars on a black ground, filled the room in the dark, and even in
daylight; and sudden and sometimes gradual illumination of the
room during the night seemed to take place. Innumerable balls of
fire seemed one day to pour like a torrentjjout of one of the rooms
of the house down the staircase. On onefbccasion the pain between
the eyes, and along the lower ridge of l^te brow, struck her suddenly
with great violence—when instantly thfe room filled with stars and
bright spots. On attempting on that occasion to go to bed, she said
she was conscious of an inability to balance herself, as if she had
been tipsy; and she fell, having made repeated efforts to seize the
bedpost, which, in the most unaccountable manner, eluded her
grasp, by shifting its place, and also by presenting her with a number
of bedposts instead of one. If the organ of Weight, situated between
Size and Colouring, be the organ of the instinct to preserve, and
power of preserving equilibrium, it must be the necessary consequence
of the derangement of that organ to overset the balance of the person.
Overexcited Number we should expect to produce multiplication of
objects, and the first experience she had of this illusion was the
multiplication of the bedposts, and subsequently of any inanimate
object she looked at, that object being in itself real and single : a
book, a footstool, a work-box, would increase to twenty, or fifty,
sometimes without order or arrangement, and at other times piled
regularly one above another. Such objects deluded her in another
way, by increasing in size, as she looked at them, to the most
amazing excess—again resuming their natural size—less than which
they never seemed to become—and again swelling out Locality,
overexcited, gave her the illusion of objects, which she had been
26
1
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
accustomed to regard as fixed, being out of their places; and she
thinks, but is not sure, that on one occasion a door and window in
one apartment seemed to have changed places; but, as she added,
she might have been deceived by a mirror. This qualification gave
us the more confidence in her accuracy, when, as she did with regard
to all her other illusions, she spoke more positively. She had not
hitherto observed a great and painful confusion in the visions which
visited her, so as to entitle us to infer the derangement of Order.
Individuality, Form, Size, Weight, Colouring, Locality, and Number
only seemed hitherto affected.
. ‘For nearly two years Miss S. L. was free from her frontal head
aches, and—mark the coincidence—untroubled by visions or any
other illusive perceptions. Some months ago, however, all her
distressing symptoms returned in great aggravation, when she was
conscious of a want of health. The pain was more acute than before
along the frontal bone, and round and in the eyeballs; and all the
organs there situated recommenced their game of illusion. Single
figures of absent and deceased friends were terribly real to her, both
in the day and the night, sometimes cobweb, but generally coloured.
She sometimes saw friends on the street, who proved phantoms
when she approached to speak to them; and instances occurred
where, from not having thus satisfied herself of the illusion, she
affirmed to such friends that she had seen them in certain places,
at certain times, when they proved to her the clearest alibi. The
confusion of her spectral forms now distressed her. (Order affected.)
The oppression and perplexity was intolerable when figures presented
themselves before her in inextricable disorder, and still more when
they changed—as with Nicolai—from whole figures to parts of
figures, faces and half faces, and limbs—sometimes of inordinate
size and dreadful deformity. One instance of illusive disorder which
she mentioned is curious, and has the further effect of exhibiting
what cannot be put in terms, except those of the derangement of the
just perception of gravitation or equilibrium. (Weight.) One night,
as she sat in her bedroom, and was about to go to bed, a stream of
spectres, persons’ faces, and limbs, in the most shocking confusion,
seemed to her to pour into her room from the window, in the manner
of a cascade ! Although the cascade continued apparently in rapid
descending motion, there was no accumulation of figures in the room,
the supply unaccountably vanishing after having formed the cascade.
Colossal figures are her frequent visitors. (Size.)
‘Real but inanimate objects have assumed to her the form of
animals ; and she has often attempted to lift articles from the
ground, which, like the oysters in the pothouse cellar, eluded her
grasp.
‘ More recently, she has experienced a great aggravation of her
alarms ; for, like Nicolai, she began to hear her spectral visitors
speak! (The organs of Language and Tune, or Sound, affected.)
87
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
At first her crowds kept up a buzzing and indescribable gibbering,
and occasionally joined in a loud and terribly disagreeable laugh,
which she could only impute to fiends. These unwelcome sounds
were generally followed by a rapid and always alarming advance of
the figures, which often on those occasions presented very large and
fearful faces, with insufferable glaring eyes close to her own. All
self-possession then failed her, and the cold sweat of terror stood
on her brow. Her single figures of the deceased and absent then
began to gibber, and soon more distinctly to address her ; but terror
has hitherto prevented her from understanding what they said.
‘ She went, not very wisely, to see that banquet of demonology,.
Der Freischutz ; and of course, for some time afterwards, the dram
atis persona of that edifying piece, not excepting his Satanic
majesty in person, were her nightly visitors. Some particular
figures are persevering in their visits to her. A Moor, with a turban,
frequently looks over her shoulder, very impertinently, when she uses
a mirror.
‘ Of the other illusive perceptions of Miss S. L., we may mention
the sensation of being lifted up, and of sinking down and falling
forward, with the puzzling perception of objects off their perpendic
ular ; for example, the room, floor, and all, sloping to one side.
(Weight affected.)
‘ Colours in her work, or otherwise, long looked at, are slow to
quit her sight. She has noises in her head, and a sensation of heat
all over it; and, last of all, when asked if she ever experienced acute
pain elsewhere about the head than in the lower range of the fore
head, she answered that three several times she was suddenly affected
with such excruciating throbbing pain on the top of the head, that
she had almost fainted; and when asked to put her finger on the
spot, she put the points of each forefinger precisely on the organ of
Wonder, on each side of the coronal surface I’
In the same paper Mr Simpson adduces the singular illusive
perceptions suffered occasionally by Mr John Hunter, the great
anatomist, several of which are identical with Miss S. L.’s. In the
eighteenth and other numbers of the Phrenological Journal, other
cases of spectral illusions are mentioned, several with local pain,
which are held to corroborate the inferences drawn from that of Miss
S. L. But the case of that lady seems to us the most comprehensive
on the subject.
In a subsequent paper by Mr Simpson (in No. 7), the most brief
and satisfactory explanation of the illusions of the English OpiumEater is given. The forms and faces that persecuted him in millions
(Form diseased)—the expansion of a night into a hundred years
(Time)—his insufferable lights and splendours (Colour)—his descent
for millions of miles without finding a bottom (Weight or Resistance,
giving the feeling of support, diseased)—all described by him with
an eloquence that startled the public—are only aggravated illusions,
28
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
•due to his irregularities. It is extremely probable that the intoxi
cating gas affects the same organs.
ILLUSIONS FROM ARTIFICE.
Illusions from the use of phantasmagoria, magic lanterns, mirrors,
and other means of deception connected with professed jugglery,
need not here be more than alluded to. Illusions arising from the
alleged appearance of, and intercourse with, spirits, are of a different
kind, and a regular notice of such would form a dark chapter in the
history of our popular superstitions. In all ages, there have been
persons who lived by imposing on the vulgar, and pretending to
possess supernatural powers. Others, either through heedlessness or
a wanton spirit of mischief, have inflicted scarcely less injury on
society by terrifying children and weak-minded persons with tales of
ghosts and other spectral appearances. It is little more than a cen
tury since the metropolis was thrown into a state of extraordinary
excitement by the Cock Lane ghost; and as the history of this affair
will best illustrate the absurdity of this class of illusions, we may be
allowed to add it to our list of apparition anecdotes.
About the year 1759, Mr Kempe, a gentleman from the county of
Norfolk, came to reside with the sister of his deceased wife, in the
house of a Mr Parsons in Cock Lane, near Smithfield. The lady, it
appears, slept with a girl, the daughter of Parsons, and complained
of being disturbed with very unaccountable noises. From this or
some other cause, Mr Kempe and his sister-in-law removed to
another lodging in Bartlett Street. Here, unfortunately, the lady,
who passed by the name of Mrs Kempe, was attacked with small-pox,
and died ; and on the 2d of February 1760, her body was interred in
a vault in St John’s Church, Clerkenwell.
From this event two years elapsed, when a report was propagated
that a great knocking and scratching had been heard in the night at
the house of Parsons, to the great terror of all the family ; all methods
employed to discover the cause of it being ineffectual. This noise
was always heard under the bed in which lay two children, the
eldest of whom had slept with Mrs Kempe, as already mentioned,
during her residence in this house. To find out whence it proceeded,
Mr Parsons ordered the wainscot to be taken down ; but the knocking
and scratching, instead of ceasing, became more violent than ever.
The children were then removed into the two pair of stairs room,
whither they were followed by the same noise, which sometimes
continued during the whole night.
From these circumstances, it was apprehended that the house was
haunted ; and the elder child declared that she had, some time
before, seen the apparition of a woman, surrounded, as it were, by a
blazing light. But the girl was not the only person who was favoured
with a sight of this luminous lady. A publican in the neighbour29
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
hood, bringing a pot of beer into the house, about eleven o’clock at
night, was so terrified that he let the beer fall, upon seeing on the
stairs, as he was looking up, the bright shining figure of a woman,
which cast such a light that he could see the dial in the charityschool, through a window in that building. The figure passed by him,
and beckoned him to follow ; but he was too much terrified to obey
its directions, ran home as fast as possible, and was taken very ill.
About an hour after this Mr Parsons himself, having occasion to go
into another room, saw the same apparition.
As the knocking and scratching only followed the children, the
girl who had seen the supposed apparition was interrogated what
she thought it was like. She declared it was Mrs Kempe, who about
two years before had lodged in the house. On this information,
the circumstances attending Mrs Kempe’s death were recollected,
and were pronounced by those who heard them to be of a dark and
disagreeable nature. Suspicions were whispered about, tending to
inculpate Mr Kempe ; fresh circumstances were brought to light, and
it was hinted that the deceased had not died a natural death ; that,
in fact, she had been poisoned.
The knocking and scratching now began to be more violent; they
seemed to proceed from underneath the bedstead of the child, who
was sometimes thrown into violent fits and agitations. In a word,
Parsons gave out that the spirit of Mrs Kempe had taken possession
of the girl. The noises increased in violence, and several gentle
men were requested to sit up all night in the child’s room. On the
13th of January, between eleven and twelve o’clock at night, a
respectable clergyman was sent for, who, addressing himself to the
supposed spirit, desired that, if any injury had been done to the
person who had lived in that house, he might be answered in the
affirmative, by one single knock ; if the contrary, by two knocks.
This was immediately answered by one knock. He then asked
several questions, which were all very rationally answered in the
same way. Crowds now went to hear the ghost; among others, Dr
Johnson, ‘the Colossus of British literature,’ who was imposed on like
the rest. Many persons, however, would not be duped. Suspecting
a trick, with the sanction of the lord mayor, they set themselves
carefully to watch the movements of the girl. The supposed ghost
having announced that it would attend any gentleman into the vault
under St John’s Church, in which the body of Mrs Kempe was
entombed, and point out the coffin by knocking on the lid, several
persons proceeded to the vault accordingly, there to await the result.
On entering this gloomy receptacle at midnight, the party waited
for some time in silence for the spirit to perform its promise, but
nothing ensued. . The person accused by the ghost then went down,
with several others, into the vault, but no effect was perceived.
Returning to the bedroom of the girl, the party examined her closely,
but could draw no confession from her; on their departure, however,
30
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
towards morning, they arrived at the conviction that the girl possessed
the art of counterfeiting noises. Further examinations took place, and
ultimately it was discovered that she was a finished impostor. They
found that she had been in the habit of taking with her to bed a thin
and sonorous piece of wood, on which she produced the noises that
had deceived such crowds of credulous individuals. Parsons, who had
been privy to the plot for injuring the reputation of Mr Kempe, with
his daughter and several accomplices, were now taken into custody;
and after a trial before Lord Mansfield, were condemned to variousterms of imprisonment; Parsons being, in addition, ordered to stand,
in the pillory. Such was the termination of an affair which not
only found partisans among the weak and credulous, but' even stag
gered many men reputed for possessing sound understandings. A
worthy clergyman, whose faith was stronger than his reason, and
who had warmly interested himself in behalf of the reality of the
spirit, was so overwhelmed with grief and chagrin, that he did not
long survive the detection of the imposture.
CONCLUSION.
A word of advice may now be given in conclusion to those whoare subject to illusions of a spectral kind. If hysteria, epilepsy,
or any well-marked bodily affection be an accompaniment of these
illusions, of course remedial measures should be used which have
a reference to these maladies, and the physician is the party to be
applied to. If, however, no well-defined bodily ailment exists, a
word of counsel may be useful from ourselves. We believe that,
in general, spectral illusions are caused by disorders originating
in the alimentary system, and that the continued use of stimulating
liquors is to be most commonly blamed for the visitation. If the
patient is conscious that this- is the case, his path to relief lies open
before him. The removal of the cause will almost always remove
the effect. At the same time, the process of cure may be slow.
The imagination becomes morbidly active in such cases, and many
maintain the illusions after the digestive system is restored to order.
But this will not be the case long, for the morbidity of the imagina
tion does not usually survive, for any length of time, the restoration
of the sanity of the body. To effect a cure of the fundamental
derangement of the alimentary system, aperient medicines may be
used in the first instance, and afterwards tonics—nourishing food,
in small quantities, at the outset—and gentle but frequent exercise
in the open air. Last, but not least, for the cure of the sufferer
from spectral illusions, the indulgence in cheerful society is to be
recommended. Solitude infallibly nurses the morbidity of the
imagination. The notion that the use of ardent spirits should only
be dropped by degrees, is found to be a mistake. Even in instances
of the most inveterate drunkards, no harm follows from instantaneous
31
�SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
abstinence. Therefore, as a little too often leads to much in the
matter of drinking, those who would break off the practice should
not be over-indulgent to themselves, through fear of the consequences
•of change. If opium have been the cause of the illusions, a gradual
cessation from its use may be advisable.
Should the sufferer from spectral illusions be conscious of no error
as regards the use of stimulants or narcotics, some affection of
the brain may be suspected, and headaches will corroborate this
suspicion. . Local or general blood-letting will prove in most cases
the best remedy. Leeches or cupping may be tried in the first place,
and, if tried ineffectively, the lancet may then be employed.
With rdspect to the demonstrable truthfulness of stories of appari
tions, we consider that the whole may be referred to natural causes.
Let us think of the apparent reasons for the majority of spectral
communications, supposing them to be supernatural. Can we deem
it accordant with the dignity of that great Power which orders
the universe, that a spirit should be sent to warn a libertine of
his death ? Or that a spiritual messenger should be commissioned
to walk about an old manor-house, dressed in a white sheet, and
dragging clanking chains, for no better purpose than to frighten
old women and servant-girls, as said to be done in all hauntedchamber cases? Or that a supernatural being should be charged
with the notable task of tapping on bed-heads, pulling down plates,
and making a clatter among tea-cups, as in the case of the Stockwell ghost, and a thousand others ? The supposition is monstrous.
If to any one inhabitant of this earth—a petty atom, occupying a
speck of a place on a ball which is itself an insignificant unit among
millions of spheres—if .to such a one a supernatural communication
was deigned, certainly it would be for some purpose worthy, of the
all-wise Communicator, and fraught with importance to the recipient
of the message, as well, perhaps, as to his whole race.
32
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Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Spectral illusions
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 32 p. : ill. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Approximate date from LC record. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[ca. 1880?]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N619
Subject
The topic of the resource
Spiritualism
Science
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Spectral illusions), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Apparitions
Hallucinations and illusions
NSS