The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary

John Mason Neale

THE UNSEEN WORLD; COMMUNICATIONS WITH IT, REAL OR IMAGINARY, INCLUDING APPARITIONS, WARNINGS, HAUNTED PLACES, PROPHECIES, AERIAL VISIONS, ASTROLOGY, ETC. SECOND EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. MDCCCLIII

But the souls of the righteous are in the Hand of God; and there shall no torment touch them.

CONTENTS NIGHT I. THE SUBJECT PROPOSED. THE SYMBOLISM OF EXTERNAL NATURE NIGHT II. OF AERIAL APPARITIONS NIGHT III. OF WARNINGS OF APPROACHING DEATH OR DANGER, AND OF DREAMS NIGHT IV. OF FAMILY APPARITIONS, AND OF APPARITIONS IN FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE NIGHT V. OF PLACES SAID TO BE HAUNTED, AND OF REVEALED SECRETS NIGHT VI. OF THE ALLEGED USELESSNESS OF APPARITIONS, AND OF THEIR POSSIBILITY NIGHT VII. OF WRAITHS, OR APPARITIONS AT THE MOMENT OF DEATH NIGHT VIII. OF FETCHES AND DOUBLES, AND OF SECOND SIGHT NIGHT IX. OF INTERCOURSE WITH GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The following little work was, I believe, the first which, of late years, maintained the supernatural view of the subject of which it treats. Since the publication of the First Edition, Mrs. Crowes Nightside of Nature has appeared. Those who differ as entirely as I do from its religious theories, must yet cheerfully own its deep interest, its extended research, and its great ability. As it is so easily procurable, I have contented myself with here and there referring to it, instead of quoting from it. Nov. 11, 1853.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The following little book makes no pretence at being a systematic treatise on the subject on which it treats; its aim is to set forth Christian views on a point of popular belief which writers have generally considered worthy of ridicule or pity, or at least susceptible of a natural explanation. With respect to stories hitherto unpublished, the writer has related none which he has not good grounds for believing; and he has endeavoured to state, in each particular account, the degree of evidence by which it is supported. He ought, perhaps, to state, that he never saw Mr. Dendys very interesting Philosophy of Mystery till he had almost concluded his own work. He has inserted, in different places, a few striking relations from it.

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary

NIGHT I. THE SUBJECT PROPOSED. THE SYMBOLISM OF EXTERNAL NATURE. Sophron. The wind has shifted to the north. It will be a bitter night. Eusebia. It is almost a pity to shut out the sight of such a sky, so intensely blue and solemn. Eupeithes. It is solemn: the winter night has a moral character of its own, if I may use the expression; a beauty differing from that of all other seasons, and, as I think, surpassing them. Eusebia. Yet what can be more beautiful than a summer night? At the time, I mean, when the west has lost its more gaudy hues, and the only trace of the departed sun is the calm still belt of green that reposes above the distant hills, as if they were the barriers of this world, and that quiet ocean of light the gulf which parts us from the realm of spirits. Then there is the soft scent of the sleeping flowers, the dewiness of the air, the few bright stars that peep through the still faintly illuminated sky, the joyous song, it may be, of the nightingale, the merry chirp, that seems, wherever you go, to be equally close to you, of the grasshopper. It is repose in its truest sense,life enough to banish the idea that nature, as people talk, can ever sleep;rest enough to lead on the mind to a more perfect, even an eternal repose. Theodora. For my part, I think the most perfect repose is that of a still autumn sunset, sad though it be: such, Eusebia, as we used to watch two months ago, when we stood on the brow of our hill, and the whole wide landscape, right round the horizon, was glowing was imbued I might saywith a kind of purple haze, much like the bloom on summer fruit: nothing concealed by it; nothing made indistinct; a perfect veil of beauty spread over the autumn Ledges, and quiet fields, and cottages sending up their smoke in the calm distance, and cattle feeding lazily in the valley. Then our two elms, the beacons of the whole country side, were lighted up into a bright vivid yellow, as if some mysterious fire were kindling within them: and the setting sun brought out the western and northern hills with such exquisite clearness, that they seemed a fit track for his departing splendour. Eusebia. It was a beautiful scene indeed. But do you think, dear Theodora, that one is justified in speaking of any time or scene as in itself sad? Surely, He Who made all things very good, created the
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary autumn sunset as well as the spring morning and summer twilight. I would rather say with the wise man, All the works of the LORD are good: so that a man cannot say, This is worse than that, for in time they shall all be well approved. Sophron. Well: you have Coleridge on your side A melancholy bird? Oh, idle thought! In nature there is nothing melancholy. But there is another consideration. As in man sickness and pain and sorrow are not in themselves very good, but certainly very ill, however much overruled to good and wise ends; so may not a time and scene, like that of which you are speakingmay not, in fact, autumn itself, be the sickness of the year, not essentially therefore good, though paving the way for the Resurrection of the year, which is spring? Eupeithes. In other words, was there an autumn in the Garden of Eden? Eusebia. And would you not say, supposing there to have been everlasting spring in Paradise, that Paradise lost much of its beauty? Who can walk, on a still autumn day, in such woods as ours, where the ground is broken up into abrupt glades and jutting knolls, with peeps between into the calm distance; who can see the pale gold of the elm, the redder glow of the oak, the hectic flush of the filbert, the lamp-like hue of the poplar, the burntochre tint of the birch; who can notice the inimitable mixing and shifting of these hues, as they stand out in contrast with the grey rock or deep green yew, or the red necklace berries of the honeysuckle, or the withered autumn grass, without feeling that spring has nothing to compare with such prodigality of loveliness? Theodora. Nay; how like is spring itself to autumn! The yellow tinge of the young grass, the fresh golden shoots, the clouds, the dewy freshness of the air. It would be difficult, in looking from the top of a down, where all the foliage is distant, to tell a late morning in September from an early one in May. Sophron. Still, do not make perfection where there is none. Autumn beauty is good out of evil; it is the loveliness of disease; it bears its own death-warrant on its face. However, it is beautiful; if decay can be so enchanting, what must undecayingness be?

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eusebia. Might one not, with reverence, allude to the text, If the ministration of death be glorious? Sophron. Undoubtedly; as a type. No, Eusebia: whatever loveliness there be in those days, it is fleeting and earthly: there can be no autumn, and no approach to autumn, in Heaven. Eupeithes. Do you remember those lovely verses of S. Peter Damian on Paradise? Winter braming, summer flaming, There relax their blustering; And sweet roses, gaily blooming, Make an everlasting spring: Lily blanching, crocus blushing, And the balsam perfuming. Pasture glowing, meadows blowing, Honey streams in rivers fair; While with aromatic perfume Grateful glows the balmy air: Luscious fruits that never wither, Hang on every thicket there. There they live in endless being: There they bloom, they thrive, they flourish For decayed is all decay; Lasting energy hath swallowed Darkling deaths malignant sway. Theodora. Perhaps it is the contrast of the heavenly with the earthly, of corruption with incorruption, of mortality with immortality, that makes autumn so beautiful. Consider this: the trees and hedgerows in their summer glory are vested in the colour of earth, namely, green: the green fearth, you know, is an epithet as old as poetry. But when autumn begins to touch them, and they are sinking into day, ihen they take to themselves the colours of the sky: the crimson, and orange, and purple of the heavenly sunset. Eupeithes. Well. But do you not see how much of this world there is mixed up in our ideas of the autumn sunset and the summer night? Flowers, and birds, and dew, and the brightness over the western hills. It is beautiful, but still it is earthly: we view it through our own medium, and it takes its colour from that. It is not so now. The sky, and the sky alone, so glorious, yet so awful, so spangled with
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary brightness, so mysterious in its depth, that is all. There is nothing that can remind any sense of earth; nay, the very cold seems to enhance the solitude, to tear away all connection between yourself and external nature, to make you feel more utterly lonely. And you stand and gaze on those bright worlds, till you seem as if you were banished into the desolate regions of space; and there, without any orb near you, looked forth into the perfect blackness around, and watched the motions of the worlds that above, beneath, and on every side, were moving along in their mysterious path. It is the time when you feel, if ever, that there must be a world of spirits; when the mind seems almost brought into contact with that invisible universe; and when, more than at any other period, it longs to know somewhat of its future home, and to hear some of those unspeakable things which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Sophron. There can be no subject more interesting,perhaps, also, more perilous,than the union and sympathy of the seen with the unseen world. Certainly none more interesting; for who would not wish to know somewhat of those beings by whom he is daily, hourly, acted upon? who seem to have the power of suggesting thoughts or plans, constantly and as a matter of every-day occurrence, and occasionally of interfering for our physical safety in a, perhaps not strictly supernatural, but still most marvellous, manner: beings, too, whom we hope hereafter to possess as our associates for ever; and who, actually at this time, are the associates of many whom we have loved and lost. And perilous also; for much to pry into the concerns of that world is to attempt to raise the curtain which God has drawn, and which death only is appointed to rend for ever. We are somewhat like men who by night are treading some dangerous path, a precipice on each side: while all is dark, they can proceed safely; show them the light, and with, light comes certain destruction. Eupeithes. And yet it is curious that, care as little as they may for it in other ways, all present intercourse with the unseen world will be a subject to interest every one; variously indeed, according to the various character of the mind, but still really. And why not? It is an article in the Churchs Creed; it is a main point of her teaching. Common minds will feel and express it in vulgar ways; and tales of witchcraft, apparitions, prophetic dreams, and the like, will never want hearers and believers. Others, while not rejecting these things, will rather fix their thoughts on that communion which, at this very moment, they are holding with the departed faithful of all ages; on the illapses of thought which have no natural origin; on all those
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary mysterious proofs,the more mysterious, the more real,that we are knit together in one fellowship with the inhabitants of a better country, that is, a heavenly. Eusebia. The Japanese belief, that birds of Paradise are the souls of doves, is a good type of that feeling. In the bright fables of an eastern land, Where song and moral travel hand in hand, They say, the dove laments not as alone, That lingers here, her sweet companions gone: She knows that, denizend in brighter skies, They shine as glorious birds of Paradise: And though she may not see their sportive rings, Nor the fleet glancing of their rainbow wings, (For earthlier vision clogs her earthlier eye,) To know and feel them near is ecstasy. And so, methinks, comes such a season, fraught With heavnlier communing and purer thought, What time we linger oer the quiet rest Of those, the lovely once, and now the blest! Eupeithes. A very pretty fable, and most true in its anti-type. In a thousand ways, clogged and shackled though it be by its mate, the mind will assert its native powers, and will communicate without the aid of its grosser companion. Undoubtedly it does so towards the living; and to my mind undoubtedly also towards the departed. What is more common, for instance, than to feel all ones affection awakened, for no assignable cause, in a moment, for some absent person whom we love, but of whom we have neither been speaking nor hearing? Again: it has passed into a proverb that, if a totally unexpected visitor arrives, those to whom he presents himself have been at that moment talking of him. And so, if two friends are in conversation on a given topic, and an entirely different train of thoughts suggests itself to one, it is almost certain to present itself also to the other, even though no common external object should have given rise to it. Sophron. Very true. It is by noticing apparently trivial details like these that we must arrive, if ever there should be such a science, at some insight into psychology. But the difficulty of Know thyself is as great to us as it was to Chilon of old. What are those lines, Theodora, you were repeating the other day on the subject of

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary communion with the invisible world? They would be much to the point. Theodora. I will repeat them to you. As touching this same union, I have read A tale, that teacheth this,how far apart Wisdom and knowledge, many a time, abide, Hower the vulgar deem. There dwelt in France A maiden, who was wont to sing their wild And wondrous legends at the shut of eve, And to her lovers wed her voice and lute. Her lover died;and twas her mournful use In the same chamber, at the self-same time, To sing the self-same strains; and as his harp, Neglected now, responsive echo gave, She deemd his spirit breathd amidst its chords. Thus passd she every eve, and in the thought Found sweetest consolation: till at length One of those same philosophising fools Who, knowing all, feel nought,who pluck a flower, Give it a name, and tread it under foot, And call that wisdom, told, and truly told, How natures laws ordaind that when the hand Passd oer one harp, the self-same chord then struck Should vibrate in its fellow. She, the while, Lost the sweet type to gain the useless truth; And so her harp was silenced and she pined Until she joind the parted one again. Eupeithes. To inquire into all the methods in which this intercommunion of the visible with the invisible is carried on would be a task not ill-suited to these long winter nights, and perhaps not unprofitable to us. What say you? Shall we enter on the inquiry, bringing to it what separate information we may each of us possess, and making our common remarks on every thing that is related? Sophron. Content. Any thing which helps us to realize our connexion with the unseen world is useful; and we will boldly enter on the subject you propose. And in listening to any details which the wisdom of the world would reject as improbable or impossible, we shall, I hope, be guided by a wiser feeling. We will weigh them on their evidence only: if that is sufficient to convince a man in his every-day conduct, it shall be sufficient for us; if not, while we

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary stigmatize nothing as impossible, because it is unusual, we shall return a verdict of not proven. Theodora. I shall be most glad to listen to such a discussion. We have, I think, nine nights before we separate: will it not be better to observe some kind of order in the treatment of our subject? else we shall surely be quite overwhelmed with its magnitude. Sophron. We must not cramp ourselves too logically; as well because the nature of the inquiry does not well admit of it, as because its various branches run so naturally one into the other. Still some such kind of arrangement is undoubtedly desirable, and we shall do well to determine on it previously. Eusebia. So I think; and then we shall come better prepared to the consideration of the question. Eupeithes. We shall begin, I presume, with generals, and descend to particulars. Sophron. Let us commence by considering the various ways in which it has pleased God to ordain that external nature shall sympathize with revealed religion; for I would rather use the term sympathy than that of symbolism. We will see if we cannot find such evident types of, or agreement with, the great mysteries of the faith in the face of things around us as to make another kind of argument from analogy applicable also to them. That is the lowest branch of our subject, because, strictly speaking, it cannot be said to involve anything supernatural: but still it is a branch, as coming quite within that communion of the two worlds on which we have been dwelling. Eupeithes. So many events seem to border on the confines of both the natural and supernatural, and to have a share of each, that perhaps a very strict or logical line cannot be drawn. One might divide the whole series of Gods dealings with mankind into three classes: the natural, or according to nature;the supernatural, or above nature:the miraculous, or contrary to nature. Theodora. And take three instances, one of each, from the Old Testament, The cure of Hezekiahs disease by the lump of figs was natural; the opening of the young mans eyes, so that he saw the mountain full of chariots of fire and horses of fire, was supernatural; the causing the axe head to swim was miraculous.

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. I agree with you; and the next branch of our subject will be equally divided between the two last heads. For we must proceed to consider those instances in which it has pleased God to make great aerial phenomena attend, or predict, great disturbances on earth. This will involve a consideration of armies fighting in the air, fiery crosses, comets, and meteors; and will lead us to refer incidentally to the famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences in divers places, which are the beginning of sorrows. Eupeithes. The arrangement, I think, is good. Then let us proceed to aerial apparitions or signs, whether natural or supernatural, such as whirlwinds and sudden tempests, as connected with the death of great men, stationary lights, corpse lights, S. Elmos lights, firedrakes, and Will-of-the-Wisp. Sophron. Prom that we shall advance in our investigation to an inquiry on what principle, and with what reason, ancient lore peopled solitary places with supernatural beings, whether demons, or an inferior kind of divinities; and why the same belief has descended to our own times; whether connected with water, as Naiads; with woods and hills, as Fauns, Satyrs, Dryads, Hamadryads, the Brown Man of the Moors, Fairies, the Good People, Trolls, Telchens, Pixies, and Pixycolts; or with houses, as the old Lar and our own Robin Good-fellow. Then it will be time for us to debate the grand question, if the spirits of the departed have ever been permitted to visit the living in a visible form. And here we shall do well to turn our attention to those instances where, at the moment of a persons death, he has been believed to appear to friends at a distance; to those where the spirit of a departed man has forewarned of death, averted danger, or revealed a secret; and to those manifestations where such visit has apparently been without use. Eupeithes. Let us also go into the subject of family apparitions: those cases, I mean, where the head of a house is asserted to receive intimation of the approaching decease of any member of it by a known signal, which is perfectly intelligible to himself. Dreams will naturally next occupy our attention: and this will as naturally be connected with the subject of second sight. Sophron. We shall then only have to discuss the grounds on which ancient belief in astrology and witchcraft rested, to bring our inquiry to an end.

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. It is a most comprehensive one; and, if discussed with an unprejudiced mind, almost fresh ground. Eupeithes. I think so. But, in my opinion, we are also bound to notice any instances of imposture, or innocent mistake, which may have given rise to the belief in a supernatural interference, when in reality none such existed. Sophron. We are: and that branch of our subject, though less novel, will also be profitable. Eupeithes. It is, I think, a proof of our fallen nature, that the whole subject of apparitions should be invested with I such terror. Why we should not rejoice in the visitations f the inhabitants of a brighter and better world than our own, on any other hypothesis seems unintelligible. And even supposing the apparition to be permitted to come from the place of the lost, still it is strange that one does not reason with Hamlet, -for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself! What harm such apparitions could possibly do us it is hard to say: we are all that they are, and something more; and that something bearing at least an approximation to that which they will be. In one sense we are more perfect beings than they are: we have the body, debased, it is true, and sinful, to which they will one day be rejoined, and without which they will not, and cannot, be complete. Physical harm they cannot do us; that were contrary, not only to experience, but almost to possibility. If it were not for sin, I believe that we should feel no fear. Sophron. Do you think so? Well, I am not quite of your opinion. I believe that the sight of a spirit, divested of the body, is so perfectly unnatural to persons existing in a compound nature, brings so painfully to mind the great struggle which must take place when the two are dissolved, and sets forward so prominently the idea of duality in a single being, that, had we never fallen, we yet should have felt a revulsion at it. That Adam conversed familiarly with angels may be very possible; but if those angels assumed a material form, as was undoubtedly the case in most of such instances as are recorded in the Old Testament, the cause for terror I have stated disappears.

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. According to you, it would follow that the act of death would be terrible, were the supposition possible, to a perfect man; that it would have been so to Adam had he never fallen, and had yet been removed to the more immediate presence of God in the same manner that has been appointed to his descendants, only without physical pain. Sophron. So I think it would. If the separation from an intimate friend of twenty years is so excessively painful, where yet the degree of intimacy is nothing to that which connects soul and body, what must be the severing of the spirit from its earthly attendant? What must it be fop the soul to lose the command of the organ it has so long employed, and informed, and governed; through which it has received the greater part of the impressions it has obtained, and which it is now about to leave to corruption, and dust, and the worm? What the tie is which unites the one to the other, none, of course, can say; whether moral, or physical, or composed of both, it must be broken: and do you imagine that so strong a link can be shattered without pain of some kind? Eupeithes. How then will you account for the serenity and beauty which the face of a corpse will often assume in the moment of death? We know, for example, that in death from a gunshot wound, the countenance is generally very peaceful; in that from a sword, or such like instrument, distressingly convulsed. Does not this seem to show that there is no pain but physical pain, and that when this is felt it leaves its impression, and that when no impression is left, it is because there is no pain? Sophron. I grant you that there is far more suffering attendant on death in some cases than in others. But that which is involved in the very act of death is, I am inclined to think, the same. The placidity which usually accompanies death from a gunshot may arise only from the shortness of the physical pain which accompanies it; for two equally, to all appearance, sudden deaths may involve very unequally prolonged periods of bodily suffering. It is believed by many physicians that death, considered as the annihilation of physical sensations, does not instantly accompany decapitation; and there have not been wanting eminent men who assert that feeling exists for many minutes after the stroke has been given. This would well answer your objections. But you say that the face assumes that serene expression in death. I should rather say, after it; for the shadow, or convulsion, or by whatever name you choose to

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary designate it, that passes over the face in the very article of death is always awful. Theodora. I do not comprehend what you said just now, of its being unnatural and painful to see a duality of operation in one being. Sophron. I can explain it to you by a very familiar t instance. Did you ever see the metamorphosis by which t.the pupa of the dragon-fly assumes its perfect state? Theodora. No. Sophron. Thus it is: the pupa, which is provided with legs, climbs some way up a flag, or other water plant, which it grasps tightly, and then stretches and strains itself in every direction: presently the head bursts, and the antennas and head of the fly protrude; also its two front legs. The pupa holds on with its legs: the fly endeavours to extricate itself from the pupa with its own, and finally succeeds, leaving the lifeless husk on the plant which it ascended. But the sight of an apparent struggle between two animals possessing the same body is very unpleasant. Theodora. We were to speak, in the first place, of the manner in which external nature symbolizes revealed, truth. Is it not strange that such an age as the last could produce a book like Butlers Analogy? Sophron. It is indeed. His is a method of argument, which, till tried, must have been thought of very slight weight; but, once made proof of, and proved by such a hand, it possesses a force perfectly overwhelming and crushing. He, of course, did not exhaust it; nay, he probably did not carry it on so far as he would have done in a more believing age. Perhaps, also, the fact that his was not a poetical mind, might have in some cases rendered his details less perfect than his design. But, had he chosen, there are two remarkable instances of analogy in the symbolism of external nature, as compared with revealed mystery, which, to any unprejudiced person, must be quite convincing. Eusebia. You refer, of course, to the mystery of the Most Holy TRINITY, and of the Sign of the Cross. Sophron. I do. Let us begin with the former;the instances of which are, perhaps, less obvious, and probably less striking.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. The whole of science, taken in whatever point of view, seems to depend on three original principles. In colour, we have three neutrals, black, white, and grey. In acoustics, three primitive sounds,the medient, tonic, and dominant. Form can address itself to the eye but in three ways,in architecture, painting, and sculpture: the kind of lines which produce form are three, and eachof these has three subdivisions; the straight line has three positions,horizontal, perpendicular, and oblique; the crooked has three, as presenting either a right, acute, or obtuse angle; and the curved has three,for it may be a portion of a circle, a volute, or an ellipse. Again, every one knows the remarkable properties of the figure threeproperties which no other number has, or could have. Sophron. And even in simpler matters than these, the same trinal arrangement is visible. All time must be past, present, and future: every deed must have a beginning, a middle, and an. end. Now it is all very well to say that there is an absolute necessity for this, so that even Omnipotence could not have ordered it otherwise: granting this necessity, whence does it arise? Do we not gain the more abundant confirmation of our position? But it surely is incumbent on others to prove this necessity. It is quite possible to conceive a state of things in which it should not be the case; it is quite within the range of imagination that time should have a fourfold division, or that the progress of any event might be capable of being divided into two stages1 besides the beginning and the end. There is no essential impossibility in this. If it be possible to conceive a thing which has neither beginning nor end, as eternity; if it be possible to conceive a thing which has beginning, but no end, as the soul of man; we may safely assert the possibility of the conception of something that has four, five, or even more separate stages of existence, intrinsically and essentially. But if this conception be possible with regard to one thing, it is certain that it might be so with regard to every thing; which is enough for us. Eupeithes. Look, again, at what has so often been brought forward as an illustration of the same mystery,a luminous body like the sun. Prom the substance itself, light and heat are inseparable. Take, again, the threefold division of the mind, which so naturally suggests itself; the will, the understanding, the imagination. It is a world, so to speak, of triplicity; and so even heathens seem to have, felt, and to have shaped their myths accordingly. Sophron. And the wonderful advances which are made daily in natural science reveal this to us more and more. The analogy of a
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary luminous body is, as you say, striking enough; but how much more so that of the three great agents which philosophy now recognizes in all nature,electricity, light, and heat! Light and heat, we all know, are the chosen types in Holy Scripture of the Second and Third Persons m the Ever-blessed TRINITY. And these are evolved from electricity, each in their own way, and are manifested to men, while electricity neither is, nor can be seen. Had the ancient philosophers been acquainted with this, they might have come even nearer to the truth than they did. And yet some of their guesses were marvellously near. Eupeithes. Why, it even descended to a proverb,Every three is perfect. The better nature consists of three, says Plutarch. They assign the number three to the highest God, says Servius. So Jupiter has his triple thunderbolt, Neptune his trident, Pluto his threeheaded dog: there were three fates, three furies, thrice three muses: even primeval nature had its Triad, Aegaeon, Briareus, and Gyges: and whole volumes have been written on the various trinities which the Greeks and Egyptians adored. So also in India: so, in fact, wherever there has been a system of religious worship at all. Theodora. From whence, I suppose, you would gather that the impress of external nature is found in these trinities; the great mystery of the One Ever-blessed TRINITY having moulded and informed them: which is the point of our consideration. Sophron. Just so; yet I confess that to myself the Cross is more wonderfully set forth in natureand the difference of the manifestations of these two mysteries is in itself most striking. Things, as considered in their essence, present the former; things as manifesting themselves, and taken in reference to us, the latter. It is extraordinary how almost all human arts set forth this form strikingly, and how new inventions are every day bringing it out in new ways. Eusebia. And also, I think, in many of these instances, the idea of resistance and self-denial,that is, the very doctrine of the Cross, is exhibited. A bird, for example, while perched on the bough, represents no particular figure;but he cannot rise from the earth and struggle up through the air, except by making the sign of the Cross. Eupeithes. It is the same thing with swimming: make an effort against the water, and you must do it in the form of the Cross. The

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary same thing also in rowing. Let a boat fall down the stream, and you may steer her onward: make her ascend against it, or struggle with the sea, and again you represent the Cross. Sophron. And, of course, every one knows that the masts of a ship are most striking figures of the same thing. I never saw this more wonderfully exemplified, than once in walking from Queenborough to Sheerness. It is a low, marshy tract of country; and on that day a haze hung over the landscape, and seemed completely to blot out every feature of interest that the scene might otherwise have presented. But to the left, a low embankment ran along the Bide of the Medway; and above that rose the bare lower masts of six or eight men of war laid up in ordinary in the river. Without sails, cordage, or upper yards, the central mast on each rising above the mizen and fore-mast, they looked exactly like a series of those Calvaries which you see in foreign lands;three black Crosses, standing out against the white mist of a hot August sky. Eupeithes. I remember that, on a still autumn afternoon, I was hurrying homewards through one of the pleasant valleys of Surrey. The grass was beginning to grow crisp; the shadows, half an hour before so well denned, to melt into a grey confusion; a frosty purple hue to steal over the sky; a solemn, yet not melancholy, stillness to draw in over the scene. Before me was the west, kindled into such a fiery redness, that you wondered how such tints could look so deadly cold; half the suns orb was below the horizon; half, dilated to twice its natural size, was cradled among the distant hills; but between me and that scene of splendour, and cresting the top of a low knoll, the sails of an old windmill seemed to impress the sign of the Cross on the whole landscape, and to tell, as with an audible voice, by what means only we can attain those bright worlds of which the western sky is a type and a promise. Eusebia. And it is strange that the very means of procuring earthly food should be in the figure of that which has procured us all our spiritual sustenance. Theodora. So, again, a barn is almost of necessity built in the form of a Cross, as if it would set forth the means by which the faithful shall be gathered up into the everlasting garner hereafter. Eusebia. A curious illustration connected with sound has not, that I am aware of, been ever noticed in this point of view. If on a thin metal plate you sprinkle sand, and then strike, on a stringed

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary instrument that note which is the fundamental sound,the key-note, if we may use the expression, of the plate,the sand will immediately arrange itself in the form of a Gross: as if the metal could not bear to be impressed with any other sign. Sophron. Look at crystallization, again. Into what exquisite crosses do congealing substances form themselves! He that should desire some new idea for the gable crosses of his church, could hardly do better than study a book of crystallography. Eupeithes. That the same holy form is marked on the petals of one class of flowers, all botanists know. I remember once, in an African mountain, that jutted out into the calm tropical sea, I was wandering on with a friend in the heat of the day, and exploring the various crags and ravines by which it descended to the shore. There was a burning sky,not a single cloud tempered the rays of the sun,the barren soil, volcanic in its origin, and every where shooting up its red crumbling rocks through the thin layers and patches of mould that were scattered upon them, produced neither trees nor grass, nothing but dwarf thistles, that on all sides were sending out their downy little seed vessels on the bosom of the wind. We longed for water,we longed for some cooling fruit; and to all appearance we might as well have longed for ice and snow. At length we discovered, loosely anchoring itself among the hot and detached rocks, a pleasant little plant, with leaves and berries not unlike those of the mallow. We may, however, said my friend, eat these with safety: it is a cruciferous plant. Why so? said I, who am no botanist, and could not see the connection between his statement and his reason. Are you not aware, returned he, that all i cruciferous plants bear fruit which may be eaten, to say the least, with impunity, and which is often singularly nutritious and wholesome? Is it not wonderful, answered I, that the sign of the Cross impressed on the leaves of a plant should proclaim to man that it will not hurt him? Is it not as if there went forth such virtue out of the bare form, that no evil thing had power to endure its presence? Eusebia. Nor is this the case only where the hand of God has immediately impressed the sign, but also where the hand of man has done so; as if Providence would have him, choose he or not, make use of the same form by which he was saved from perdition. Sophron. It is proved in many modern inventions and contrivances; in none more so than, where you would least expect to find it,in railways. Is it not curious that in the best managed of them the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary signals should be made by this form? Most conspicuous, on a high embankment, is the tall Cross that stretches forth its arms to warn of danger; hallowing, as it were, those long lines of traffic, and seeming to promise security in the whirl and hurry of almost inconceivable speed. Theodora. Certainly a meaning which never entered the minds of those who contrived that system of signals. Eupeithes. It is a singular thine, too, though known to every one, that if, in looking at any bright light, the eye be almost closed, the rays will, to all appearance, put themselves in the form of a Cross. Sophron. The Passion Flower, when first discovered, seems to have created quite a sensation in the Catholic world. The first Granadilla was brought from Peru to Rome in 1609, and presented to Paul V. Thenceforward it was known as the Fiore della Passione, and the Calvinists forthwith got up a cry that it was a fictitious flower. Gretser, the indefatigable defender of the Cross, published a treatise with the titleThat the Granadilla is a true, and not a false flower; and added to the essay a variety of ingenious epigrams, by different authors, on the new flower. This is rather a pretty thought. Why doth the Lord recall His Passion Hour In the sweet image of a glorious flower? Why instruments of agony express In brightest hues and perfect loveliness? That thou mightst learn to follow CHRIST in pain: Thy pangs shall passtheir deathless flowr remain. Theodora. And as true as it is pretty. But it is rather hard that such a flower should have been made the subject of a polemical discussion. Sophron. It was a tradition in Mexico, before the arrival of the Spaniards, that when that form (which is found engraved in their ancient monuments) should be victorious, the old religion should disappear. The same sign is also said to have been discovered on the destruction of the Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, and the same tradition to have been attached to it. One can hardly imagine this prophecy to have been current in more ways than two;either by a supernatural intimation, or by a continuous tradition. It could hardly have been by the force of analogy, and by observation that the whole of nature was signed with the Cross.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. The constellation so named is one of the most striking that glorify the southern sky; very beautiful it is when beheld from the deck of a ship, as she flies westward before the trade winds. And still more majestic, perhaps, in crossing a mountain range by night, when the dark peaks tower up before you, and the golden Cross surmounts them still, and seems to beckon from another world beyond them. Sophron. This celestial Cross naturally brings to mind the instances in which the appearance of such a sign has been strictly supernatural. Of the Cross seen by Constantine, enough has been already written to satisfy, and more than to satisfy, every common inquirer that such a phenomenon did really exist. And that which appeared at Jerusalem during the Bishopric of S. Cyril is equally remarkable, and at least as certain. Eusebia. Of what kind was that? Sophron. You shall have it in the saints own words. Beach me down his works, Eupeithes;that folio immediately behind you. Here is his account written to Constantius. In these holy days of the holy Pentecost, on the seventh of May,the year was 351,about nine oclock, appeared in the heaven an enormous Cross, composed of light, over the height of holy Golgotha, and reaching to the holy Mount of Olives. Nor was it seen by one or two, but, most manifestly, by the whole multitude of the city. Nor,as it might be natural to suppose,was it a thing which like a mere phantom passed away rapidly, but was visible above the earth for many hours, exceeding in glory the rays of the sun.And he proceeds to tell how young and old crowded to the churches; and even the very heathens adored the Gob That had done this great wonder. [S. Cyril, Hierosol. Opp. p. 247. Ed. Par. 1640.] And this does not depend on Cyrils testimony alone, amply sufficient as that would be to any right-minded person: a crowd of witnesses, heretical as well as catholic, bare testimony to the notoriety of the fact. Eupeithes. Yes; as poor Gibbon says with respect to the heretical witnesses, they could not refuse a miracle, even at the hand of an enemy. Sophron. Strictly supernatural, perhaps, this Cross was not; for it seems to have been encircled by a magnificent rainbow, and may in some degree have partaken of the nature of a halo. Such appearances

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary have been observed at other times, and occasionally in connection with mock suns. Eupeithes. The length is said to have been more than half a mile; a point, of course, which must have been a mere guess. It seems, however, to have been visible at Antioch, and, it is also said, to the armies of Constantius and Magnentius. In that case it must have been of a very different character from a halo. Sophron. Nor have such appearances entirely ceased in our own days. In 1838, at Jerusalem, for many successive nights, a dark Cross was observed in the same quarter of the heavens, as if the stars over which it extended had been blotted out. Eusebia. I perceive that we are somewhat trespassing on the next part of our subject. Sophron. We are so. Did you ever hear the Greek tradition concerning the origin of the tree of which the true Cross was made? Eusebia. No. Sophron. Thus it is. When Adam, they say, was dying, he sent his son to the garden of Eden, to request that the angel who kept the way thereto would send him some of the fruit of the Tree of Life, that he might taste it and live. The angel denied the request, but gave to the son of. Adam three seeds. Place them, said he, in thy fathers mouth; and when they shall have grown into trees, he shall be freed from his sickness. The son returned, and found that Adam had already expired. Taking the three grains, he placed them in his fathers mouth, and buried him thus. From these grains, in process of time, sprang three trees, of which the wood of the Cross was made. [Joan. de Monte Villa, It. Terr. Sanct. i. 17. ap. Kornman. mort. iv. 14.] Theodora. A very beautiful fable. It is surprising how many tales there are connected with the Saviour and His Passion, which in different times and places have been invented for the purpose of accounting for the natural habits and instincts of animals and plants. Eusebia. Like that sweet superstition, current in Brittany, which would explain the cause why the robin redbreast has always been a favourite and protg of man. While our Saviour was bearing His Cross, one of these birds they say, took one thorn from His Crown, which dyed its breast; and ever since that time, robin redbreasts have been the friends of man.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. In like manner, the aspen is said to have been the tree which formed the Cross; and thenceforth its boughs, as filled with horror, have trembled ceaselessly. Eupeithes. It is believed by the poor that the stripes on the shoulders of the ass represent the sign of the Cross, in commemoration that on that animal our LORD made His final entrance into Jerusalem. There is also an idea that in the leg of the pig may be found a mark as of violent pressure, occasioned by the devils that entered into the herd of swine. Sophron. An example, which in modern times would be considered ludicrous, of the manner in which our ancestors made external nature bear witness to our LORD, occurs in what is called the Priors Chamber in the small Augustinian house of Shulbrede, in the parish of Linchmere, in Sussex. On the wall is a fresco of the Nativity; and certain animals are made to give their testimony to that event in words which somewhat resemble, or may be supposed to resemble, their natural sounds. A cock in the act of crowing, stands at the top, and a label, issuing from his mouth, bears the words, Christus natus est. A duck inquires, Quando quando? A raven hoarsely answers, In hac nocte. A cow asks, Ubi ubi? And a lamb bleats out, Bethlehem. Eupeithes. I fear, as you say, that to modern ideas such a representation would be rather irreverent than edifying. In the same way it was, and may be still, believed, that if you enter a cowhouse at midnight on Christmas eve, you will find the animals on their knees. Eusebia. And Shakspere will tell you that Some say, that ever gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviours Birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning croweth all night long. Eupeithes. A truer symbolism than any of the above is, I think, to be found in the hatred that all ages and nations have borne to serpents. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, seems to have been literally as well as metaphorically fulfilled. Sophron. The symbolism of the chrysalis and the butterfly had been discovered long before the fall of paganism, as the Greek name for the latter plainly showed. It is a marvellously true emblem; almost sufficient to prove that which it represents.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. It is growing late; we cannot enter on our next subject tonight. And we shall find it, I think, even more interesting than that of this evening. Good night.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary

NIGHT II. OF AERIAL APPARITIONS. Sophron. It would be a curious subject of inquiry, why the inhabitants of mountainous regions are so much more given to believe in tales of supernatural incident, than those who live in the flatter and tamer parts of the same country. Eupeithes. The habit of constant communion with nature in her deepest solitude has a necessary tendency to make the mind reverential. With such beauty and majesty continually before the eye, it seems almost to follow, that the power which made and sustains all these things must be also recognized; a kind of perpetual converse with the unseen world is maintained; and, where nothing of human littleness may be visible in the course of a long day, the traveller naturally turns his thought to those unseen companions whom he believes to be journeying with him. So much for the moral grounds. Then for the physical; the wonderful phenomena of light and shade; the extraordinary sounds which are familiar to mountain ears; the opening out of a new kind of landscape, fantastical beyond the wildest valleys of earthI mean cloud scenery; the hours of intense stillness; the clearness and brightness of the atmosphere; the lightness of the air; the necessity of observing those little signs of approaching tempest which a common eye and ear would fail to catch; all these things may he, in part, the cause of this superstitious, to use the modern phrasefeeling in mountaineers. Sophron. And not only so; but there is no doubt that constant association with magnificent scenes calls out all the affections of the mind in their full force. Wilberforce, I think, somewhere remarks, that he always seemed to love his friends better in a mountainous country than any where else; and doubtless it was more than seeming. Eupeithes. Sailors also, who, though in a different manner, are conversant with the most sublime scenes, are naturally credulous of supernatural tales. And it is curious that, both in their case and in that of mountaineers, this feeling should be united with great physical courage; whereas soldiers who are, in peace, usually immured in towns, and, in war, are most commonly located in flat and uninteresting countries, are given to scepticism rather than superstition.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eusebia. Yet sometimes they will exhibit great sensitiveness to natural scenery. The German troops, who, in the rising of 1745, were advancing on Inverness, could hardly be prevailed on to enter the pass of Killicrankie, so terrified were they at the stupendous height of its mountains. Eupeithes. Closely connected with this is the almost invincible desire which many persons feel to precipitate themselves from the summit of a high place. There is a precipice in Sky where tourists are usually held by their guides, lest its dizzy height should induce them to throw themselves over. Theodora. I should think it probable that some, at least, of the suicides committed from the top of the Monument, were the effect of the same feeling. In cases where the person who thus destroyed himself was actuated by no known cause, and appeared in good spirits at the time of his ascent, it is not only most charitable to suppose, that he should have been carried) away by the frantic desire that most persons, in a slight degree, have felt, but really also most likely. Sophron. It is well known that there are places in the Alps, and in the Andes, where such panics are not unusual, and where they are almost certain death. The only remedy in such cases is, to look up; and if you can do that steadily for a few moments you are saved. Eupeithes. Yes; if it is into the clear blue open sky; but (I can speak from my own experience) there are cases where the looking up makes bad worse. If a precipice towers above you on one side, while it yawns beneath you on the other, the additional height does but distress you the more; and if, besides this, light fleecy clouds are flitting rapidly over the summit, it is dizzy work indeed. Eusebia. It must be:it turns the brain to stand, on a March day, at the bottom of a church tower, and, looking up steadily to the vane, to watch it as the clouds drive past it. To do so without feeling giddy requires a very steady head. Eupeithes. I believe that people with the strongest nerves have the most dreadful fits of panic when they have them at all. I have wandered far and wide in the most precipitous places of mountains, and never felt it but once. I had a mind to try if the Pico do Cidrao, one of the loftiest and, at the same time, steepest mountains of Madeira, could not be scaled from the Pico dos Arrieiros. It was a fine day in spring: we tethered our horses on the Arrieiros, and then,
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary with our mountain poles and a shepherd for guide, we committed ourselves to the narrow isthmus that joins the two mountains. Narrow it is; for on either side it slopes down almost perpendicularly into an abyss of some two thousand feet, while, at the top, it is in many places not more than eight feet broad, and its material is crumbling scoria. Indeed, so thin is it, that it vibrates or seems to vibrate in a heavy gale. When we had accomplished half the distance, we sat down to rest, and gaze at the wonderful chasms which opened below us. Seeing a small crack in the earth, I looked down into that, and lo! the opposite chasm was distinctly visible through it. At last, however, up ladders of rock, assisted by the shepherds banisters of roughly-spun rope, round corners where you trusted yourself to the young oak or the sapling til, and hung for a moment over a depth that it makes my blood run cold to recollect, now creeping along this side of the isthmus, now working like worms along that, we stood under the shadow of the great Cidro itself. Here, on a little platform of turf, my friend sat down, weary and sick at heart, while I resolved, with a good courage, still to follow my guide. On we went: the path was a ledge of about eighteen inches,a steep precipice above, a steep precipice below, all bare rock,no twining root or friendly twig to give the hand a firm, nor even an imaginary hold. Just then the northern gale swept a mass of clouds into the abyss, and it seemed as if we were walking along the edge of the world. I began to feel a little uncomfortable, when my guide, by way of consoling me, wrenched a large rock from its place, and hurled it downwards into the clouds. I lost it in that soft bed; but half a minute afterwards its crash came up from beneath, echoed from crag to crag, and seeming as if it came from another world. Oh, I shall never forget that moment! My brain seemed to turn round, my limbs to have no power of support, and I felt that horrible desire of leaping after the rock, the descent of which I had just witnessed. That was my only panic, and I thought it would have been my first and last. Theodora. This, and cases like this, are the most undoubted instances where the influence of external nature has a visible and physical effect. The great question is, to what immediate cause are we to attribute it? Sophron. If you ask my opinion, I have long believed it to be the immediate effect of temptation. The name, panic, proves that the spirits who were supposed to haunt wild, and lonely scenery, were also supposed to be gifted with an extraordinary influence over the mind; just as in Gothic lore fairies were endowed with the same
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary power of depriving their unwelcome visitants of reason. Now, that the evil spirits by which we are surrounded should delight in making Gods works, which in themselves are very good, occasions of misery to man, is extremely likely in itself, and consonant with all analogy. We do not remember, or we will not believe, that the presence of Christians must make an inroad on the powers of darkness; that they cannot exercise the same influence over mankind in such regions, as in wild and lonely mountains, which Holy Church can scarcely be said to have vindicated to herself; almost inaccessible to man; intended, to the end of the world, to be none of his, to whomsoever else they may be given. Take another illustration. By general consent there is an intrinsic connection between night and evil. All nations have then thought wicked spirits to have most power: at nightfall it is that, by universal agreement of mankind, appearances from the other world do almost always occur; and every one must have felt how inimitably true is Shakspere, Good things of day begin to droop and drouse, While nights fell agents to their prey do rouse. It is from a natural horror of the dark that children will cry in it; and the nearer that men approach to a state of nature, the more do they shrink from it, as from an evil thing. You may get over your dislike to it, and so you may to any other ill object; but from the beginning of the world, allegorically and physically, it has been connected with the idea of sin. A deed of darkness, and powers of darkness, carry their meaning in their face. Now, it is in its solitude, its negative of life and action, its separation of man from man, its individualizing human beings, by keeping each from aiding or being aided by his brother,all the features, in short, in which night is evil, that it resembles the lonely scenes of which we speak. True, there is a brighter side to the picture. Angels may delight in solitudes unstained by sin; and peaks like those of Chimborao and Himalaya may be, could we only hear it, vocal with the songs of the just made perfect. But still, it is a solemn thought that the doom has been once spoken, which, till the regeneration of the heavens and earth by fire, must remain in some sense in force: Cursed is the ground for thy sake. The Church, we know, has a power of reversing this curse; but till she has blessed, it remains, and must remain. The sorest temptations which the history of the Church can recount, have taken place in the desert; also, I grant you, some of the most glorious victories. We must expect the one, we may hope for the other.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. It seems to me that it is very difficult to carry on such speculations without falling into one of two dangers,pantheism or materialism. A pantheist will grant all you have been saying; lie, too, will speak of the ministry of angels, and, perhaps, the assaults of less happy spirits; but then his angels will be the sweet whisper of the wind, the bright contrasts of light and shade, the dewy forest, or the glorious landscape; while his evil spirits are but the natural effects of gloomy valleys and frowning rocks; of barren wastes and desolate sands. This doctrine we all reject with horror. But, then, is it not to materialize our notions of the blessed angels, to imagine them to take delight in earthly beauty,they who have so glorious a land of their own? And, again, is it not to undervalue the strength of our ghostly enemies, to imagine them desirous, or standing in need, of physical advantages of situation? Sophron. I think not. Call to mind only the analogy between the revelation that we have of heaven, and the nature, as we know it, of this earth. In the first place, none can deny, that after the resurrection and the final judgment, the just made perfect will not be, as angels, simply spiritual essences, but be endowed, as when on earth, with material bodies. Now, material beings necessarily presuppose a material locality: material sight would be simply useless, unless there were material substances to see; material hearing, unless there were material sounds to hear. This obviates one great objection to what I am saying; that the whole apocalyptic description is only the lowering of heavenly ideas to earthly minds. If a merely spiritual state were being described, doubtless it would so be; but when (to say the least) much that is material must be mixed up with it, the argument vanishes. Consider, again, the remarkable terms in which the abode of the elect is mentioned, after the final doom: a new heaven and a new earth. And lest any one should think that this is a merely casual expression of S. John, (granting that such things might be,) S. Peter also, and Isaiah, speak of new heavens and a new earth. If, now, there were no analogy between the old and the new, between the first and the second, earth, to what purpose this particular and thrice-repeated expression? And most remarkably is it said, there was no more sea. There is therefore so strong a resemblance between the two earths, that the absence of the sea in the second is thought a point worthy of note. Therefore, all the varieties of natural beauty except this, it may be presumed, still will exist. If of one thing in a series it be recorded that it is abolished, the natural presumption about the others is, that they remain. And, in the mystical descriptions of heaven with which Holy Scripture

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary abounds, we find frequent reference to the other most remarkable components of earthly scenery. To trees; for there is the Tree of Life: to mountains; for there is the utmost bound of the Everlasting Hills: to lakes; for there the glorious Lord will be a place of broad streams: to rivers; for there is the River of the Water of Life. Surely it is impossible to believe that these things are purely metaphorical? Nor can it even be said that the expressions are used in a Sacramental sense. How is it possible to imagine immaterial beauty, which bears a close analogy to material, and yet is fitted for material beings? And if not, the closeness of the similitude between heaven and earth is only to be understood by those Blessed Ones who know even as they are known. Theodora. Hence, then, you would conclude that, if the souls of the righteous may after the general resurrection find their happiness increased by a beauty in all points like the beauty of earth, differing from it only in transfiguration or beatification, not in spiritualization,which souls, nevertheless, are not material, though acting through a material medium, and are not impaired in vigour by their connection with that medium, but, on the contrary, derive fresh happiness and excellence from their union, or rather re-union with it,then, at this present time, angelic spirits may well be supposed to delight in earthly and material loveliness, and that without any materialization of our notion of those pure and bodiless essences. Sophron. Such is the inference I would draw; and with what sanctity does it invest the beauty of this world! Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, may thus be true of man, not only as regards his own nature, but in some degree also as taken in reference to the physical substances by which he is surrounded, and with which he is brought into contact. That is one branch of our difficulty. Now let us consider the other, with reference to evil spirits. Can it be denied that solitude has always exposed those who have sought it to fiercer temptations? And have they not, as S. Antony, obtained the greater glory in overcoming them? Even our Blessed LORD Himself was led up into the wilderness, before He was assaulted by our great enemy. And in such desolate and gloomy places did the demoniacs live; always he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. Nor must we pass over the fact, that the swine, when permitted to be possessed, were violently hurried down a steep place into the sea: as if, by a remarkable analogy, with the desire, of self-destruction, to which we have just been alluding.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. We may draw, then, two conclusions from what has been said. The one, that in scenes of desolation and loneliness the mind would be most likely to be open to supernatural impressions; the other, that in the same scenes such impressions would be most likely to be conveyed to the mind. Sophron. We shall find that this is well borne out by experience, and that, in many ways, such supernatural impressions may be traced, and have been recorded. Eupeithes. Another observation should also be made; namely, that it is in these very situations that we may most often be at a loss to determine whether an appearance be supernatural, or whether it can be explained on any known principle. Sophron. I grant you it is just here that physical phenomena are likely to be most strange. Let us endeavour to remember a few examples. Eupeithes. The lights which are sometimes seen in lonely places are very curious. It is well known that in a crossroad, near, I think, Lostwithiel, in Cornwall, there is a stationary light which always kindles itself at night, at the same height from the ground, of the same colour, form, and size; neither is there any discoverable physical reason, such as a grotto, or chasm, whence gas might issue, by which the phenomenon can be explained. It is also well known, that on the wildest heights and headlands of Madeira, at night, but especially on stormy nights, lights are seen to glance up and down the most inaccessible precipices, where the foot of man never has been, nor ever, till the general doom, will be; leaping from crag to crag over intervening ravines and chines: sometimes almost mingling with the sea rocks, sometimes shooting up to the very brow of the cliff. The fishermen believe them to be tormented souls, thus working out part of their punishment, and testify great horror at the apparition. Sophron. Such lights have also been observed in places where they would least have been expected. There is a bedroom in Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, where, on a particular spot on the wall, a pale phosphoric light is always to be seen, when the windows are darkened. I have heard, that to wake in the stillness of the night, and to see this pale light glaring quietly on you, is a most unpleasant thing. And so the proprietors thought; for they had the wall pulled

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary down, and rebuilt, but to no effect: the light appeared again, and is to be seen there to this day. Eupeithes. A man that shall travel much in the Highlands, must be hard of belief indeed, if he do not give credit to the tales which he hears of corpse lights. The belief is strongest in the Hebrides; that a light of about the brightness and apparent diameter of a horn lantern may be seen, occasionally, to move along the road which leads to the church, sometimes stopping, and never going fast. Along this same road, within a few days, a funeral, they say, is certain to pass. Eusebia. I will give you a curious instance of these lights. A minister of the Scotch establishment, on his way home one evening, leant on the wall of the churchyard, to admire the beauty of the twilight lake that stretched at his feet. On a sudden, two small lights rose from a particular spot in the churchyard, crossed the lake, entered a hamlet on the other side, stayed there some short time, and then returned in company with a much larger light, and sank into the ground at the place whence they had risen. The worthy minister went into the churchyard, threw some stones on the spot to mark it, and next morning inquired of the clerk if he remembered having interred any one there. The man answered, that, many years before, he had buried two little children, whose father, a blacksmith, was still alive, though an old man, and resided in the hamlet beyond the lake. Scarcely had the minister received this information, when he was summoned to attend the death-bed of this same blacksmith, who had been seized with paralysis, and who was shortly afterwards buried in the same grave with his children. Theodora. So also the Dee has acquired the epithet of the holy, because it is said that, whenever a Christian is drowned in its waters, a light appears above the place where his body lies, till it is recovered. Sophron. That reminds one of the story of S. John Nepomucene. He, you know, was flung over the bridge at Prague, by order of King Wenceslaus, to whom he had refused to reveal the confession of the Queen. Over his body, it is said, starlike lights appeared on the face of the water: it was recovered by the canons, and buried in the Cathedral; and the place is marked, and the stars are represented, on the battlements of the bridge. Eupeithes. Mr. Dendy, in his very interesting Philosophy of Mystery, tells us, that some years ago, the inhabitants of Borthwen, near

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Barmouth, were surprised by seeing, one night, a number of lights dancing over the estuary of their river. Gradually all disappeared but one, and that one settled on a boat then, with its owner, in the stream. A few days afterwards, her owner was lost in her. Theodora. Mr. Davis, of Generglyn, writing to Baxter in 1656, assures him that corpse candles were very common in the counties of Caermarthen, Cardigan, and Pembroke. If, says he, it be a little candle, pale or bluish, then follows the corpse either of some abortive or some infant; if a big one, then the corpse of some one come to age; if there be seen two or three, or more, some big, some small, then so many and such corpses together. He gives the following instance:Being about the age of fifteen, dwelling at Llanylar, late at night, some neighbours saw one of these, candles hovering up and down the river bank, until they were weary in beholding it: at last they left it so, and went to bed. A few weeks after came a proper damsel from Montgomeryshire, to see her friends, who dwelt on the other side of that river Ystwith, and thought to ford the river at the very place where the light was seen. Being dissuaded by some lookers on (some, it is most likely, of those that saw the light) to adventure on the water, which was high, by reason of a flood, she walked up and down along the river bank, even where, and even as, the aforesaid candle did, waiting for the falling of the water, which at last she took; but too soon for her,for she was drowned therein. This same Mr. Davis, who was Rector, it would seem, of Generglyn, mentions another anecdote in the same letter. Some thirty or forty years since, my wifes sister, being nurse to Baronet Rudds three children, and the Lady Comptroller of the house, going late into the chamber where the maid-servants lay, saw no less than five of these lights together. It happened a while after, the chamber being newly plastered, and a grate of coal-fire therein kindled to hasten the drying of the plaster, that five of the maidservants went to bed as they were wont, but (as it fell out) too soon; for in the morning they were found dead, being suffocated in their sleep by the steam from the new-tempered lime and coal. This was at Llangadden, in Caermarthenshire. A much more modern instance is this. A poor woman, living in Northamptonshire, had been aroused one dark winters morning, by her husband leaving home for his work. She was dressing herself slightly, preparatory to going down and lighting the fire, when she observed a strange and supernaturally bright light, as of a small globe of fire, shining on the bed. She describes the brilliancy and beauty of the light to have been beyond all expression. She fancied it might have been a gleam of the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary moon, and went to the window to look; but there was no moon, and the sky outside the window was as dark as possible. Still in the room gleamed this light, and she noticed the threads and pattern of the counterpane, which were made plainly visible by it; she was much frightened, and went down stairs, nor dared she return again till day had broken. She fully expected that some evil was to come; and when, in the autumn of that year, her husband died, rather suddenly, she felt that she had been prepared by this wonderful and unearthly light. Sophron. No one, that has not seen it, can imagine how precisely the motions of the appearance called Jack-a-Lantern, or Will-o-theWisp, resemble those of a man with a lantern. On a wide moor, sometimes it will seem to run very fast in a straight line,then it will stop, as if perplexed, and move a few yards backwards and forwards, a little higher or a little lower, as if the person that carried it were doubtful of his way,then, as having found it, off goes the light again, keeping the same height from the ground, and, as it were, held steadily. It is almost impossible to believe it other than it seems, till (if you are acquainted with the ground) you observe that it has crossed a piece of water, or some quagmire that you know to be impassable, and there ends the deception. In Ireland, when these Fairy Men, (as they are called,) appear, the peasants make the sign of the Cross, and turn their cloaks; the latter a superstition for which I cannot account. Sometimes, however, these Will-o-the-Wisps are stationary. I have myself seen one that would make a very pretty picture: standing on a rustic bridge that crosses a puny stream near its source, where ashes and willows bend over the well-head that bubbles up at a little distance, and the long grass and the red sorrel skirt its clear basin, making a little nook or shrine for the birth-place of the stream, I have seen on a dark and cloudy night a perfect little sun, shooting out its rays on all sides, and hanging immediately over the fountain. The effect of this fairy light on the dewy leaves that dipped themselves in the water, on the old moss-covered bridge, and on the ripples of the stream itself, was very lovely. Eupeithes. Of a less innocent kind was the celebrated Harlech meteor of 1694. Between Harlech and the Caernarvonshire side of the Traeth Bychan, intervenes a low range of marsh land, running up some way into the country. Just before Christmas, 1693, a pale blue light was observed to come across the sea, apparently from the Caernarvonshire coast, and moving slowly from one part of the neighbouring country to another, to fire all the hay-ricks and some of the barns which it approached. It never appeared but at night. At
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary first the country people were terrified at it; at length, taking courage, they ventured boldly close to it, and sometimes into it, to save, if it might be, their hay. As summer came on, instead of appearing almost every night, its visits were confined to once or twice a week, and almost always on Saturday or Sunday. It now began to cease from firing ricks, but was hurtful in another manner; for it poisoned all the grass on which it rested, and a great mortality of cattle and sheep ensued. At length it was traced to a place palled Morvabychan, in Caernarvonshire, a sandy and marshy bay, about nine miles distant from Harlech, Storm or fine weather seemed to make no difference to this meteor; but any loud noise, as shouting, firing guns, blowing horns, appeared to prevent its doing mischief. It was seen for the last time in the August of 1694. Eusebia. We must not forget, among the aerial apparitions which have been most noted, those well-attested instances of fiery armies combating in the air, which have preceded battles. Night after night, before the destruction of Jerusalem, armies were seen fighting in the clouds: no one can doubt that this was one of the many signs by which the capture of that city was foretold. Eupeithes. The night before the battle of Ivry, not only was the combat of two armies seen, in a kind of halo of clouds; but the respective lines of the Leaguers and the Royalists, nay, even the persons of the principal chiefs, could be recognized; and the white horse on which Henry IV. did such deeds of valour was distinguished and observed. And this apparition was visible to thousands at the same time. Theodora. Something similar is said to have occurred before the persecution of the Waldenses, in the seventeenth century. Armies were then seen in the clouds; strange luminous appearances were observed over the churches; the bells rang without mortal hands; and a blue lambent flame hung over the churchyards. Eupeithes. I will read you, out of Fox, the signs and prodigies which happened before the massacre in the Valteline: The Protestants having appointed guards and sentinels in the steeples of the churches of the Valteline, besides others which were commanded to watch in certain places, to give the sign by fire, to the intent that the whole valley, being warned partly by the beacons, partly by the sound of the bells, might together be ready on the sudden to take arms for their defence against the Spaniard, if he

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary should make any incursion upon the valley. About the calends of May, 1620, in Soudres, the foresaid sentinels reported, that in a night, as they watched, they heard, in the church of Gervase, a murmuring as it were of many persons, with great earnestness and vehemency of arguing and contesting among themselves; and from the church there shined upwards through the steeple a great brightness, insomuch as the sentinels lighted their torches, and assembled themselves to go down into the church to see what the matter might be. But as they were descending down the stairs, their lights were put out; and returning afresh to light their torches, they were put out again with greater strength, and with much astonishment and trembling; and the brightness which filled the church suddenly vanished. The weights also of the great clock fell down, and they heard about ten knells of a bell, in such manner as it useth to ring to give the alarm; the which was heard by very many. Likewise in Tyrane there were heard the like knells by the great bell, and the magistrate commanded them suddenly to go and know the cause; but he found that it was not done by the act of men; and instantly the servants running from the belfry, and diligently attending to see this business, they discerned a thing like a cat to descend down into the place. Signs and prodigies heard and seen in the Valteline after the massacre, as hath been affirmed by divers persons of credit, being departed from the said valley, and lying in the Valteline after the massacre. In the Protestant church, and principally in Teglio and Tyrane, a voice hath been heard to cry, Woe, woe, woe unto you. The vengeance of God is upon you for the blood of the innocent. Moreover, there was heard the bell of the evangelic church of Tyrane to ring even at the same time that the sermon was used to be; and in that church a voice was heard, like the voice of Signor Antonio Basso, who sometimes had been there a minister, and was murdered in the said place, as if himself had been preaching in the same place. In Soudres there was seen to descend an army from the mountains, every way furnished; which sight was the cause that many took their flight and departed out of Soudres; but suddenly this apparition vanished like a cloud. The which struck a great terror into the minds of the people, insomuch that many departed out of the valley, as men that feared a castigation and punishment from heaven. [Fox, vol. iii. p. 406.]

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. On the night succeeding the bombardment of Acre, in 1839, coruscations, like hieroglyphics, were seen by the English crew, on the mountains to the east of that town. This appears to bear some resemblance to the preceding accounts. [Williamss Jerusalem, p. 179.] Eupeithes. But the most remarkable, and at the same time one of the most apparently useless apparitions of this kind, occurred at Boulogne a few years since. I have it from an eye-witness. An English family, resident there during the summer, were walking on the terrace before their house one afternoon, watching the coming on of a magnificent thunderstorm, and, as was natural, the conversation turned on tempests. Some one having mentioned the celebrated storm of Nov. 26, 1703, some of its disastrous effects were related. The storm meanwhile came on, and as it was unaccompanied by rain, the party still continued out of doors. All at once, an exclamation from one of the children caused them to look up; and there, through a kind of broken ellipse of clouds, they saw, in fiery characters, the numbers, 1703. Nor (as one might say with good S. Cyril yesterday) did the phenomenon vanish at once. It remained steady long enough to enable my informants to attempt a sketch of it. And afterwards, when several members of the party were requested to sketch it from memory, they all formed the numerals in the same way, thusthe 3 being of the old-fashioned kind. So wonderful a story I should not have ventured to relate to you, were I not perfectly well acquainted with those to whom it happened; and, from the number of concurrent witnesses, it is as impossible that they should have been deceived themselves, as that they should attempt to deceive others. Sophron. We shall have, ere long, to consider the question of the general uselessness of apparitions, and whether any argument can be drawn against their credibility on that score. Your story is certainly a curious one, however. Among aerial apparitions, we must not forget the remarkable occurrence which preceded the battle of Campo dOurique. Count Affonso was warned by a vision, the night before this great engagement, which arrested for ever the Moorish dominion in Portugal, that if he went forth when the bell sounded for mass on the following morning, he should receive a sign of his success from God. As his host numbered but ten thousand men, while that of the infidels was computed at three hundred thousand, he felt that he could scarcely be saved, unless by a miraculous interference. He went forth at the appointed signal. It was a cloudy sunrise, and he gazed in vain expectation for some few moments. At
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary length a whirlwind seemed to arise in the east; the clouds were heaped and whirled together in all manner of fantastical shapes; and gradually a space of clear blue sky presented itself in the midst of them. In this the Count beheld the Crucified SAVIOUR, and all the Host of Heaven encircling Him with adoration. And at the same time a voice was heard promising him victory over his foes, the royal title, and a succession of sixteen generations to inherit his throne. This story has been critically examined by Padre Antonio Pereira, a scholar of great and deserved eminence in antiquities, as well as in ecclesiastical literature; and the result of his inquiry is, that there are not sufficient grounds in the arguments of objectors to make its credibility at all doubtful. Theodora. Such appearances as those of the great spectre of the Brocken, though strictly natural, must have a most supernatural effect. Eupeithes. They must: I have been witness to one such on a smaller scale. I was standing with a friend on an African mountain, and gazing into an abyss or crater that lay stretched at our feet. It was filled with white, foam-like clouds, piled up orderlessly one on the other. As we looked, the sun came out overhead, and we saw far below us a vast shadow of ourselves, the head encircled with a white nimbus, like the glory that surrounds the heads of the beatified. Near the same spot, a traveller, shortly before, had seen himself and his horse reflected in the same manner, the nimbus surrounding the animal and its rider. Sophron. Another kind of these aerial appearances is spoken of in Germany and in Scotland. In Argyllshire there is a belief, that towards nightfall an armed band will be seen occasionally, riding full-speed along the almost precipitous sides of mountains, accessible, perhaps, to the goat, or to the well-trained mountaineer, but which it would be certain death to horse and rider to ascend. And, as we all know, a belief of the same kind prevails in the Harzforest, that in the stillness of those vast solitudes a sound will sometimes be heard of a hunters chase,the baying of hounds, the clatter of steeds, the cheering of riders, the winding of horns; all gradually growing louder and nearer, and then, by the same gradual steps, dying off into stillness, as if the chase were gone by. Theodora. One can wonder at nothing in such deep forest solitudes in the way of imaginary (if imaginary) sounds. Can anything material be more like spiritual melody than the sighing of a pine-

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary grove in the summer airthe soul-like sound of Coleridge? It seems so to realize and to illustrate that noble description in Holy Scripture where David is forbidden to go forth against the Philistines till he hears the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees; as if then an angelic battalion was marching forth to battle in his behalf. Eupeithes. I remember that, on a winter afternoon, at that most lovely of times, a frosty sunset, I was descending one of the hills near the border of Surrey and Sussex. There was no sensible breeze; and, as I wound down into the valley, the evening sky, here and there ruffled into billows of grey splendour, the motionless leaves that strewed my path, and the silence of approaching night, were very solemn. Presently I reached a spot where, on my left hand, was a deep cutting through sandstone; and at the top of the bank three firs, with not a single branch along their straight stems, threw up their heads into the twilight air. And from that far-off tuft of branches there came down such faint and sweet melody, that I could only think, with Dr. Donne, LORD, LORD, what delights must Thou have prepared for Thy servants in heaven, if Thou providest such ravishing music for bad men on earth! Eusebia. The astonishingly supernatural effect of wind is no where more curious than in ranges of open downs, such as lie between Christchurch Twynam, and Wimborne Minster, which are dotted here and there with aged thorns or stunted oaks. As you stand at the bottom of the hill, all may be silent; presently you hear an old thorn near the summit rushing and roaring in the gale; then one a hundred yards to your right will creak its branches together, and rustle more loudly; then a solitary oak to your left: as if each in its turn took up a conversation with the breeze, and complained of its hard usage. Eupeithes. There is nothing more overpowering in the way of sound than the continual roar of a stream over a bed of rocks, as you pursue your solitary way up a mountain glen. It is amusing at first; then it becomes irksome; then, as you get further and further from the abodes of man, and the precipices grow wilder, and the mountains darker, there is something perfectly awful in the voice of the stream; nor can I conceive any thing more likely to deprive a man of his senses than continual exposure to such a sound in such a scene. Eusebia. We were to talk, I think, of those cases in which storms and hurricanes have been supposed to prefigure any great change, more especially the death of illustrious men.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. There are some well-known instances of this: Oliver Cromwells birth, for example, was attended by a tremendous tempest; so, also, was his death. And there is a curious example of a similar kind in the Irish annals. In 1343, on the 13th of July, Sir Ralph Ufford came to Dublin as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. The weather, which had been remarkably fine that summer, immediately became foul, and continued so during the whole time that he held that office. He oppressed the native Irish; he robbed Clergy and laity; he did injustice to rich and poor. After nearly three years ill government, he died universally hated; and no sooner was he dead, than the tempestuous weather ceased, and the three years continued wet was changed to a cloudless season. Eupeithes. We are told that at Zurich, in the year 1280, while a sermon was being delivered at the shrine of SS. Felix and Regula, the patrons of the church, a tremendous clap of thunder was heard in a clear sky, and that some few days after, the greater part of the city was consumed by an accidental fire, and the inhabitants were put under the ban of the empire. In. the year 1440, a similar clap of thunder was heard in the same town, and was followed shortly after by the civil war which Zurich carried on for more than seven years against the other cantons. Sophron. I remember also that, before the battle fought between the Swiss troops and the Dauphins army, during the time of the Council of Basle, under the walls of that city, for several nights, strange noises are said to have been heard round and upon the spot of the future engagement, the cries of warriors, and the shock of armies. [Felix Malleolus, de Nobilit. cap. 26. 33.] Eupeithes. Voices, too, heard in lonely places, are frequently recorded. At the moment that Leo of Constantinople was slain, the crew of a ship at sea heard the words, This night hath Leo been murdered. What more magnificent, too, than the voice which echoed from the deep solitude of the Holy of Holies, at that last Pentecost, Let us depart hence! Theodora. The Arabs believe that, in the Wilderness of Sin, at the time of matins, a bell may be heard as if summoning to prayer; and that this has been the case ever since the Crusades. Sophron. If from this we turn our attention to celestial phenomena, properly so called, we shall find no small weight of Scriptural authority for expounding them, as being connected in some

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary mysterious manner with the changes and chances of this mortal life. It can hardly be without some further intent than that of a mere metaphor, that signs in the sun, and moon, and stars are so often coupled with distress of nations, with wars and rumours of wars. The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. And again, how often in the Apocalypse: The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And again, The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars: so as the third part of them was darkened. And in accordance with all this, we know it to have been the opinion of the medieval Church, that the Last Judgment would be preceded by fifteen days of peculiar celestial prodigies. Eupeithes. That comets have appeared before great events is a thing which is hardly capable of proof, because it will be immediately and most truly answered, that some of the most remarkable comets have announced nothing at all. I am not aware that the comet of 1680 is capable of explanation in the way of prophecy, nor is that of 1843. The former of these had appeared thrice before within the annals of history. It was the same that was seen immediately after the death of Julius Caesar; that appeared again in the reign of Justinian, before one of the most terrific plagues which history records; that a third time manifested itself during the heat of the Crusades. All these three apparitions have not unnaturally been connected with the remarkable events by which they were attended; not to mention that a previous appearance of the same comet very probably accompanied, if it did not occasion, the flood. Sophron. At the same time you must allow that a very large proportion of comets have, in a most signal manner, been connected with historic events. Those of 538 and 945 preceded the greatest famines which history records. Those of 64 and 1298 were heralds of fearful earthquakes. Those of 983, 1254, 1268, 1530, of great inundations. Those of 603, 626, 745, were precursors of plagues; while the great comet of 1347, which was visible all over Europe, was immediately followed by the most tremendous visitation that ever befel the earth,I mean the Black Death: it lasted three years, and was computed to carry off one man out of every three. If one
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary says that there is, perhaps, a natural connection in all these instances between the sign and the thing signified, at all events the case cannot be so with respect to wars and change of dynasties. Yet we find the comet of 726, immediately preceding the victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens, which put an end to the further advance of Mahometanism in Western Europe; and that of 1240, announcing the conquests of Tamerlane. The comet of 336 before our LORD, was held to foretell the destruction of the Persian Empire; that of A.D. 70, the fall of Jerusalem; that of 570, the overthrow of the Lombards; that of 632, the conquest of Persia by the Saracens; that of 800, the empire of Charlemagne; that of 1201, the Latin conquest of Constantinople. And the occurrence of a comet before the death of a famous King, has almost passed into a proverb. The comet of 14, before the death of Augustus; of 363, before that of Julian the apostate; of 454, before that of Theodosius; of 571, before that of Alborin, king of the Lombards; of 837, before that of Pepin; of 1301, that of Andrew, King of Hungary; and I might go on almost endlessly. When beggars die, there are no comets seen, The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Eusebia. And (what must have been at least as striking as the comets then seen) you should notice the remarkable paleness of the sun which accompanied those of Julius Caesar and Justinian. Theodora. Again, we are told that the comet which appeared before the great plague of London was sickly and ghastly; that its motion was slow, and that it glared with a death-like paleness; whereas that which preceded the Fire, was of a bright fiery radiance, rapid in its course, angry looking, and very terrible. It was reported, also, to hang like a drawn sword over the devoted city. Eupeithes. That, however, can hardly fail to be fancied by any spectator. I was in Portugal when the great comet of 1843 appeared, which you here in England scarcely saw; but there it was magnificent, and I should think nearly equal to that of 1680. I can assure you that to see it night after night hang over the city in which I was living, quite gave the idea of the sword of Divine vengeance threatening it. Sophron. After all, what more astonishing in the belief that comets should prefigure danger, than in that, which we know to be the fact, that certain phases of the moon, or crises of the revolution of the earth, do not only prefigure, but actually occasion, changes in the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary condition of human bodies? We all know that, in dying persons, if the hours of twelve, three, six, or nine be passed, we expect the sufferer to linger on to the next critical period. At the same time, also, the crises of diseases generally occur; and sailors have a belief, if a comrade is dying, that he cannot pass till the time of high water. Again, it is also clear, that the change of the moon has a great influence on the symptoms of madmen: who will venture to explain why? Eusebia. It is getting late; and we are approaching a very interesting part of our subject: shall we postpone it till to-morrow night? Sophron. We will do so.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary

NIGHT III. OF WARNINGS OF APPROACHING DEATH OR DANGER, AND OF DREAMS Sophron. We have need, again and again, to remind ourselves, as we pursue this discussion, that what has been superstitiously exaggerated may, nevertheless, be credibly believed. Nothing more ludicrous, nothing more vulgar, nothing more pitiable, than the credit which some attach to omens; and verily I believe that Satan is sometimes permitted to verify one or two, that the sin of believing in such kind of signs may bring its own punishment. Eupeithes. I think so too: there are well authenticated stories of the most absurd omens having been proved true by the event, in a way which can hardly be the effect of chance, but which, may thus be very plausibly, if not probably, explained. Sophron. I will give you an instance. Who can suppose that the vulgar ideas of the appearance of certain birds portending certain events, is any thing more than gross superstition, and, as such (unless through invincible ignorance,) a mortal sin? Yet I knew a gentleman to whom a most remarkable example of a fulfilled omen occurred. He was out with his wife on their wedding tour, when, behold! six magpies appeared together. Well, said my friend, smiling, We know the old saw One for sorrow, two for mirth, Three for a funeral, four for a birth. So, on that principle, we ought to hear of two funerals. I suppose we ought, continued the lady, and nothing more was said on the subject; but they had not driven on more than a few moments, when a man rode towards them at full speed, and reined in his horse as he approached the chaise. Whats the matter? demanded my friend. A most shocking thing has just occurred, replied the man. Two of Mr.s sons (who live over there,) and he pointed to the place, have just been drowned in a pond in the park; they are using all the means to bring them round, and I am riding tofor the surgeon. With which he struck spurs into his horse, and galloped on. And as my friend was accustomed, very justly, to observe, not the least wonderful part of the story is, that a perfect stranger should, apparently without any definite cause, have stopped to relate the accident then.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. We ought to regard such an event as a trial of the faith of the person to whom it happened. And no doubt your friend was bound, if ever he again saw six or sixty magpies, to look on the appearance as perfectly meaningless and harmless; and in this way to make good the cause of faith against superstition, no less its deadly foe than scepticism. Theodora. You do not class with this story such remarkable accounts as those given by Lord Clarendon about the death of the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Pembroke? Eupeithes. Assuredly not. We have good evidence for them: and I ask only for such evidence as would warrant my believing any tale against which an antecedent improbability lay. Eusebia. But what are the accounts? I do not remember them. Sophron. I will read you that given by Mr. Douch with respect to Sir George Villiers, rather than Clarendons, because it seems more exact; and you can look at the other at your leisure any day. Some few days before the dukes going to Portsmouth, where he was stabbed by Pelton, the ghost of his father, Sir George Villiers, appeared to one Parker, formerly his own servant, but then servant to the duke, in his morning gown, charging Parker to tell his son that he should decline that employment and design he was going upon, or else he would certainly be murdered. Parker promised the apparition to do it, but neglected it. The duke making preparations for his expedition to Rochelle, the apparition came again to Parker, taxing him very severely for his breach of promise, and required him not to delay the acquainting of his son of the danger he was in. Then Parker the next day tells the duke that his fathers ghost had twice appeared to him, and had commanded him to give him that warning. The duke slighted it, and told him he was an old doting fool. That night the apparition came to Parker a third time, saying, Parker, thou hast done well in warning my son of his danger; but, though he will not yet believe thee, go to him once more however, and tell him by such a token, naming a private token, which nobody knows but only he and I, that if he will not decline this voyage, such a knife as this is, pulling a long knife out from under his gown, will be his death. This message Parker also delivered the next day to the duke, who, when he heard the private token, believed that he had it from his fathers ghost, yet said that his honour was now at stake, and that he could not go back from what he had undertaken, come life, come death. These three several

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary appearances of the apparition to Mr. Parker were always at midnight, when he was reading some book. This fact Parker, after the dukes murder, communicated to his fellow-servant, Henry Ceeley, who told it to a reverend divine, a neighbour of mine, from whose mouth I have it. This Henry Ceeley has not been dead above twenty years, and his habitation for several years before his death was at North Cerney, in Somersetshire. My friend, the divine aforesaid, was an intimate acquaintance of this Henry Ceeleys, and assures me he was a person of known truth and integrity. That is the story; and the only circumstance which seems suspicious about it is easily to be explained. It would appear that Parker did not communicate the apparition to Ceeley till after the dukes murder: but it would also appear that other people had been told of it before. Clarendon, so much used to investigate evidence, was so well convinced of this story as to insert it in his history. It may also be seen at much greater length in Lillys Observations on the Life and Death of King Charles I.: not that this is any testimony to its truth. Eusebia. And yet how many difficulties arise, unless you make it a mere question of evidence! How much more natural, one should say, how certainly much more effectual, would it have been had Sir George Villiers appeared to his son, rather than to his servant! Strange, too, that if he could foresee his sons death in the event of going, he could not foresee his sons determination to go! Eupeithes. What are we, that we should presume to decide on the various causes that may operate on the motives, or limit the knowledge of a spiritual visitant? You may reject a great number of historical facts, if you once take to that species of reasoning. The story of Joseph will fall to the ground at once. Why did he not, you may ask, send some one into Canaan to gather intelligence of his family, instead of waiting twenty years and more till Providence brought them to him? And who can answer the question? It does seem, I confess, as if the phantom had taken the least likely means for accomplishing its immediate end: but who shall say that there were not other purposes to be answered by this roundabout method of communication? Certainly the unwillingness of the messenger is a strong proof that he was convinced of the truth of his own tale. Sophron. In other versions of the story it is added that Sir George Villiers commanded Parker himself to prepare for death, and that he accordingly shortly afterwards did die. The death of the Duke of Buckingham was also foretold by a Scotch seer, and darkly foreshadowed by a dream of the Countess of Denbigh, his sister.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. The other story is one of a more ordinary kind. I will read it you from Clarendon. A short story may not be unfitly inserted, it being very frequently mentioned by a person of known integrity, whose character is here undertaken to be set down, and who, at that time, being on his way to London, met at Maidenhead some persons of quality, of relation or dependence upon the Earl of Pembroke, Sir Charles Morgan, commonly called General Morgan, who had commanded an army in Germany, and defended Stoad, Dr. Field, then Bishop of S. Davids, and Dr. Chafin, the Earls then chaplain in his house, and much in his favour. At supper one of them drank a health to the lord steward, upon which another of them said, That he believed his lord was at that time very merry, for he had now outlived the day which his tutor, Sandford, had prognosticated upon his nativity he would not outlive; but he had done it now, for that was his birthday, which completed his age to fifty years. The next morning, by the time they came to Colebrook, they met with the news of his death. Eupeithes. The most fearful of such tales is the well-known apparition to Lord Lyttleton. He, a man of most abandoned life, had retired to his house at Pitts Place, near Epsom, in the Christmas of 1775, for the purpose of profaning that season with his debaucheries. A number of his companions were in the house with him; and revelry and dissoluteness of every description were indulged and encouraged. One night, Lord Lyttleton had retired to bed earlier than usual, when he was aroused by a sound at-the window as if a dove were flapping its wings against it, and endeavouring to get in. He started up, and to his horror beheld the apparition of an unhappy girl whom he had seduced, and who had committed suicide. She told him that on the third night from that, when the hands of the clock which stood on the chimney-piece pointed to the same place, he would be called to appear before God. Lord Lyttleton was horrified beyond measure: he could not sleep, he could not eat; and at length the unusual depression of his spirits attracted the notice of his companions. After repeated and anxious inquiries from them, he confessed the truth, and they of course treated the impression as the phantom of a deluded imagination. Still they apprehended danger from the entire possession which it had taken of Lord Lyttletons fancy; and, understanding that the hour named was twelve, they insisted on remaining with him up to that time, while, by a secret arrangement with his valet, the clock was put forward an hour. As the hour-hand pointed to midnight, the unhappy nobleman became extremely anxious and distressed; at length the hour struck; and

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary with a shout of exultation that the devil had lied, he called for a bottle of wine, and gave a toast suitable to the occasion. At length, a few moments before the true midnight, his friends left him to his valet: they had scarcely, however, reached their apartments, when his bell rang violently: they hastened back to his room; he was quite dead, and his face was awfully convulsed. Now, of the facts as I have related them, there can be no manner of doubt: of course, of Lord Lyttletons tale of the phantom, every one may form his own judgment. Sophron. It does not look as if he had committed suicide, for more reasons than one. It could not have been easy to foretell to a minute the time of his death: he must have been previously more or less ill; he would not have exhibited such extravagant joy when the fated hour was passed. The difficulty, of course, is, why a lost spiritfor the whole tenor of the story would lead us to assume that it was lostshould interfere for the warning of a mortal. Eupeithes. We may assign three reasons. It might have been done most unwillingly by the spectre, and only by the express command of Him Who has the absolute ordering of evil as well as of good spirits. It might have been done maliciously by an ill spirit, to enhance misery; the measure of Lord Lyttletons crimes might have been full, and to warn might only have been to announce destruction. But,and I rather incline to this opinion,as just spirits are not perfect till after the consummation of all things, so neither can we suppose evil spirits to be entirely and essentially evil till then. Perhaps the virtue of their baptism yet lingers in them, only to be finally burnt out by the fire that consumes the world. Dives cared for his brethren, and was anxious that they should escape that place of torment; so might it also have been here. Sophron. Not unlike this is the story of Sir Cashio Burroughes. I will read it to you from Aubrey. Sir John Burroughes, being sent Envoy to the Emperor by King Charles I., did take his eldest son, Cashio Burroughes, along with him; and taking his journey through Italy, left his son at Florence to learn the language: where he, having an intrigue with a beautiful courtezan, mistress of the Great Duke, their familiarity became so public, that it came to the Dukes ear, who took a resolution to have him murdered. But Cashio, having timely notice of the Dukes design by some of the English there, immediately left the city without acquainting his mistress with it, and came to England. Whereupon... his mistress...killed herself. At the same moment that she expired, she did appear to Cashio in his lodgings in
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary London (Colonel Eemes was then in bed with him, who saw her as well as he); giving him an account of her resentment of his ingratitude to her in leaving her so suddenly, and exposing her to the fury of the Duke, not omitting her own tragical exit, adding, withal, that he should be slain in a duel, which accordingly happened. And thus she appeared to him frequently, even when his younger brother, who afterwards was Sir John, was abed with him. As often as she did appear, he would cry out with great shrieking and trembling of his body, in anguish of mind, saying, O GOD! here she comes, she comes! and at this rate she appeared till he was killed. She appeared to him the morning before he was killed. . . . The story was so common, that King Charles I. sent for Cashio Burroughes father, whom he examined as to the truth of the matter, who did, together with Colonel Remes, aver the matter of fact to be true; so that the King thought it worth his while to send to Florence, to inquire at what time this unhappy lady killed herself. It was found to be the same minute that she first appeared to Cashio. Eusebia. Here is a different instance of the same thing. At one of Marlboroughs battles, I think that of Ramillies, a young officer was engaged who had been intimate with Sir John Friend. I need not remind you that the latter was executed by William of Orange, for adherence to the interests of the exiled family. He assured his friends that he should not survive the battle. At its conclusion, while the allied horse were pursuing the remains of the enemy, a knot of his acquaintance rallied him on his despondency, and congratulated him on his safety. You speak, he replied, as you think. I shall die yet. Scarcely had he said the words, when the last cannon-ball fired by the vanquished army laid him dead on the spot. In his pocket was found a slip of paper, with these words, after a certain date: Dreamed, or, (the blank was supposed to be intended for was told by a spirit,) that on May 22, 1706, Sir John Friend meets me. On that May 22, the battle of Ramillies was fought. Eupeithes. To this story, if properly authenticated, no reasonable objection can be offered. It is not often that one has written evidence of a presentiment of this kind. Sophron. I suppose no one can doubt that simple presentimentsI mean such as could have no reason assigned for themof death or misfortune, have occurred again and again.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary The shadows Of great events pass on before the events, And in to-day already walks to-morrow. An example of this came under my own knowledge. A lady residing in the north of Sussex had occasion to leave her family for a few days, and to go up to London. One morning she was seized with an unaccountable and most distressing depression of spirits (her bodily health being perfectly-good), which nothing seemed capable of alleviating or diverting. Her friends did all in their power to console her; but she repeated several times, I am sure that some great misfortune is going to befal me. They persuaded her to join the rest of the family at dinner, and then proposed that she should go to the opera. She was most unwilling to do this, and every hour seemed to increase her agitation. Her friends, however, insisted; and she was going up stairs to dress, when a thundering knock was heard at the hall door. I told you, she cried, that I should receive some dreadful intelligence; and there it is. She was right: an express had been sent up to inform her that one of her children had been drowned in a pond in her garden. Eupeithes. The story I am about to relate comes to me, as you will see, on most undoubted authority. A rich landed proprietor in Jamaica, Mr. T., having grown enormously stout, and being in a bad state of health, was ordered to England. He had no fancy, however, for leaving the luxuries of that climate, and procrastinated his departure from week to week. At length he called on an intimate friend, the father of my informant, and said, Well, I have taken my passage to England in thebrig. I am very glad of it, replied Mr. B.; I will come and see you off. When does she sail? Mr. T. named the day, but added, I dont much like going, after all; I have a kind of idea that I shall be thrown overboard, if I go. Why, that would take the whole crew, said Mr. B.; pooh! pooh! you must go, and there is an end of the matter. The brig is big enough to carry even you, I should think: come, come, you must promise to go. Mr. T. at length consented; but, on the day of sailing being deferred, he again hesitated, and was with the greatest difficulty kept to his purpose. Mr. B. went with him on board; and, when he came home, Well, said he, I shall be quite uneasy till I hear of T.s arrival in England. I never knew a man so miserable about sailing. And every day it was the same thing. I shall be truly glad when I hear of his arrival. Nearly a fortnight had passed, when one morning, an illegitimate son of Mr. T. earnestly requested an interview with Mr. B. He had come from a considerable distance to inquire if any news
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary had been received of the brig in which his father had sailed; having, he said, a deep persuasion that all was not right. Mr. B. assured him that nothing had been heard of her. While they were talking, a crowd of negroes came hurrying up from Mr. T.s plantation, at a considerable distance from Mr. B.s house in an opposite direction. With loud cries and frantic gesticulations they insisted that Massa was dead. Nonsense! cried Mr. B., angrily, there is no news whatever of the brig. However, to satisfy you, come down with me to the Court House, and let us inquire. No intelligence had been received, and none was received. The brig never reached England; and it was concluded that she had been lost. Six years afterwards a sailor called on Mr. B.; he said, on the most important business. He informed him that the brig had not been lost; but that, while the captain lived, he had determined never to reveal what had occurred on board. The captain was now dead, and these were the circumstances. I should previously have told you that Mr. T. had distinguished himself in the insurrection by his bitterness against the Baptists, by whom it was fomented. The captain of the brig was a Baptist; but of this neither he nor Mr. B. had been aware. The brig reached the Gulf of Florida, where a violent religious dispute began between the captain and Mr. T. They had worked themselves up into a frenzy of rage, when the captain called out, Who is on my side? Several of the sailors stepped forward, seized the unhappy proprietor, and threw him overboard. The captain, believing (as many sailors do) that the body would follow in the ships wake, put about, had the corpse taken up, landed in a solitary part of Florida, staved a rum puncheon, fastened the body in it, and buried it on the shore. He then sailed for France, and subsequently to ports where he was not known. It was the very day of that unhallowed burial that young T. and the negroes had their presentiment of Mr. T.s death. Sophron. Such a double, or rather triple, presentiment is very remarkable. I knew a lady who, shortly after her marriage, told her husband that the first time he ever slept away from her he would die. So strong was the impression on her mind, that for many years he always took her about with him; but one day, being unexpectedly called to London, he told her that it was now high time to conquer this folly; that he would return that day if he could, but did not imagine he should be able. Very unwillingly she let him go, and he did not come home that night. Early the next morning, one of the servants came into the room. You need not tell me what is the matter; your master is dead. And so it was.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. I am intimately acquainted with a lady, who, when engaged, was told by her lover that he should survive their marriage only a few days. He had no desire to defer it, and she disbelieved in the presentiment. They were married. On the fourth day after, he was taken ill, and died in about ten days. I have seen some of this gentlemans letters, in which he alludes to this presentiment. Eusebia. A gentleman, whom I knew well, has related to me the following anecdote of his father, who then resided at Hull. An intimate friend once called on him, and said, E., I am convinced that I have not long to live, and I should very much wish to talk over with you the arrangements I must make about my family. Mr. R. in vain reasoned against the presentiment: his friend was not to be convinced, and suggestedoddly enoughthat they would be able to talk, with a certainty of freedom from interruption, at the top of the tower of Trinity Church. They went up, and discussed the matter at length; and while there, this gentleman caught a cold that verified the presentiment, by ending in his death. Sophron. A lady, residing at Cambridge, was in the habit of sending out her son, a boy some twelve years old, for a ride every morning; and he enjoyed his pony and his canter as a boy of that age would do. On one particular morning, he begged that he might not go. His mother inquired why? He had no reason; it was simply that he had rather not. Thinking it a childish whim, she insisted on his overcoming it. He entreated, with tears, that she would not compel him to ride; but she would not give way. He set out; but had scarcely ridden half a mile, when he was thrown, and killed on the spot. Eupeithes. A somewhat similar story is told in connection with the great accident of 1841, on the Brighton Railway. A gentleman in London was about to go by the train to which it occurred. He had two servants, who requested him not to send them by the second class. He laughed at their fears, told them that he was not going to pay for their travelling in the first class, but that he would go with them, and sit between them. They begged him to let them have their way: he was obstinate. They set off; the train ran into that fatal field beyond the Ouse Valley Viaduct; both servants were killed on the spotthe gentleman was unhurt. Eusebia. Animals, also, seem to have this presentiment. A gentleman, then residing in Cornwall, told me that a dog, belonging to his brother, who lived in Gloucestershire, was left in his

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary charge. One night this dog, who had never before done such a thing, howled continuously till morning. On that night, two of the brothers children died of scarlet fever.I knew also of a gentleman who was sleeping in a room on the ground floor: it had French windows, which opened on to a paddock. One night, his favourite horse, which grazed in that field, could not be driven away from the windows, against which it was rubbing and pushing. There it stood; and towards morning the gentleman was seized with a fit, and carried off suddenly. Sophron. Such presentiments have generally been supposed to occur principally just before death; as if the soul, when about to fling away her earthly trammels, became repossessed of somewhat of her own higher power, and, as Waller so beautifully expresses it, The souls dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made. The ancients held this strongly; none more so than Plato. Just before the death of Socrates, he foretold, says his disciple, that a youth, then possessed of singular innocence and modesty, would end by abandoning himself to all manner of wickedness. And the event proved his words. Posidonius in like manner affirms, that a certain Rhodian, on his death-bed, predicted truly, with regard to six of his friends whose ages were nearly equal, who would be the first, who the second, and so on till the last, to die. These stories at least prove the feeling of the ancients on the subject. The prophecy of Huss is undoubted matter of history, and allowed by Catholics, as well as by writers of his own sect. Just before the fatal pile was kindled (July 8, 1415), Today, he said, you are going to burn a goose (so Huss signified in Bohemian); but a hundred years hence a swan will rise amongst you, and will sing you another kind of song; and yet, for all that, ye will let him go. Many persons, as every medical man will tell you, have, during their last illness, foretold the exact hour of their departure. Christian of Denmark did so to his physician, Dr. Cornelius. James Sartellari, an astronomer of eminence, and physician to the Emperor Rudolph II., foretold, on the second of December, 1589, that he should die on the tenth; and so it came to pass. Thurneissen, also an astronomer of reputation, foretold his own death at Cologne, and requested to be buried by the side of Albertus Magnus; which was done accordingly. [Kornmannus, de Mirac. Mort. iv. 100.] Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, said, on his deathbed, An hour hence I shall depart. And so he did. One of the most extraordinary instances of such knowledge in modern times was
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary this. Lady Fanshawes mother was seized with an illness which was believed to be mortal. She was exceedingly anxious to live, for the sake of superintending the education of her family; and several times, referring to the case of Hezekiah, prayed that her life might be spared, as: his was, for fifteen years. She fell into a swoon or trance, which was at first believed to be mortal. On coming to herself she assured her friends that her prayer had been heard, that she should recover, and that her life would be prolonged fifteenbut only fifteenyears. And so it was. Eupeithes. And so there are certain marks by which approaching death is supposed to be intimated to the friends of the person about to be taken away. One of the most common is the sudden change of a mans personal character, from light-heartedness to gloom; and more frequently still, from gloom and habitual taciturnity, to excessively high and boisterous spirits. Then it is that, according to Scotch belief, a man is said to be fey; and in many cases of sudden death, the credence has been strangely verified. Sophron. That change, whether of personal or physical qualities, is a very wonderful thing, if taken as a warning or intimation of the time when there can be no change. Yet it is a belief as old as the Greek physicians, that sometimes, a few moments before death, the face of the sufferer will assume a likeness to that of some one of his most intimate friends; a thing for which no plausible reason can be given. Other signs there are of approaching death, which at first sight seem to have no connection with it, but which yet admit of a very satisfactory explanation. Such is the pulling and picking of the bedclothes, so well known to be an un-mistakeable sign of dissolution. To an ignorant person this symptom seems quite arbitrary; but it is easily explained, as merely showing that the nervous system is entirely worn out. Eupeithes. The well-authenticated instances in which a watch has stopped at the moment of, or some few minutes before, its possessors death, are too numerous to be disbelieved. At Sans Souci, they show the clock of Frederick, the so-called Great, which stopped at the moment of his death, twenty minutes before two, and has never been wound up. I once myself witnessed an event of this kind. I was called to see a gentleman whom I knew to be ill of the influenza, but did not imagine to be in danger. I was waiting in the parlour, when I noticed that a mantelpiece clock, a great favourite of his, had stopped. You must have forgotten to wind it up, I said to one of the family, who was in the room. No, she replied; it has
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary been wound up, but it stopped half an hour since, none of us can think why. That night, about six hours later, the owner died. Eusebia. I think all the mysterious glimpses given us of the other state when it borders on this, like the rim of the dark half of the moon that sometimes makes itself visible, are very solemn. That persons, in the act of departing from this world, do become sensible of the presence of spiritual beings, is surely certain. And I often imagine what a marvellous moment that must be, when a dying man obtains the first faint consciousness of the existence of a world of spirits. Sophron. Wonderful indeed! And yet perhaps it may be by no forced transition. You go into a room that appears to you perfectly dark; you stay a few moments, and gradually you become sensible to surrounding objects; and finally you see with perfect clearness: and yet at no one moment are you sensible that you are passing from darkness to light. I will give you another example of the faculties of a sick person being supernaturally developed by the approach of death. A young lady, whose friends I knew, was in the last stage of consumption. Two of her sisters had been previously carried off by the same disease. She had also a brother in India, who, by the last accounts received, was well in health and successful in business. Two female relatives were sitting by the dying girl, one on either side of the bed, and each holding one of her pale emaciated hands in their own. Suddenly she raised herself in the bed, and looking towards its foot, exclaimed, her whole face brightening with joy, Oh, Gertrude, and Jane, (the sisters whom she had lost,) and dear, dear Willie! (the brother who was in India.) They were the last words she spoke. Shortly afterwards, intelligence arrived from India that the brother in question had also been taken away, and that previously to the death of his sister. Now, to my mind, this is one of the most satisfactory stories of the kind that I ever heard. To be sure, your rationalist may account for it easily enough, by hinting that to a dying person, when the mind is beginning to fail, nothing is more natural than that the appearance of some of those whom he has most loved should present itself. But if you look at it in the other lightif you consider that, priori, there is no unlikelihood in the thought that the spirits of the departed faithful may be allowed to tend the death-beds of departing friendshow simple and how beautiful is the whole! Eupeithes. Here is an instance which is, in some respects, unique. The family of a merchant, who resided in Leaden-hall-street, had
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary retired, as usual, to bed. About two or three oclock in the morning, every member of it was awaked by a series of the most confused and terrible noises: guns, trumpets, the shrieks of pain, the shout of excitement,all seemed to mingle together. The uproar was so great that they all rose; and having satisfied themselves that it was no sound from the city which they heard, they remained together, listening to what struck them all as the progress of a great battle. Gradually it died away, and they went to bed. At that very time the battle of Sobraon was being fought; and in that battle a brother of the family fell. Sophron. I can tell you another anecdote, also connected both with India and with sound. Two young ladies, who had a brother in the army there, were walking in their park, (it is in Middlesex, and I know it well,) when from a copse of trees they heard a voice shriek out, Help! help! for the love of God, help! They both cried at the same instant, That is Richards voice! And at that very moment, as near as they could afterwards learn, their brother had been carried off by a tiger. Eupeithes. A like circumstance occurred during the Peninsular war. A young lady was sitting in the parlour early on the morning of the 21st of June, 1813, when her brother, an officer under the Duke, entered the room and said, Mary, you will never see me again; I die to-day at Vittoria: on which he disappeared. His sister immediately procured the map of Spain; but Vittoria was less known then than it is now, and it was not marked. She went to the house of a relation, and there, in a better map, they found the town; and they found, too, that by the latest accounts, the allied armies had been advancing in that direction: the event proved the prophecy. This story comes remarkably under the head of warnings: but it is also a no less clear example of a fetch; for the time in England is, of course, earlier than that in Spain, and the officer fell, I believe, in Cadogans charge, which took place in the afternoon. Eusebia. So that here a man actually predicted his own death, without himself being aware of its approach! Sophron. The nearest approach that man has ever made to the invisible world, is probably in those persons who, having been to all appearance drowned, have been recovered on the use of the proper means. And what is singular is this; by all accounts, after the first short struggle is over, there is entire consciousness, but no pain. It is said that every action of past life is borne in upon a drowning mans

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary mind with perfect clearness; all rush on his memory together, yet each distinctly; and if there be any suffering, it is entirely from the moral pain which may result from that retrospect; for there is no physical anguish. On the contrary, the prevailing sensation is an indescribable calm, accompanied by a pleasant green light, they say, like green fields: the agony begins with the attempt at resuscitation. It is believed that a gentleman, who occupies a distinguished place in scientific literature, and who is said to have been longer under water than any one who has ever been brought back to life, also, in a more remarkable degree than any one else, saw something of those unspeakable things which it is not lawful for a man to utter. His intention, it is asserted, was to leave some account of them, which should appear as a posthumous work; but his friends, perhaps wisely, dissuaded him from it. Theodora. I have heard the story. And so, at the very instant of violent deaths, the sympathy between soul and body has sometimes been strongly manifested. Charles XII. of Sweden, when struck by a cannon-ball, at the siege of Frederickshal, must have been a dead man at that infinitesimal point of time at which he felt the blow; yet he was observed to clap his hand on his sword. So, again, at the execution of Charlotte Corday, for the murder of Marat, when the headsman lifted up the head by its long hair, and gave it a blow, the face is said to have changed colour, and to have frowned. Eupeithes. Here is another warning of death, which occurred in a family who are not altogether unknown in the theological world. A young lady, whom we will call Miss A., was watching what was supposed to be the death-bed of her father. Most of the family were assembled in the house; for the physicians had given it as their opinion that Mr. A. had not long to live; but one brother was at Eton. One night, Miss A. dreamed that she was sitting by her fathers side, and that all the family, including this absent brother, were in the room. A figure, exactly like the modern representation of death,a skeleton, with a dart,entered the room. Seeing Mr. A., it grappled with him; he opposed his spiritual antagonist; and a long and fearful struggle ensued. At length Mr. A. seemed to prevail, and to fling his enemy to the ground. On this, the spectre started up, seized the brother I have mentioned, and after a short contest, brought him down. Prom that night Mr. A. continued to rally, till he was restored to perfect health; and the next post, or next but one, came intelligence that the brother at Eton had been drowned in the Thames near Windsor.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. How difficult to explain this on the ordinary principle of explaining supernatural occurrences! That Miss A. had been hoping her father might yet recover; had been comforting herself with the recollection of instances in which cases apparently as hopeless had terminated favourably; had been thinking (as, the explainer would say, she very naturally might) of her absent brother; had been recollecting the dangers to which a boy at a public school is liable; and had by an easy confusion, and by means of a somewhat excited imagination, compounded a dream out of all these various thoughts, which dream, by a not unlikely coincidence, was actually true. Eupeithes. Yes; and the interpreter of this coincidental arrangement would enunciate his discovery with as much gravity as if it were not much harder of belief than the supernaturalism of the original story. Sophron. And yet how useless the interference here. Useless, I mean, to our ideas. Eupeithes. There are, however, accounts of such interferences which have manifestly their use. We know the tale of the German prince, who, in a full career of wickedness, dreamed that an angel appeared to him with a scroll, on which were inscribed the words, AFTER SEVEN. He awoke in horror, thinking that his life was doomed, and that seven days or seven weeks would end it. He set himself in earnest to the work of repentance: seven days passed, and he continued in good health; seven weeks,still no change; seven months,and he was perfectly himself: then he thought that seven years must be meant. The seven years passed, and he found himself raised to the Imperial throne. Theodora. The mercy of such an ambiguous warning is here evident. But, in the same way we may explain those in which the prediction has not been fulfilled. Sophron. Of which, perhaps, the most remarkable instance is that which happened to the late Dr. Isaac Milner. His biographer gives the following account: Some time before his appointment to the Deanery of Carlisle, Dr. Milner dreamed that he was led by a friend through the different apartments of a large rambling old house, which he was given to understand would shortly belong to himself. After showing him several rooms, his conductor opened a door, which proved to be the entrance to a steep stone staircase,; and desired him to ascend. He did so; and on turning the I corner at the top of this flight of steps, was suddenly arrested by the sight of a tombstone, bearing the inscription,

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Here lieth The Body of Isaac Milner, Who died A.D. .... When, happily for himself, he could not discover; for, in the extremity of his eager effort to read the date of the year, which he perceived was given, he awoke. This dream, striking as it was, gradually faded from Dean Milners mind, and would probably in time have been entirely forgotten, but for a circumstance which strangely and forcibly recalled it to his recollection. On going over his deanery for the first time, in company, I think, with Dr. Paley, a door was thrown open which discovered a steep flight of stone steps leading to the tower, and so exactly resembling those which he had seen in his dream, that, as he always declared when induced to mention the circumstance, he absolutely feared to ascend and turn the corner at the top, so strong was the impression that the tombstone would appear. Nor did he ever ascend that staircase with perfect indifference. [Milners life, p. 101.] Eupeithes. I know another singular example. A gentleman, whom I will call Mr. B., engaged in a large business in London, dreamedI will not pretend to give you the exact dates, but only an approximation to themthat his wife would die on the 9th of September in the following year, and he himself on the 11th of October in the year succeeding that. He did not, I believe, pay much attention to the intimation; but towards the end of August his wife was taken ill, and actually died on the fatal 9th of September. Mr. B. now considered his own decease as certain, and sold his business at a great loss; took a cottage in the vicinity of town, and prepared for death. However, the day passed, and he found himself very well. When he had learnt to believe that the prediction would not be verified in him, he was much at a loss what to do in the way of business, having given up all connection with that to which he had been educated. Eusebia. Izaak Walton has a story of Thomas Wotton, the father of Sir Henry, whose dreams were frequently verified. He dreamed that the University Treasury was robbed by townsmen and poor scholars; that the number was five; and being that day to write to his son Henry at Oxford, he thought it worth so much pains as by a postscript to make a slight inquiry of it. The letter, which was writ
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary out of Kent, and dated three days before, came to his sons hands the very morning after the night in which the robbery was committed; and when the city and University were both in a perplexed inquest of the thieves, then did Sir Henry Wotton show his fathers letter; and by it such light was given of this work of darkness, that the five guilty persons were presently discovered and apprehended. Sophron. There are some instances which one can hardly believe to have been more than coincidences. Such is that which Sir Walter Scott relates in his journal of Dubuison, a celebrated dentist of Edinburgh. Dr. Blair, the day before his death, met him, and made use of a peculiar expression to him. Some time after, Lord Melville met him on the same spot, and made use of the same expression. He died the next day. On this Dubuison saidin jest, howeverI shall be the next, I suppose. He went home, was taken suddenly ill, and died almost immediately. Another such is recorded in the parish register of Garthorp church, in Leicestershire. A poor man presented himself for the purpose of being married; but, instead of the words, I take thee to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, he could only be prevailed on to say, to have and to hold till this day fortnight. That day fortnight he died. So Flaxman one day received a work dedicated by its Italian author a lombra di Flaxman, under the impression that the sculptor was dead. The writer afterwards discovered his mistake, and forwarded the book with the proper apology. Almost directly after receiving it, Flaxman was seized with his mortal sickness. And a coincidence of another kind occurred at the destruction of the Royal Exchange by fire. At twelve oclock on that night, the chimes struck up, for the last time, Theres nae luck about the house, Theres nae luck at a. Theodora. This naturally introduces the consideration of those cases where persons, in a nervous state, have fancied themselves to have received such intimations of death, and have actually fallen ill from the terror and anxiety which such imaginary revelations occasioned. And these are not unusual cases; nor are there wanting many instances in which, by the use of opium or some similar method, the fatal hour has been safely passed, while the patient, on awaking, has had no further recollection of the past, than as a horrible dream, gone by for ever. Eupeithes. There is a Cornish story of a warning of death, which very probably is only a coincidence, but which was at the time and in

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary the place believed to be something more than this. A gentleman, in the northern part of that county, had a portrait of himself taken, which he caused to be hung over his dining-room chimney-piece. One day, without any assignable cause, the picture fell down, and the portrait received a blow on one side of the forehead, which tore the canvass. A few hours after, the gentleman in question was riding out, when his horse fell, and threw him; he received a blow on the identical spot of his own forehead, and died almost immediately. Eusebia. I have read another Cornish tale. When a man, whose whole course of life had been marked by the most flagitious atrocities, was lying on his death-bed, near S. Ives, a black ship, with black sails, was observed to stand in to the bay, into shallows where seamen felt well convinced no ship of that apparent burden could float. At the moment the soul passed from the body, the vessel stood out again; nor was it ever seen more. Sophron. A mistake made in the Proclamation of Charles I. was afterwards received as an omen. The herald, instead of the rightful and indubitable, called him the rightful and dubitable heir to the crown. In like manner there were, as we all know, believed to be some remarkable warnings attending Archbishop Lauds course. It was the day of the Decollation of S. John the Baptist, as he expressly notes in his diary, that he was chosen Head of S. Johns College; and when the Head of S. Johns perished by a similar end, the thing was remembered. Theodora. There have been some historical coincidences, or omens, as you like to take them. Just before the French left Moscow, their Players performed on October 8, 1812, a drama entitled, Les Etourdis: ou les Moris Vivants. When the armament, destined for the conquest of Morocco, was bearing Don Sebastian and Portugal to their destruction, it was afterwards remembered that as, amidst a display of splendour that has scarcely ever been equalled, it swept down the Tagus, a favourite page of the Kings was desired to sing; and that he began the old Spanish Romance, Ayer fuisteis Rey de Espaa, Oy no teneis un Castillo. Yesterday, thou wert King of Spain: to-day, thou hast not a castle. Sophron. Singular enough. But to return to Laud. A short time before his imprisonment, he writes thus: At night, I dreamed that my father, who died forty-six years since, came to me; and, to my
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary thinking, he was as well and cheerful as ever I saw him. He asked me, What I did here? And after some speech, I asked him, How long he would stay with me? He answered, He would stay till he had me away with him. I am not moved with dreams; yet I thought fit to remember this. Eupeithes. I do not know whether one can say that Laud was not moved with dreams; at least he has left a great many of his own recorded. Sophron. Yes; and hardly any, it would appear, attended with important results. We have not spoken of the credibility of dreams, nor is this the place to do so. But, while we are on the subject of forewarnings of danger, I will relate two dreams, both of which were instrumental in preserving the person to whom they appeared from harm. The first happened at Edinburgh, where the story made some noise. A party had been formed for the purpose of going in a sailingboat to Inch-Keith, and among those invited was a young man who was staying at the time at the house of his uncle and aunt in the city. The night before the intended expedition, the aunt awoke in terror, and told her husband that she had dreamed of the death of her nephew, who, she said, would be drowned on the morrows expedition, if he persisted in going. Her husband merely laughed at her, recommended her to put her superstition out of her head, and to go to sleep. She did so; and the same dream presented itself again to her mind. Again she mentioned the thing to her husband; and he, though beginning to think the dream somewhat remarkable, advised her to compose herself. She went to sleep again; and the third time she had the same dream. Now thoroughly terrified, she requested her husband to go to his nephew, and ask him, as a great favour, from her, to stay at home on the next day. The uncle, with many apologies for his wifes timidity, did so; and the young man with some little reluctance consented to stay. Never morning broke more gloriously than the next; and much good humoured banter passed between aunt and nephew at the breakfast table, and during the course of the forenoon. But about four oclock in the afternoon, one of the most violent squalls arose that ever was remembered in Edinburgh; the boat then returning from Inch-Keith went to the bottom, and every soul on board her was lost. No one ever denied the fact of the dream: of course, as to the cause of it, Divers men divers things said,

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary as Chaucer speaks. The other tale to which I referred is hardly less remarkable. A married lady of my acquaintance dreamed that she was compelled one Sunday to stay at home, while the rest of her family went to church; that the house was one which she had never seen before; that she heard a knock at the door, and went to open it; that a man of most ill-favoured appearance entered, and began to insult her; on which she awoke in terror. Some time after, she removed temporarily to another house; and it so fell out that one Sunday she stayed at home herself, in order that the rest of her family might be able to go to church. While there alone, she heard a knock at the front door, and there being no one else in the house, went down to open it. When she had reached the hall, the remembrance of her dream flashed in an instant across her mind, yet she had not sufficient faith in it to hesitate about opening the door. She did so; and behold! there stood a man, the exact counterpart of him whom she had seen in her dream. She shut the door in his face, locked and bolted it, and awaited the return of her family in great agitation. The man (whoever he was) could not be found. Now that this was a providential warning of danger it is hardly possible to deny, except by denying the veracity of the narrator. For that a dream should have been accomplished up to a certain point, and that the rest should have proved false, does not seem very likely. Eusebia. Except, indeed, that just now you gave us an instance of something very much like this, where the merchant dreamed of the death, first of his wife, then of himself; and the first proved true, and the second not so. Sophron. True; but those were two separate predictions, the failure of one of which did not falsify or stultify the other. But in the present case the dream was so entirely one, that to conceive one part fulfilled, and the other part unfulfilled, would be to make the whole, practically speaking, a lie. Eusebia. A similarly providential interference is commemorated by a sermon annually preached at Newark. An Alderman Clay, during the great Rebellion, twice dreamed that his house was burnt; he removed from it, and it shortly afterwards took fire when the town was bombarded by Cromwell. In commemoration of this deliverance, the alderman left a sum of money for the purpose I mentioned. Eupeithes. I have an instance, very similar to your first in its details, but unfortunately very different in its termination. The dream

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary happened to a lady whose husband was a member of the yacht club. She was at the time staying with him at Lulworth, in Dorsetshire; and a regatta was to take place on the following day, in which his yacht was to sail. She dreamed that if he went on board the yacht, he would be drowned; and so earnest were her expostulations with her husband, that to humour her, he promised hot to go on board. But at least, he said on the following morning, you will not object to my going in a boat to the yacht, to see that all on board is right. She was very unwilling to consent even to this; but on her receiving his promise not to leave the boat, she gave a reluctant permission. He went accordingly, and finding that some arrangement of the sails was different from that which he intended, gave orders that it should be altered. The men bungled and blundered; in his impatience he went on board, just for one moment, and stood leaning over the side while the sailors did what he thought necessary. A sudden squall rose; the yacht lurched, and its unfortunate owner fell overboard, and was drowned. This was the more talked of; because he had been compelled to assign a reason for not sailing in his own yacht, and had mentioned his wifes fears as the cause. Sophron. And this seems an example where, if the dream had not been so fearfully put to the test, it would have been pronounced false; for if neither the yacht nor any of those on board it, except the owner, were hurt, of course, had he been absent, it would have been taken for granted that neither would he have received any injury; Theodora. Very probably; and perhaps some supernatural intimations which have accomplished their end, may have been set down as mere fancies on a similar score. Eusebia. Fox tells us that, in Queen Marys time, there was one congregation of Protestants in London, consisting of about three hundred members: their Deacon kept a list of the names. One of this congregation dreamed that a Queens messenger had visited the Deacons house, and taken the list: he woke, fell asleep, and dreamed the same thing again. On this, with some difficulty, he prevailed on the Deacon to conceal that list. On the following day, an officer searched his house for it, but in vain. Sophron. It is a curious thing, however, that the greater part of supernatural warnings have been in vain. It is as if God would save men in spite of themselves, but that they refused His mercy. Take an instance from Scottish history. Before the expedition of James V. of Scotland into England, he and his court were attending vespers in

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary the Chapel Royal at Linlithgow. At the conclusion of the service, the King beheld a reverend old man, of a calm, benevolent countenance, and long amber hair, who appeared to be earnestly observing his own motions, and those of the noblemen who stood around him. Some saybut this seems an improvement on the original story that around his head was a nimbus, like that which is the distinguishing mark of the beatified. He made his way to James, and, without any mark of reverence, warned him not to persist in his then intended expedition; which, if pursued, would certainly terminate in his ruin. He enjoined him also to lead a more moral life, equally threatening destruction to him in case he failed to observe this injunction. The figure, after thus speaking, disappeared so suddenly, that the bystanders affirmed it to have been an angelic messenger, and to have vanished. For some time the expedition was dropped; but French counsels prevailed, and the King put himself at the head of his army, and advanced to Jedburgh. Here, while banqueting at the Earl of Mintos house, the figure appeared again, though with a less friendly bearing, and warned the unfortunate monarch not to proceed, for that, if he did, he should lose crown and life together. And, as if not waiting for an answer, it stepped up to the fireplace, and wrote, on the mantelpiece the following lines: Laeta sit illa dies: nescitur origo secundi: Sit labor an requies: sic transit gloria mundi. The issue is well known: the King crossed the border, to fall on Flodden Field. Eupeithes. The story is liable to one exception. It is well known that the bulk of the Scottish nation were averse from the English war; and such a device for terrifying the King might well be planned in an age credulous of such apparitions. Sophron. There is something in what you say; yet you should remember that the Bishops and Clergythat is, well nigh all the intelligence of the nationwere bent on war, and that they would therefore have used every means to discover the imposture, had it been one. Eupeithes. The greater part of modern warnings have, as you say, been in vain. Admiral Coligni is said to have had three supernatural intimations, that if he wished to preserve his life, he must leave Paris before the Feast of S. Bartholomew; but he resisted these, as
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary obstinately as he did the solicitations of his friends. He stayed, and perished. On the other hand, the Count of Montgomery had a supernatural warning of the same kind; he mounted his horse, rode for his life, and by the extreme swiftness of his steed, preserved himself from the massacre. Sophron. A story is told,for the correctness of which I will not vouch,of a warning being given before the fire of London, and also disregarded. A merchant in the City was in his counting-house, when he was told that a friend of his from the country was in town, and wished to see him. The visitor entered, expressed his pleasure at renewing his acquaintance with the citizen, fell into discourse on the usual topics of the day,the Dutch war, the Kings gallantries, the marvellous forgetfulness exhibited of the plague, and the like. Thence he proceeded to the dissolute state of the city; said that God had yet judgments in store for it; predicted that in two months a fire would break out in the heart of London, which would burn east and west, and lay it level with the ground;and so he left the merchant under the impression that his friend had lost his reason, or had turned fanatic. To his infinite surprise, however, he learnt, some time afterwards, that this friend had not visited London, nor left his own house, though he did not discover this till after the conflagration had actually taken place, or doubtless the prediction would have made a deeper impression on his mind. If this story be true, it is an instance of an apparition not being permitted to take sufficient precautions to ensure attention; for who would listen to such a prediction as the destruction of a great city from the mouth of a common friend? Eupeithes. Strange, too, that one man should be singled out from the whole of that great city for so signal a mercy! Nothing could come more unexpectedly, with more fearful suddenness, than the judgment itself; and a two months warning might have been an inestimable blessing. Sophron. Warnings of such a kind, however set on foot, have seldom produced any beneficial effect. Look at the famous instance which so lately occurred at Quebec. A destructive fire breaks out, and after great loss of property, is quenched. A prophecy circulates through the city, and is almost universally believed among the lower orders, that that day month a still more alarming conflagration would burst out, and that the city would be consumed. The fatal night arrives; every precaution is taken; engines and fire brigades are in readiness, lest the prediction should fulfil itself. Just before twelve the alarm is given, he fire spreads resistlessly, the city is well nigh consumed,
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary and, after all, it is clearly proved that the accident originated in the carelessness of a servant. Eupeithes. So it was, again, in the earthquake of 1750. The February of that year was unnaturally hot; the days were sultry as in the middle of July; vegetation was monstrously forward; it seemed as the seasons had forgotten their appointed changes. On the 8th day of the month, towards sunset, a cloud of a very peculiar shape and colour appeared in the west. It seems to have been triangular, the sides being very long in proportion to the base, and the point downwards; it was of a bright scarlet hue, and so remarkable an object, that the streets were full of spectators; and it was universally called The Bloody Cloud. From its colour and supposed resemblance to a sword, it was imagined to predict war. As twilight deepened, it of course vanished. That night, a slight, but decided shock of an earthquake was felt throughout London, to the intense terror of the populace. Soon after, a report was afloat that on the 8th of March a second shock would occur; and that on the 8th of April, the city would be swallowed up by an earthquake. The 8th of March arrived; the weather continued sultry as before, and towards sunset the Bloody Cloud again made its appearance. Public terror was now strongly excited; it was not thought prudent to sleep, and the early hours of the night were passed in a state of intense excitement. Gradually, as hour after hour went on, and nothing occurred, families retired to rest, and the night passed over without any subject for alarm. But, in the grey of the morning, a very violent shock roused the sleepers from their beds; and, though it was but momentary, the city was looked on as doomed. Business suffered a serious check; the followers of Whitfield and Wesley took advantage of the general consternationwould that the Church had done as much!to invite men to repentance; even the scoffers of the Court of George II.witness the letters of Horace Walpoleseem to have felt uncomfortable. As the day approached, the upper classes began to retire from London to their country seats; the lower made preparations for passing the night in the surrounding fields; and earthquake cloaks were sold in great numbers. On the afternoon itself, the crowds that poured from the city were innumerable; thousands bivouacked in the fieldson Kennington Common, on Primrose Hill, on Blackheath; and, after all, the dreaded night passed on quietly, and the morning sun rose as brightly, as if there had been no terror when it sank in the west. Now, what are we to say to a warning such as this?false in its literal signification, most beneficial in its moral influence.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. What, but that an Omnipotent and All-wise Providence wrought good out of evil, and truth out of falsehood? Whether, in this case of the earthquake, the predictions were not altogether invented and encouraged by the enemies of man, who naturally delight in terror and confusion, may perhaps be doubtful; but in the occurrence at Quebec, one can hardly fail to trace a Providential warning; though, whether immediately the work of Providence by a supernatural impression on the minds of the inhabitants, or wrought in the first instance by the ministering of some spiritual being, would be harder to say. Eupeithes. I know of a case where there can hardly, indeed, be said to have been a distinct warning of death, but which, nevertheless, taken in conjunction with what followed, seems to me extremely curious. A gentleman, whom I will call Mr. A., was confined to his bed with a rheumatic fever; his friend, Mr. B., was walking at no great distance from his house, fully aware that Mr. A. was ill, and unable to move, when, to his infinite surprise, he saw him walking at a short distance before him. Mr. B. quickened his pace; the appearance did the same, and at length turned off the road through a gate into a path. Mr. B. followed so near, as to be close to the gate while it was yet held open by his friend; who, without any ceremony, slammed it in his face, and passed on more rapidly than before. Mr. B. on this went to the house, learned that Mr. A. was still confined to his bed, and likely to do well. So the matter passed off fop the time; but very shortly after Mr. A. was again taken ill, and died; and within a short period, Mr. B. followed him to the grave. Theodora. We shall see, I think, by and by, that accounts of the appearance of a departed man to his friend in the moment of death, are not only the most numerous, but, generally speaking, the best authenticated of all relations of the appearance of spirits. Your last story borders more nearly on the power of second sight. Sophron. It is told that, two years after the death of Antonio Vieira, the celebrated Portuguese preacher, he appeared with a smiling countenance to Father Joseph Soares, in the College at Bahia; and laving One hand on his shoulder, with the other seemed to point upwards. On the second day after, Father Soares was taken ill and on the fifteenth, he died. Eupeithes. I will give you one more instance of a verified dream, which came almost within the sphere of my own knowledge. It took place in the August of 1845. A friend of mine, the rector of a fishing

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary village on the Thames, had a servant, a native of the place, whose brother, a steady lad enough, was in the habit of constantly attending both school and Church. This servant, one Saturday night, dreamed that she received intelligence that her brother was drowned; that she went to see the body; that she found it at a particular spot, and in a particular attitude. She told her fellow servant, on waking on the Sunday morning, what she had seen, and added, that she must get her masters leave to go home on the Monday, and warn her brother against going out on the river. But her intended warning was too late. That very Sunday the boy was persuaded to go out on the water: the boat upset; and, on returning from church, his sister received the intelligence that he was drowned. She went to him immediately, and found the body on the spot where, and in the attitude in which, she had dreamed of it. Eusebia. A sad instance of a neglected warning. And, of course, had not the servant told her dream in the morning, it would, when the event verified it, have been regarded as a mere delusion, or something worse. Sophron. Another kind of premonition is to be found in the account of the plague that depopulated Some during the pontificate of S. Agatho. We are told that, in the dead of night, a knock, sometimes single, sometimes repeated, was heard at the door of doomed houses, whether at the time infected or not infected; and that as many knocks as were heard in the night, so many deaths followed on the succeeding day. Eusebia. I think we are bound always to receive the accounts of supernatural appearances in the time of great plagues with caution. The excitement, the prostration of spirit, the prevalence of horrors, the delirium of stricken men,all these things give rise to reports and fancies which no one cares to contradict, and which spread like wild-fire through the populace. You remember De Foes account if a fanatic who, during the plague of 1665, stood in one of the London churchyards, and pointed out to a large crowd the motions of a ghost, which, as he affirmed, had stationed itself on one of the tombstones, and was pointing with its fingers first to the crowd around, and then to the churched: as if to signify what would be the end of the greater number of them in that visitation. De Foe looked too, and though the mob declared that they beheld the apparition, and could describe its motions, he could see nothing himself, and went away persuaded that there was nothing to be seen.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. A superstition, of a somewhat similar kind, was that as formerly held, about S. Marks Eve. It was believed that if a person placed himself near the church porch, when twilight was thickening, he would behold the apparitions of those persons in the parish who were to be seized with any severe disease that year, go into the church. If they remained there, it signified their death; if they came out again, it portended their recovery; and the longer or shorter the time that they remained in the building, the severer or less dangerous their illness. Infants, under age to walk, rolled in: a belief quite contrary to the usually received accounts of ghosts, which are universally (and the universality of the belief is somewhat remarkable) said to glide. Sophron. Next, I will give you, in Lady Fanshawes words, a remarkable story, which is, perhaps, as nearly connected with the present branch of our subject as with any other. She says, And here I cannot omit relating the ensuing story, confirmed by Sir Thomas Baber, Sir Arnold Breamer, the Dean of Canterbury, with many more gentlemen and persons of that town. There lived, not far from Canterbury, a gentleman, called Colonel Colepepper, whose mother was wedded unto Lord Strangford. This gentleman had a sister, who lived with him, as the world said, in too much love. She married Mr. Porter. This brother and sister, being both atheists, and living a life according to their profession, went in a frolic unto the vault of their ancestors, where, before their return, they pulled some of their fathers and of their mothers hairs. Within a few days after, Mrs. Porter fell sick and died. Her brother kept her body in a coffin set up in his buttery, saying, it would not be long before he died, and then they would both be buried together: but from the night of her death till the time that we were told the story, (which was three months,) they say that a head, as cold as death, with curled hair like his sisters did ever lie by him when he slept, notwithstanding he removed to several places and countries to avoid it; and several persons told us they had felt this apparition. Lady Fanshawes high character leaves no room for the least hesitation in receiving this story, one of the most singular that I know. Theodora. A similar warning occurred not long ago in the West of England. A poor woman dreamed that her husband, who was absent from home, was drowned; that she went to a certain pond, where they told her that his body was; that there she saw a trout; and on having the water dragged, the corpse was recovered. He did not return. She resolved to go to this pond, which was at some distance

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary from home; saw the trout, exactly as she had dreamed; and there, sure enough, was the body. Eusebia. We have not yet ended this part of our subject, though we have been talking far longer than usual. Have we enough of it remaining for another nights conversation? Sophron. Oh yes. We have yet to speak of Second-Sight and Family Warnings. In the mean time, I will end this evening by reading to you (what you, Theodora, have probably never heard before,) the manner in which one of our great poets works up such a warning as those of which we have been speaking. It is in the Lovers Progress, Fletchers last play, which was finished by Massinger; whose, I take it, is the passage in question. An apparition has promised Cleander to warn him of the immediate approach of death, which he foretells to be near. Cleander. Nothing more certain than to die; but when Is most uncertain. If so, every hour We should prepare us for the journey, which Is not to be put off. I must submit To the Divine decree,not argue it; And cheerfully I welcome it: I have Disposed of my estate, confessed my sins, And have remission from my ghostly father, Being at peace too here. The apparition Proceeded not from fancy: Dorilaus Saw it and heard it with me. It made answer To our demands; and promised, if twere not Denied to him by fate, he would forewarn me Of my approaching end. I feel no symptoms Of sickness; yet, I know not how, a dullness Invadeth me all over. Ha! Ghost. I come To keep my promise: and (as far as spirits Are sensible of sorrow for the living) I grieve to tell thee, as a messenger, Ere many hours are past, thou must resolve To fill a grave. This night shalt thou be with me. Oleander. I hear it like a man. Ghost. It well becomes thee; It cannot be evaded.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Oleander. Can you discover By whose means I shall die? Ghost. That is denied me: But my prediction is too sure. Prepare To make thy peace with heavn; and so farewell!

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NIGHT IV. OF FAMILY APPARITIONS, AND OF APPARITIONS IN FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE Theodora. We were considering last night the various accounts of cases where supernatural warning has been given of approaching death or danger. Have we anything further to say on that head? Sophron. Yes: I have an instance, which you may rely on as strictly true, though I shall alter all the names, some of the parties concerned being still alive. Lord F. was on his travels on the Continent when he met a young man engaged in a similar way, with whom he grew very intimate. Mr. G (for so I will call his friend,) gave him, in the course of conversation, to know that the end of his life had been predicted to him, and that he had some grounds for believing that this prediction was not without its weight and credibility. As how? asked Lord F. I was travelling with two friends, replied the other, in Italy, and at Florence we agreed to have our nativities cast by a woman there, who had a great reputation for astrological skill. She foretold that none of us would live long, and named the days on which we should each die. My two friends are dead, and that at the time she named: it remains to see whether] her prediction will be verified in me. Pooh, pooh! cried Lord F., a mere coincidence: impossible that it should happen a third time. But what is the day she fixed? Mr. G. named one about sis months distant. And where shall you be then? pursued Lord F. At Paris. Why, I shall be there too. Let it be an engagement. Come you and dine with me on that very day at seven oclock; and keep up your spirits till1 then. I shall be found at No. Rue de -. Do you agree to the bargain? Willingly, replied the other: and in a short time the friends separated. The six months passed; and a little before the appointed day Lord F. found himself in Paris. He sent a note to Mr. G., to remind him of his engagement, and received for answer that he would come. However, a day or two after, another note was brought him, in which Mr. G. said that he was not very well, and must postpone the honour of dining with Lord F. till another time: that the indisposition was very trifling; and ere long he hoped to have the pleasure of waiting upon him. Lord F. thought no more of the matter; ordered dinner on the day that had been named at seven, for himself, and about six oclock sent his servant to Mr. Qs, with a merely formal inquiry how he was. Seven oclock came. Lord F. sat down to dinner; when, just as he was beginning his meal, the door opened, and in walked Mr. Q. He walked in, it is true, but he said not a word; went up to the table, and went out again. Lord F. was
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary alarmed, and rang the bell, and it was answered by the servant whom he had sent with the message of inquiry. How is Mr. G? he demanded. Dead, my lord, was the reply: he died just as I reached his house. Eupeithes. Truly a most wonderful story. Then we are to understand that, up to the last, Lord F. had no apprehension for his friend? Sophron. None whatever. It seems hardly to have impressed his mind at all after he came to Paris. Eupeithes. You reserved the most extraordinary, as involving two supernatural interferences, to the last. Sophron. There is one remarkable class of apparitions of which we have not yet spoken of those, namely, where the head of a family is warned of the decease of any member of it in a supernatural, but constantly recurring manner. This belief has prevailed in all parts of the world, and continues to our own day. Eupeithes. Our first instance maybe that which Dr. Plot gives, and which the famous Platonist, Dr. Henry More, has transcribed, in his Supplement to Glanvilles book. It occurred in the family of the Woods, then settled at Hampton, near Bridge Norton. Here a knocking was heard by the principal members of the family before the decease of any part of it. The first time this was observed was in the year 1661, when Mrs. Eleanor Wood, mother to Capt. Basil Wood, an officer in the Royal army, during the Great Rebellion, being by herself, heard a strange knocking in various parts of the house, for which she could by no means account. A fortnight after, she received intelligence of the death of a son-in-law in London. Three years afterwards, three loud knocks were distinctly heard by the same lady, her son, Captain Wood, and his wife,so strongly given that the pans in the dairy tottered and shook, and were in danger of falling. Two of these knocks seemed to be in the house, and one on the door; whence Capt. Wood concluded that it was a warning of the death of two members of his own family, and of one relation. And so it fell out: for within six months his mother and wife died, and also a niece of the captains. Ten years after, namely, on a Sunday in August, 1674, Mr. Basil Wood, a son of Capt. Wood, then residing at Exeter, heard, together with his wife and two other members of his family, two strokes struck, as with a cudgel, on the table in the room where they were sitting,one before and one after morning prayer. He wrote this account to his father, in Oxfordshire,

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary who, in a fortnight later, lost his second wife, and in a quarter of a year his father-in-law. After that time we have no more accounts. Theodora. A like story was told of the family of the Torelle, at Parma. There was a hall in their palace, in which, before the death of any member, an old woman was seen sitting by the chimney-corner. A young lady of the family, herself dangerously ill, once saw this spectre, and, of course, gave herself up for lost. She recovered, however, but another member of the house died. [Kornmann. iv. 57.] Sophron. In like manner a death in the family of the Lords of Chartley Park is foretold by the birth or a black or party-coloured calf in the sandy-coloured breed that inhabit the park. Eupeithes. There is said to be a castle in Finland, on the borders of a small lake, out of which, previously to the death of the governor, an apparition, in the form of a mermaid, arises, and makes sweet melody. Sophron. That brings us to the Irish Banshee, the most poetical form of that belief. That in many families, previous to a death, a female figure makes its appearance, rending her hair, and giving ever sign of grief, is firmly believed. Eusebia. And sometimes the apparition takes other forms, as in that famous story of Lady Fanshawe. She and her husband were on a visit to a friend in Ireland, and at night they were ushered into a large and lonely room at one end of the castle. Towards midnight Lady Fanshawe awoke, her husband still remaining asleep. It was moonlight, and she lay looking at the beauty of the sky through the casement. On a sudden the casement was thrown open, and a female figure, with long disheveled hair, thrust in its head, and shrieked out, A horse! a horse! and forthwith disappeared. Lady Fanshawe, in an agony of terror, woke her husband, and told him what she had seen, and they agreed to continue awake, and to watch whether anything further should occur. Nor did they wait long. The window was again thrown open: the figure appeared again, and again shrieked, A horse! a horse! The story is differently related, as to the double apparition. They rose, knelt down, commended themselves to God, and were troubled no more that night. On the following morning, when they went down stairs, the mistress of the house inquired if they had rested well. On their replying that they had been much disturbed, she requested them, in an unusually impressive manner, to relate what they had seen or heard. They did so. The

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary same apparition, she answered, is always seen in that room on the death of any member of this house. When you arrived last night, a poor relation, then in the castle, was suffering from illness, but no immediate danger was apprehended. Had I known that her death was near, I should not have put you to the inconvenience of occupying that apartment. But in the course of the night she was suddenly taken worse, and expired, and I then knew that you would see the apparition you describe. Theodora. Dr. Plot, I remember, mentions a family in Staffordshire, where a white bird, of very large size, was seen to flutter round the house before any death occurred in it. Eupeithes. There is or was an oak in Lanthadran Park, in Cornwall, which by a peculiar change in the leaves was said to foretell the death of the lord of the manor. So there is an avenue near Cuckfield in Sussex, in which the fall of an oak foretells a death in the manorhouse. Sophron. Wales is peculiarly the country of such belief. Here we have the Corpse-bird, that flaps its wings over the doomed person; the Tanwe, or deluge of liquid fire over his lands; the Elyllon, a kind of Banshee, that howls and wails over him. Thus we have in Lancashire the Death-cart, that rattles through the streets at night, a tradition, perhaps, of the Plague-cart of fearful memory. Music, also, is said to have been sometimes heard in a similar manner. Dr. More gives the account of a whole family in Suffolk that died one after another in a little time: and ever before any of the house fell sick, there was music heard to go from the house (though nothing seen), playing all along, which several people out of curiosity would follow, who observed it to pass through the field till it came to a wood, and there they left it or lost it. This was told for a certain truth to a friend of mine by Mr. Samson, not long since Fellow of Bangs College, in Cambridge. Eusebia. I have heard a natural explanation, in one case, of such music. The family by whom it was told were surprised, one day, by hearing a very wild but sweet melody played, apparently, outside their parlour window. It was heard again and again, at all hours, by individuals, and by the whole family. Some trick was suspected; the servants were watched; strict observations were made. All was to no purpose; still the same wild sweet strains continued. At length it was discovered to arise from the crawling of snails over the window-

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary panes; on the same principle, I suppose, that a wetted finger will bring out such exquisite melody from a glass. Sophron. If you wish to hear some of the most unearthly music that heart can fancy, go, on a stormy, gusty night, and sit down on the leeward side of the embankment of some railway where the electric telegraph is used. The various sounds that the gale expresses from that great Aeolian harp are almost inconceivable. Now it is the deep note of an organnow a shrill scream; now it is close above you now a hundred yards away; now it seems to vibrate along the line of wires, as if aerial musicians were hurrying down them, and making melody as they went. Something of the same kind may be heard in a hop-garden, before the hops are up; and something, also, in a ship running under bare poles. But this by way of digression. Eupeithes. To return, then, to our subject. It is well known that, in a certain noble family now existing, a head appears in like manner, as a sign of the death of any of the members, to the chief of the family. A late nobleman saw this apparition many times. Sophron. Assuredly the most unaccountable cases are those where an animal, or rather, the appearance of one, answers the same end. Yet the following story comes to me so attested, that I really know not how to disbelieve it. A family in the east of England has a tradition, that the appearance of a black dog portends the death of one of its members. It was not, I believe, said that no death took place without such warning; but only that, when the apparition occurred, its meaning was certain. The eldest son of this family married. He knew not whether to believe or to disbelieve the legend. On the one hand, he thought it superstitious to receive it; and, on the other, he could not, in the face of so much testimony, altogether reject it. In f this state of doubtthe thing itself being unpleasant he resolved to say nothing on the subject to his young wife. It could only, he thought, worry and harass her, and could not, by any possibility, do any good. He kept his resolution. In due course of time he had a family; but of the apparition he saw nothing. At length, one of his children was taken ill, I think with the small-pox; but the attack was slight, and not the least danger was apprehended. He was sitting down to dinner with his wife, when she said, I will just step up stairs, and see how the child is going on, and will be back again in a moment. She went; and returning rather hastily, said, The child is asleep; but pray go up stairs, for there is a large black dog lying on his bed: go up and drive it out of the house. The

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary father had no doubt of the result. He went up stairs; there was no black dog to be seen; but the child was dead. Eupeithes. The sign is odd, and, to our a priori judgment, unmeaning enough, to be sure; but I know a like occurrence in Sussex. In this case, a white rabbit appears, a few hours before death, to the sick man himself. Sophron. We have already spoken of Corpse-candles: not that these can be called family apparitions. But some such appearances are. Dr. More, for example, tells us of an Irish family forewarned in a similar manner, by lights dancing upon a place they call Fairy Mount. Three did so on one occasion. I spoke, he says, with one that was a spectator thereof half an hour together, and observed the lights, though moved swiftly, how their flames were not cast horizontally, but went straight up to the zenith: who noted also, that two of the family, since that sign, were lately dead already, and suspected a third would follow; which accordingly fell out the same year, a little while after. Eupeithes. It was believed, in like manner, that S. Sylvesters tomb in the Lateran foretold the death of the reigning pontiff. So also it was held, that the family of Lusignan was warned of a death about to occur in it, by the appearance of Melesinda, the queen of Gruy de Lusignan. Eusebia. The Taisck, or Death-voice, is well known in the Hebrides. Boswell, in his tour, says: Mrs. MKinnon, who is a daughter of old Kingsburgh, told us that her father was one day riding in Sky, and some women, who were at work on the side of the road, said to him that they had heard two taiscks, (that is, voices of persons about to die;) and, what was very remarkable, one of them was an English taisck, which they never heard before. When he returned, he at that very place met two funerals; and one of them was that of a woman who had come from the mainland, and could speak only English. This, she remarked, made a great impression upon her father. Sophron. Well it might! Lavater tells us of a friend of his, the minister of some Swiss parish, who, in the time of plague, had a warning at night of the seizure or death of any of his parishioners, by a noise in the room above him, as of the fall of a heavy sack on the boards. Etoebia. Lady Maidstone, in the time of Charles II., used to see a fly of fire before the death of a relation. She saw it half-an-hour before Lord Maidstone fell, in the great sea-fight with the Dutch,

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary May 28, 1672; and again before the death of her mother-in-law, the Countess of Winchelsea. Eupeithes. I am acquainted with a lady who, at the moment of the decease of an intimate friend or relation, generally hears the sound as of a deep bell. She told me one morning, at breakfast, that she had heard it, but at a great distance off, the night before. I advised her to note down the time, which she did. Nothing, however, seemed to follow on this; and when, about a quarter of a year later, she told me that she had again heard the bell, I was inclined to treat the matter as an illusion. In a few days, however, she received a letter, mentioning the death of an aunt in Prance at the time at which she had heard the second bell. Still the first was unexplained; till, a few weeks later, she received intelligence from New Zealand that an intimate friend had died there, at the very hour when she had heard it at a great distance off. This lady is of a family of ghost seers. I shall have a yet more remarkable circumstance to relate of her sister. Sophron. In brief, these warnings are almost innumerable. It is said that Henry IV. of France felt long before, in his breast, the phantom of the knife wherewith Ravaillac slew him. There are stories of sounds being heard, towards nightfall, ill churchyards, as if a new grave were being dugthe stroke pf the spade, the rending of the turf, the falling of the loose earthwhich grave is accordingly dug there in reality in the course of a few days. So tales are told of all the pomp of a funeral having been seen to set out from the door of some house, the inhabitants being in perfect health; from which house a corpse has, no long time after, been carried to the grave. So again, a noise heard in one of the sedilia of a church, was regarded as the sign of the death of that ecclesiastic who usually occupied it. Theodora. Before we proceed any further in this inquiry, I should like to be told if any instances of apparitions are given by the writers of the early Church. Sophron. Undoubtedly. To say nothing of such, examples as those of S. Agnes appearance to her parents at her tomb, we are told that a spectre of prodigious size appeared at Antioch, the night before the outbreak of the sedition in the time of Theodosius; the same which gave rise to the homilies of S. Chrysostom on the Statues. [Sozomen, H.E. vii. 20.] Again, S. Gennadius, patriarch of Constantinople, was praying by night before the altar of his church, when a spectre of horrible appearance presented itself to him. [Theod. Lect. lib. i.] He rebuked it, and commanded it to depart. I will depart, replied the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary apparition, during thy leftime; but after thy death, I will trouble the Church. On this, Gennadius prayed earnestly for its peace and safety, and short afterwards departed this life. So again, S. Felix of Nola appeared to the inhabitants of that city, when it was besieged by the barbarians. An odd story is related by John Moschus, of S. Eulogius of Alexandria. He was one night occupied by himself, in matins, when his archdeacon Julian entered, without, as was customary, giving any notice, and prostrated himself in prayer. When the bishop rose, Julian remained prostrate. At length Eulogius desired him to stand up. I cannot, unless you help me, he answered; which the good bishop did accordingly. Shortly afterwards he disappeared, and the prelate thought that he had left the place. When did the archdeacon Julian go out? he demanded of the door keeper. The man denied that he had ever entered. The following morning, S. Eulogius happened to meet his a deacon, and commented on his rudeness in not knocking before coming in. By the prayers of my lord, said Julian, I never came to this place last night. Then, says Moschus, Eulogius understood that it was the martyr S. Julian, prompting him to rebuild a ruinous church under his invocation. S. Basilicus, an Asiatic bishop, who had received the crown of martyrdom at the same time with S. Lucian, when S Chrysostom was driven into exile, appeared to him, and said, Brother John, be of good courage; to-morrow shall be together. [S. August. de Cura pro Mort. i.] The spirit had previously visited priest of the church of S. Basilicus, and had said, Make ready a place for my brother John; for he is shortly coming hither. And the event proved the prediction. With stories like these the lives of the Fathers abound; perfectly analogous in kind, though somewhat differing in circumstances, from those of later ages. It would be endless to quote instances. So we read that S. Metas appeared to one Christina, predicting the troubles that were coming on the earth; that S. Amatus comforted his sorrowing mother by the assurance that he was with the Lord; that S. Cyprian confirmed S. Flavian in the view of approaching martyrdom: and scarcely any mediaeval biography but contains some such relations. Eupeithes. The ancient Pagans believed the same thing. Plutarch, for example, says, that Damon, an inhabitant of Chaeronea, had, by the commission of several murders, rendered himself so odious as to be forced to leave the city. The inhabitants, anxious to secure his punishment, enticed him back by smooth words and gentle speeches, and slew him in the bath. Thenceforward that house was, to use the modern term, haunted, and was finally shut up. The evil

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary genius of Brutus is known to all the world. But it was said also that Cassius, a staunch Epicurean, and therefore a disbeliever in all such apparitions, beheld the ghost of Caesar, singling him out, as it were, for attack, in the battle of Philippi. [Val. Max. i. 6.] A like story is told of Drusus. [Dion. Cass. lv. init.] After wasting Germany as far as the river Albis, he was returning, laden with trophies. A spectre, in the form of a woman, larger than the race of mortals, met him, and reproached him with his cupidity. Depart, she concluded; your labours and your course are approaching their end. Before he could reach the Rhine, Drusus was seized with a mortal disease. Pliny wrote a letter on the subject of spectres, in which he gives some instances of their appearance. Curtius Rufus, he says, when an obscure hanger-on of the proconsul of Africa, was promised the proconsulate of Africa himself, by a female figure, like that which appeared to Drusus; and by the same he was warned of death. Sophron. Yes: such relations usually concern figures of stupendous size, and rather of divine than human nature. This idea of size has left its trace in one modern language tat least: the Portuguese Avejo, signifies either an apparition, or a man of monstrous stature. Eupeithes. As to all these accounts, it is very little to our purpose, whether they be true or false; but very much to our purpose, that the belief in apparitions existed at such early times. I will mention but one more example. Pausanias tells us that, on the plain of Marathon, four hundred years after the great battle, the neighing of horses, the shouts of the victors, the cries of the vanquished, and all the noise of a well-contested conflict, were frequently to be heard. And every one will remember the appearance of Theseus in the battle of Marathon, and that of the Twin Brothers in the fight by the lake Regillus. Sophron. You will find in most of those ancient tales, that the spirit which appeared was that of some man of note. This is not so usual in modern stories. I call two to mind, however. Louis, Duke of Imola, shortly after his death, appeared in his usual hunting dress to the private secretary of his son Louis, by whom he had been sent to Ferrara. Tell my son, said the kingly apparition, to meet me on this spot at this time to-morrow; for I have a matter of great moment to communicate to him. The prince either disbelieved the tale, or suspected some Italian treachery, and therefore refused to keep the appointment; but he sent one of his courtiers in his place. The duke appeared, faithful to his word, and expressed great grief that his son had not thought fit to obey his injunction. To him, said he, I could have communicated much more than I can do to you. But tell him
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary this from me: twenty-two years and one month from this time he will lose Imola. The time was strictly observed: on that night, taking advantage of a hard frost for crossing the water, Philip of, Milan, who had formed a league with Louis, treacherously surprised Imola, and added it to his own dominions. The other is this. A few weeks before the decease of the Emperor: Henry VII., at sunset there appeared in the palace court of the doge of Genoa, a horseman, armed cap--pie, and of far larger than mortal size: after riding up and down for more than an hour, and being seen by many witnesses, the spectre vanished. Three nights after, at nine oclock, two horsemen, similarly armed, were seen on the same spot; and after a furious battle, they departed. Eupeithes. We have one or two of our most curious topics: yet to enter on; such as the locality to which some apparitions seem to be confined, and the apparently useless nature of some of their visitations. But, since we cannot hope for time to enter on these subjects to-night, let me tell you two stories of the appearance of a spirit in fulfilment of a promise. They are both related by Glanville. There were two friends, Major George Sydenham, of Dulverton, in Somersetshire, and Captain William Dyke, of the same county, who had, it would appear, served in the civil wars; and who, if not professed Atheists, were yet professed doubters of the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul. After many discussions on the subject, they agreed that whichever of them died first, should, if it were possible for him to do so, on the third day after his death, meet the other in Major Sydenhams summer-house at Dulverton, and inform him of the reality of a future state of rewards and punishments. Major Sydenham died; and Captain Dyke, on the third day after his death, went to Dulverton, accompanied by a relation of his, a Dr. Dyke, a physician of some note, who had been called in to take charge of a sick child at Major Sydenhams, but who knew nothing of the matter in hand. The relations slept in the same room; and the doctor was rather surprised, when the servant was retiring, to hear Captain Dyke request him to bring him two of the largest candles he could get. What is the meaning of this? he demanded, when the candles were brought. Captain Dyke told him of the engagement; and this, he continued, is the very night, and I am resolved to fulfil my promise. Dr. Dyke represented that, as there was no warrant for making these strange engagements, they were to be regarded as sinful in themselves; that therefore it was sinful to keep them; that none could say what advantage evil spirits might take of such an interview; and that the whole design was a manifest

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary tempting of Providence. This may be all very true, said Captain Dyke, but I promised to go, and go I will: if you will sit up with me till the appointed time, I shall be obliged to you; if not, it is no matter. The captain then laid his watch on the table, and waited in expectation of the hour. When it drew to half-past eleven, he took a candle in each hand, and went into the garden, where he walked up and down till two oclock, but without tearing or seeing anything extraordinary. On this he concluded, either that the soul perished with the body, or that the unknown laws of the world of spirits had prevented Major Sydenham from keeping his promise.. Some sis weeks afterwards, Captain Dyke had occasion to go to Eton, to place one of his sons at the college, and he was again accompanied by his relation the doctor. They lodged at the Christopher, and occupied different rooms. On the last morning of their stay, Captain Dyke was unusually late in rising. When he came into his cousins room, he was like a man struck with madness; his eyes staring, his knees knocking one against the other, his whole face changed. What is the matter? said Dr. Dyke. I have seen the major, replied the captain. You dont believe me: if ever I saw him in my life, I saw him now. The doctor pressing for some account,Thus it was, said his friend: this morning, after it was light, some one pulled back the curtains suddenly, and I saw the major, as I had known him in his life. I could not, he said, come at the time appointed; but I am now come to tell you that there is a God, and a very just and terrible One, and if you do not turn over a new leaf, they were his exact expressions, you will find it so. The apparition then walked a turn or two up and down the room, and going to my table, took up a sword which Major Sydenham had formerly given me. Cap. cap., he said, using his common expression, this sword did not use to be kept in this manner when it was mine. And with that he vanished. We are further told that such was Captain Dykes truthfulness, as to preclude the possibility of doubting this relation; that it had a very visible effect on his character; and that, during the remainder of his life, which lasted about two years longer, he seemed to have the words of his friend continually sounding in his ears. Now I need not say how far more convincing this story is, than if the apparition had happened at the appointed time and place, when it would so certainly have been set down to an over-wrought fancy. Sophron. And taking place, too, in daylight is another thing in its favour. But one thing that strikes me as remarkable in all these stories, is this,you cannot form any idea whether the apparition is in happiness or misery. This is just the contrary of a made-up tale:

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary there the personal state of the spirit would be sure to be strongly brought out. Now, in that you have just told, no one could possibly decide as to the condition of Major Sydenham, however much, antecedently, we might judge against him. But to your second story. Eupeithes. It is much shorter. The famous Nicholas Ferrar had a brother, who lived in London, where he had considerable practice as a physician. He made a compact with a favourite daughter, that whichever of them died first, should, if happy, appear to the other. She was very unwilling to make the agreement; but at last consented. She married, and settled at Gillingham-lodge, near Salisbury. Here, being unexpectedly confined, she took poison by mistake for medicine, and died suddenly. That very night she drew back the curtains of her fathers bed, and looked in on him, and he announced the death of his daughter to his family two days before he received the intelligence in the ordinary way. Sophron. Here is another: it comes to me with a weight of evidence which, strange as is the tale, I cannot disbelieve. Three friends, not very much distinguished for piety, had been dining together at the residence of one of them in Norfolk. After dinner they went out, and strolled through the churchyard. Well, said a clergyman, one of the three, I wonder, after all, whether there is any future state or not! They agreed that whichever died first, should appear to the others and inform them. In what shape shall it be? asked one of the friends. At that moment a flight of crows rose from a neighbouring field. A crow is as good a shape as any other, said the clergyman: if I should be the first to die, I will appear in that. He did die first: and some time after his death, the other two had been dining together, and were walking in the garden afterwards. A crow settled on the head of one of them, stuck there pertinaciously, and could only be torn off by main force. And when this gentlemans carriage came to take him home, the crow perched on it, and accompanied him back. Eupeithes. A story is current of the Chaplain of a College in Cambridge, who, one day, surprised his brother fellows by not making his appearance in evening Chapel. One or two of them went to look for him, and found him in a state of great agitation. He had seen, he said, a spectre, which bade him prepare for immediate death. They, of course, treated the whole thing as an illusion; and at length persuaded him to go down to his duty in chapel. It happened that the Second Lesson was the fourth chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy: and while he was reading the words, I have fought a
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, he fell down dead. Let this be the close of our disquisitions for tonight and let us tomorrow consider local apparitions.

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NIGHT V. OF PLACES SAID TO BE HAUNTED, AND OF REVEALED SECRETS . Sophron. We laid it down, some time ago, as a probability, that there would be some places where we might naturally expect to find appearances of the departed more frequent than in others. In point of fact, we know that the universal voice of mankind has declared that the case is so. That deserted houses, marshy wastes, battle-fields, the places where enormous crimes have been perpetrated, lonely roads, and such-like spots, are haunted, truly or falsely, has always been, and still is believed. To-night we will examine into some examples of this kind. Eupeithes. You will find as a general rule, that places which once had some connection with man, but are now deserted by him, are rather those which public belief represents as subject to the visitations of spirits, than such as have never been in any way connected with him. Holy Scripture itself, foretelling the destruction of Babylon, cannot give a more vivid picture of desolation than by the words, their houses shall be full of doleful creatures. Sophron. Haunted houses have, as we all know, been the most fruitful source of imposition. I do not mean those where, from time to time, the same kind of apparition presents itself, but those which, for weeks or months together, are kept in a state of disquiet and alarm by extraordinary noises and disturbances. I do not say that these things never have occurred; but I do say that if many of the freaksI can call them by no other wordwhich have been recounted in such, be really the work of supernatural agency, then I can only come to Dr. Mores sage conclusion, that there are as great fools out of the flesh as there are in it. And when we consider the ease of imposition in these matters, by confederates artfully arranged, by ventriloquism skilfully managed, by sleight of hand opportunely practised; and when we know that many of these tricks have been detected, such cases seem to me to be in themselves suspicious in a very high degree. The so-called Stock-well and Cocklane ghosts were exposed, to the great confusion of their contrivers. The two most celebrated cases that have ever been known, were, I suppose, what was usually called the Demon of Tedworth, and the Epworth ghost. The first occurred just after the Restoration, and occasioned the most bitter controversy as to its reality. I conceive that we are not now in a condition to pronounce a verdict on the matter.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. What were the facts in general? Sophron. It appears that from March, 1661, to April, 1663, the house of a Mr. Mompesson, at Tedworth, in Wiltshire, was disturbed in a most extraordinary manner. There was thumping and drumming round the rooms, scratching under the beds, furniture thrown about when persons were in the room, children thrown out of bed, articles of apparel strewn all over the floor, and many apish tricks of the same kind. The house was thronged with visitors, for the thing was known all over England. King Charles II. deputed some gentlemen to inquire into the matter. Glanville himself slept in the house, but nothing ever was discovered which could give the slightest idea of collusion. There were, I confess, several suspicious circumstances: a sword presented at the place where the noise seemed to be, always silenced it; there were no disturbances for three weeks after Mrs. Mompessons confinement; there were none while the royal Commission were in the house: but they took place while Glanville was there; and what he says on the subject is so sensible, that I will read it to you. It will, I know, be said by some, that my friend and I were under some affright, and so fancied noises and sights that were not. This is the usual evasion. But if it be possible to know how a man is affected when in fear, and when unconcerned, I certainly know for my own part that during the whole time of my being in the room and in the house, I was under no more affrightment than I am while I write this relation. And as I know that I am now awake, and that I see the objects that are before me, I know that I heard and saw the particulars that I have told. Now, certainly, I confess, it is rather hard that an honest and clever man is not to be believed, when he speaks in this manner. We must also remember that Mr. Mompesson, if an impostor, was so for no assignable reason; that he suffered m his name, in his estate, in his family. Unbelievers called him an impostor, believers thought it a judgment for some extraordinary wickedness; he was unable to attend to his business through the concourse of visitors; his rest was broken, his peace of mind disturbed, and he never gained the slightest advantage in an imposition, if imposition it were, so painfully practised through so long a time. The Epworth ghost, absurd and useless as the whole thing seems, I cannot disbelieve. I will read you what Southey says on the subject in his Life of Wesley. Such things may be supernatural and yet not miraculous; they may not be in the ordinary course of nature, and yet imply no alteration of its laws. And with regard to the good end which they may be supposed to answer, it would be end sufficient if sometimes one of those

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary unhappy persons, who, looking through the dim glass of infidelity, see nothing beyond this life, and the narrow sphere of mortal existence, should, from the well-established truth of one such story, trifling and objectless as it otherwise might appear, be led to a conclusion that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in their philosophy. And that must needs be a most well-authenticated relation which Priestley, if he would not believe, did not profess thoroughly to disbelieve. Eusebia. How is it so well authenticated? Sophron. Because the various members of the family, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley, and their daughters, wrote accounts of the apparition, Old Jefferies, as they called it, to Samuel Wesley, then in London; he preserved them, and they were printed by John Wesley in the Arminian Magazine. Southey reprinted them in the Appendix to the first volume of his Life of Wesley. To relate all the particulars would be impossible. In brief, they are these. On the first of December, 1716, a groaning, as of a person in great bodily pain, was heard by the servants outside the hall-door, but no one could be found there. Strange knockings occurred then in various parts of the house; the young ladies were first informed of it, then their mother, a woman of remarkably strong intellect; and, as Mr. Wesley never appeared to hear the sounds, they were thought to be a warning of his death. They at last grew so troublesome, that he was informed of them, and in process of time heard them himself. The principal circumstances attending them appear to have been these. The house dog at first was furious, but afterwards shrunk into a corner whenever the sounds were heard. Before any visitation, the wind rose round the house; then a noise was heard which was compared by different auditors to the winding up of a clock, to the planing of deal boards, or to the setting a windmill when the wind changes. Then, the latches of the room into which the spirit seemed to enter were lifted, the windows clattered, and any vessel of brass and iron rang. After this, in various parts of the room a dead hollow knock was heard; and if any person knocked, the sound was imitated. Mr. Wesleys door-knock, rather a complicated one, seemed to puzzle the ghost; but at length it caught that. No one appears to have been terrified at the visitation; the sisters, in particular, would seem to have enjoyed the amusement. The younger children were sensible of its presence when asleep, for they trembled, and were covered with a cold sweat. Mr. Wesley told the spirit to come to him, that was a man, and not to vex poor children; and for the first time, it then presented itself in the study. The usual time of appearance was a quarter before ten at night; but
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary on Mrs. Wesleys having a horn blown, thinking that the noises might proceed from the rats, it revenged itself by coming in the day. There were; no well authenticated stories of its having been seen; but it once held the door which a member of the family was going to open; and once tried to push Mr. Wesley down. A neighbouring clergyman, Mr. Hole, of Hexey, was witness to the proceedings. In the spring its visits became rarer, its knockings were at first heard outside the house, then at a distance, and then ceased. Two other things I must relate; the one, that at the beginning of its visits, it always knocked when Mr. Wesley (a stanch Hanoverian) mentioned King George at family prayer; the other, that Mrs. Wesley desired it not to disturb the house between five and six, the hour she set apart for her own private devotions; and it never did. Eupeithes. It is very curious that, in the gust of wind which arose before the coming of the supposed spirit, and in the loud knockings heard on pieces of wood which would not have seemed capable of supporting them, this case should so much resemble that at Tedworth, and another famous instance at Sir William Yorks house, at Lessingham, in Lincolnshire, which happened in 1679. Sophron. Plutarch tells a curious story of a haunted house at Athens. It was spacious and commodious; but the prodigious and unaccountable noises, the clanking of chains, and the appearance of an old man, meagre and filthy, with long beard and uncombed hair, and wearing chains on his arms and legs, drove one tenant after another from the place. The proprietors were consequently compelled to offer the house at a rent ruinously disproportionate to its size. The philosopher Athenodorus came to Athens in, search of a house. He was pleased with that in question; but on hearing the terms, felt persuaded that there must be g some unmentioned drawback in the case; and, on inquiry, learnt the truth. He nevertheless engaged the house; and, on the first evening of his occupation, when it became dusk, dismissed his family, bade his slaves bring every necessary for writing, and employed himself in the composition of one of his works. When night drew on, he heard the rattling: of chains, and the noise of steps, first outside, then inside the room; still he went on writing; till at last, on looking; up, he saw the spectre as it had been described to him. It beckoned to him to follow; he motioned to it to wait and continued his task. The apparition clanked its chain over the head of the philosopher. Athenodorus rose, took the light, and prepared to follow. The old man led the way slowly, as if loaded with chains, into the centre of the court, and then disappeared. Athenodorus marked the spot with
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary plants and leaves, and retired to rest. On the following day he went to the magistrates, informed them of the circumstance, and requested that the place should be examined. Excavations were made; the mouldering remains of a man, whose legs and arms were chained, were discovered, and publicly buried; and the house was never again haunted. This is the most thorough ghost story that I know in the writings of the ancients. Eupeithes. No places have ever been more usually supposed to be haunted than mines. This belief prevails in Sweden, in Germany, in Switzerland; and the Kobale, the Trulle, or Gutels, are only different names given to the same class of spirits who are imagined to work there, and to be great imitators of man. Now we cannot wonder that, in those hours of fearful solitude and darkness, the fancy should invent almost any kind of delusion; especially where there are so many unearthly noisesthe dripping of water down the shafts, the tunnelling of distant passages, the rumbling of trains from some freshly explored lodeall these things may give rise to imaginations far wilder than any which are recorded on the subject. But I think the story I am going to tell you stands on a different footing. You know that the Whitehaven mines run far out underneath the sea, and are some of the most terrible in England. A man, who had worked all his life in them, and had always borne a high character, was laid on his death-bed, and sent or the clergyman of his parish, to whom he had been previously known. I know not of what kind the disease was; it was one, I am assured, at all events, that did not affect his mind in the least, and that, during the whole of the account which I am going to give you, he was perfectly and most manifestly himself. He related it on the word of a dying man. He assured the priest that it was no uncommon thing, in the mines, for the voices of persons who had long been dead to be heard as in conversation or debate. I do not think he said that apparitions were seen; but he affirmed that they were heard to pass along the passages with a loud kind of rushing noise; that the miners, as far as possible, got out of the way on these occasions; that the horses employed in the mines would stand still and tremble, and fall into a cold sweat; and that this was universally known to be a thing that might occur any time. One remarkable instance he gave. The overseer of the mine he had been used to work was, for many years, a Cumberland man; but, being found guilty of some unfair proceedings, he was dismissed by the proprietors from his post, though employed in an inferior situation. The new overseer was a Northumberland man, who had the burr that distinguishes that county very strongly. To this person the degraded overseer bore

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary the strongest hatred, and was heard to say that some day he would be his ruin. He lived, however, in apparent friendship with him; but, one day, they were both destroyed together by the fire-damp. It was believed in the mine that, preferring revenge to life, the ex-overseer had taken his successor, less acquainted than himself with the localities of the mine, into; a place where he knew the fire-damp to exist, and that without a safety-lamp; and had thus contrived his destruction. But ever after that tune, in the place where the two men perished, their voices might be heard high in disputethe Northumbrian burr being distinctly audible, and so also the wellknown pronunciation of the treacherous murderer. Theodora. It seems a most difficult thing to reconciled such stories with what we know of the state of departed; souls. That they should continue to tenant the places with which they were connected while in the body, appears almost an incredible thing, whether we suppose them in happiness or in misery; or, if possible, then, how wonderfully near does it bring the unseen world to ourselves! Eusebia. Who can say it is not so near? Who, indeed, can define what they mean by the locality of a spiritual state? There can be no abstract proof that heaven is not, at this moment, in one sense, around us. And if, in the case you mentioned, the murderer and the murdered man were fellow partakers of that eternal state,which, if the former did as you represent, he could not hope to escape,think of the full bitterness of hatred that must evermore have reigned between them, of which hatred the labourers in that mine might have been permitted to hear the gross and (so to speak) tangible expressions. Eupeithes. I remember being much struck with a prayer in a church at Bragana,Pelas almas que esto padecendo em algum lugar, por especial castigo de DeosFor the souls which are suffering in any place, by the especial chastisement of God. Clearly, it referred to troubled spirits, that haunt definite spots. Theodora. If from this we proceed to those more usual cases of haunted dwellings, where a spirit is said occasionally to appear, but where no perpetual disturbance prevails, we shall find no priori argument, such as those you just mentioned, to lie against the credibility of such apparitions, except it be their uselessness, and, in some cases, the apparent ludicrousness of their form or manner of visitation.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. True; yet there is, so to speak, something extremely unreasonable in these kinds of apparitions. They do no good; they do no great harm; they are universally disbelieved by the enlightened, and thought rather the subject of a good joke than of anything more serious. One most incomprehensible occurrence I heard from the brother of a gentleman who was present when it happened. He was staying with a family who had recently moved into another house. The servants spoke of strange noises and footsteps in it; and I think that it had previously had the reputation of being haunted. The first night he was there, when the party were going up stairs to bed, they found the infant of a few months old laid on the top of the banisters, and fast asleep. It seemed almost impossible that any one could lie there without rolling over; and the strictest search could not discover any possibility of human agency. The same thing occurred three times, and the family then left the House. Eupeithes. I will tell you a very odd thing, of which I know both place and person (though by name only) where and to whom it occurred. There was a house in the east of England, where one room was reported to be haunted; none of the family slept there, nor did they usually put visitors into it. But a young man, who happened accidentally to be staying there, so earnestly requested to be allowed to occupy it for one night, that at last consent was given. You will be sure, however, to see the apparition, said the master of the house; so do not blame me for the alarm it may occasion you. Oh! not I, replied the other; but, pray, in what form does it appear? Nay, said the gentleman, I will not tell you that, and then you will not be able to fancy it. Very well, said the visitor; then I will tell you all about it to-morrow morning. The young man accordingly went to his room; bolted and locked the door; looked under the bed, under the drawers, into the closet; examined the fastenings of the windows; and convinced himself that no fraud could be used in the matter. I know not that he was a disbeliever in such things; but he was one of the most constitutionally fearless men that you cam conceive. He went to bed, and to sleep. In the middle of the night he woke, and looking towards the bottom of his bed, saw a woman in a red cloak, fixing her eyes on him. Who are you? he cried, not a whit alarmed. No answer. What are you? No answer. What do you want? Still no answer. Well, he said to himself, this is a fancy: I will go to sleep again. And so he did. Waking some time after, he was astonished to see the same figure, in the same place and position. If this be a real apparition, said he, I will

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary make sure that it is so, and that I am thoroughly awake. He got up, went to his wash-hand stand, poured out some water, and washed his face and hands, the appearance still standing as before. Having thus convinced himself that he was really wide awake, he got into bed, turned round, went to sleep, and woke no more till it was broad day. Then, on coming down stairs, he was interrogated as to what he had seen. I have seen something, he said; it is for you to say whether it is the same figure that generally appears. On hearing his account, the family assured him that it was. Sophron. Something of the same kind happened to friend of mine who was on a visit at a house in the village of South Mailing, close to Lewes. This house was connected with sacrilege, and was reported to be haunted. He slept in a room that opened on to a long passage; and about four oclock in the morning was disturbed by heavy steps coming along this passage. They stopped opposite his door: a hand was laid on the handle, and tried to turn it. Some blunder, thought my friend: you shall not come in, any how. He jumped out of bed and locked the door, and the steps seemed to go away. This occurred one or two nights, but my friend did not mention it to the family. Some few days afterwards he was removed into a different apartment to make room for another visitor in that which he had previously occupied. On coming down to breakfast the next morning, Some one was about early, said the newcomer: they tried to get in at my door, but I was just in time to hinder that. Every one protested that the servants were in another part of the house, and no other member of the family had passed that way. The thing was then observed; and the whole household were convinced that the steps along this passage, which constantly occurred, could not be natural. Eusebia. Now I will give you an example where the tale of a haunted house received great corroboration from subsequent discoveries. I wrote to a lady who was acquainted with the circumstances; and you shall have her answer in her own words. And so you wish to hear the often told story of the lady who walked in white; my acquaintance with her was very slight, being only this: The old parochial S. Gregorys Church, in the town of Sudbury, at one end of which the remains now stand, was formerly in possession of lands surrounding it, which were used conventually; in one part a dwelling for friars or monks; and in another, as was said, was a

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary convent of nuns. In my early childhood this estate was held, and the farm-house lived in, by a family of the name of Hurrell; the house was said to have been built on the spot which once formed part of the nunnery; and my earliest remembrance of this spot was the constantly repeated tradition that in the dusk of evening a lady clothed in white walked all round the premises, and then disappeared. The inhabitants and gentry sneered at this tradition, and the half fear of the poor people in the neighbourhood was dying away, and almost gone, when, in the summer of 1816, I paid a hasty visit to the old house at Ballingdon, which had a distant view of these low lying meadows under S. Gregorys Church. In autumn the mists from the Stour, which separates Suffolk and Essex, and flows through these meadows, rose so thickly, and put on so many forms, that I often wondered many ladies walking in white were not seen; the tradition, however, still held of one lady. In the summer of the above named 1816, Mr. Hurrell had occasion to alter his old house; and one morning at the breakfast-table, I was surprised by the inquiry, Would you like to see the lady who walked in white? Yes. Have you seen her? No, but you may see her true picture; for yesterday as the workmen pulled down that old cellar, in the midst of the oak beam, in a little hollow, they found a picture, a miniature of a young female; and proceeding to dig up the foundation of this cellar, just under the spot crossed by the beam and the picture, they found the skeleton of a female, known from the size of the bones, and near the wrist bones a gold bracelet, with an empty socket; it struck some present the picture must belong to this; and, trying it, they found it exactly fitted the empty case. Of course all our breakfast party were anxious to see this; as it was useless to visit the spot, then a mass of brieks and rubbish, we sent to ask permission to have the bracelet for a few moments to look at: the request was at once complied with; but as the marvel had then quickly spread round the neighbourhood, and every one was equally anxious for the sight, the messenger could only allow us a short glance of the bracelet and picture. The former was of very, very coarse work in dead kind of gold, more like the work of a blacksmith, or at least clumsy whitesmith, than agreeing with any ladys bracelet I ever saw. The picture was exceedingly coarsely done, the colours faded: the face was that of a young female, the sis much about what ladies are now wearing as large brooches. I have forgotten what material the miniature was drawn upon, only no glass was visible over it, or ever seemed to
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary have been. Some years passed away before I again visited the same spot, and these estates had changed hands. Time and death had been more than ordinarily busy in their work of spoliation amongst my once large circle of relatives there; and I found so many voices speaking to me, which others could not hear; and so many hands beckoning to me which others could not see; and so many well recognized pictures of lost realities, that I quite forgot to inquire about the picture of the lady who walked in white, though she too doubtless was once a living reality, probably a melancholy one, but for these reasons, I added nothing to my knowledge of her. Eupeithes. I came down, one fine spring evening, about the close of the day, to the blue Fjord on which stands the City of Sleswig. A dark wood to the left is believed by the peasants to be haunted by King Abel the fratricide. He was at first buried in Sleswig Cathedral; but such fearful sounds issued from the place of the tomb, that the coffin was taken up, and committed to a less hallowed sepulchre in the wood of Poole. Here, on stormy evenings the sound of a horn, the cries of hounds, and the neighing of steeds will be heard; the King, mounted on a dingy little horse, the dogs, with tongues of fire, will appear, as the phantom-chase sweeps by; and the Sleswigers have the greatest horror of exposing themselves to the spectre. Another apparition of a similar kind is believed to haunt the wood of Gurre, near Elsinor. Here King Valdemar IV. built a tower for his Tovelil, the Fair Rosamond of Danish History; and so enchanted was he with the spot, that he used to say,If GOD will leave me Gurre, I will not envy Him Heaven. He is punished by being compelled to hunt nightly in these woods:and his dogs and horses also have fiery tongues. Sophron. In Bentleys Correspondence, which was published in 1842, by Dr. Chr. Wordsworth, after being prepared for the press by his brotherthere is a letter from Caswall the mathematician, which incloses a communication he had received from Mr. Thomas Wilkins, Curate of Warbleton, near Havant, in Hampshire. The letter is dated Dec. 11, 1695, and is, I think, worth reading. Eusebia. By all means let us have it. Sophron. Very well. Here it is. At Warblington ... in the Parsonage House dwelt Thomas Perce the tenant, with his wife and a child, and a man servant Thomas, and a maid servant. About the beginning of August, 1695, on a Monday,it must therefore have been August 4,about nine or ten at night, all being gone to bed except the maid

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary with the child, the maid, being in the kitchen, and having raked up the fire, took a candle in one hand and the child in the other arm, and turning about, saw one in a black gown walking through the room, and thence out of the door into the orchard. Upon this the maid, hasting up stairs, having recovered but two steps, cried out, on which the master and mistress ran down, found the candle in her hand, she grasping the child about its neck with the other arm: she told them the reason of her crying out. She would not that night tarry in the house, but removed to another, belonging to one Henry Salter, Farmer, where she cried out all the night from the terror she was in; and she could not be persuaded to go any more to the house upon any terms. On the morrow, i.e. Tuesday,Aug. 5the tenants wife came to me, lodging then at Havant, to desire my advice, and have me consult with some friends about it. I told her I thought it was a sham, and that they had a design to abuse Mr. Brereton, the Rector, whose house it was; she desired me to come up. I told her I would come up, and sit up or lie there as she pleased: for then as to all stories of ghosts and apparitions I was an infidel. I went thither; and sat up on Tuesday night with the tenant and his man servant. About twelve or one oclock I searched all the rooms in the house to see if anybody were hid there to impose upon me: at last we came to a lumber room; there I, smiling, told the tenant that was with me that I would call for the apparition, if there was any, and oblige him to come. The tenant then seemed to be afraid, but I told him I would defend him from harm; and then I repeated Barbara, Celarent, Darii, &c. On this the tenants countenance changed, so that he was ready to drop down with fear: then I told him I perceived he was afraid, and would prevent its coming, and repeated Baralipton, &c. Then he recovered his spirits pretty well, and we left the room, and went down, into the kitchen, and sat up there the remaining part of the night, and had no manner of disturbance. Wednesday night, the tenant and I lay together, and the man by himself, and had no manner of disturbance. Thursday night, the tenant and I lay together in one room and the man in another room; and he saw something walk along in a black gown, and place itself against a window, and there stood for some time, and then walked off. Friday morning, the man relating this, I asked him why he did not call me, and I told him that I thought it was a trick of sham; he told

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary me the reason why he did not call me was, that he was not able to speak or move. Friday night, we lay as before, and Saturday night, and had no disturbance either of the nights. Sunday night,Aug. 10I lay by myself in one room, (not that where the man saw the apparition,) and the tenant and his man in one bed in another room; and betwixt twelve and two the man heard something walk in their room at their beds foot, and whistling very well; at last it came to the beds side, drew the curtain, and looked on them; after some time it moved off. Then the man calling to me, desired me to come; for that there was something in the room went about whistling;I asked him whether he had any light, or could strike one;he told me, No. Then I leaped out of bed, and, not staying to put on my clothes, went out of my room and along a gallery to their door, which I found locked or bolted. I desired him to unbolt the door, for that I could not get in; then he got out of bed, and opened the door, which was near, and went immediately to bed again. I went in three or four steps; and, it being a moonshine night, I saw the apparition move from the beds feet, and clap up against the wall that divided their room and mine. I went and stood directly against it, within my arms length of it, and asked it in the Name of God what it was that made it come disturbing of us? I stood some time expecting an answer, and receiving none: and thinking it might be some fellow hid in the room to fright me, I put out my arm to feel it, and my hand seemingly went through the body of it, and felt no manner of substance till it came to the wall: then I drew back my hand, and still it was in the same place. Till now I had not the least fear, and even now had very little: then I adjured it to tell me what it was; when I had said these words, it, keeping its back against the wall, moved gently along towards the door: I followed it; and it, going out at the door, turned its back towards me: it went a little along the gallery, and it disappeared where there was no corner for it to turn, and before it came to the end of the gallery, where was the stairs. There I found myself very cold from the feet as high as the middle, though I was not in great fear. I went into the bed between the tenant and his man, and they complained of my being exceeding cold. The tenants man leaned over his master in the bed, and saw me stretch out my arm toward the apparition, and heard me speak the words: the tenant also heard the words. The apparition seemed to have a morning gown of a darkish colour, no hat nor cap, short black hair, a thin meagre visage, of a pale swarthy colour, seemed to be about forty or fifty years old; the eyes half shut, the arms hanging down, the hands visible beneath the sleeve, of a middle stature. I

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary related this description to Mr. John Larner, Rector of Havant, and to Major Batten, of Langstone, in Havant Parish: they both said the description agreed very well to Mr. Pitfield, a former Rector of the place, who has been dead above twenty years. Upon this the tenant and his family left the house, which has remained void ever since. The Monday after last Michaelmas Day,October 2,a man of Chedsar, in Warwickshire, having been at Havant fair, passed by the foresaid Parsonage House about nine or ten at night, and saw a light in most of the rooms in the house, his pathway being close to the house: he, wondering at the light, looked into the kitchen window, and saw only a light: but turning himself to go away, he saw the appearance of a man in a long gown: he made haste away: the apparition followed him over a piece of glebe land of several acres to a lane, which he crossed, and over a little meadow, then over another lane to some pales which belong to Farmer Henry Salter, my landlord,near a barn in which were some of the farmers men and some others; this man went into the barn, told them how he was frightened, and followed from the Parsonage House by an apparition, which they might see standing against the pales if they went out: they went out and saw it scratch against the pales and make a hideous noise; it stood there some time and then disappeared. Their description agreed with what I saw. This last account I had from the man himself whom it followed, and also from the farmers men.So much for the Curates story: Caswall tells Bentley that he had seen him, and was informed that he was a man of good character; and ends thus: Mr. Brereton, the Rector, would have him say nothing of the story, for that he can get no tenant, though he has offered the house and grange for 10 a-year less. Mr. Pitfield, the former Incumbent, whom the apparition represented, was a man of very ill report. But I advised the Curate to say nothing himself of this last part of Pitfield, but leave that to the parishioners, who knew him. Those that knew this Pitfield say that he had exactly such a gown, and that he used to whistle. Sophron. It is a very odd popular belief which asserts lanes and roads and ruins to be sometimes haunted by a spirit which does not assume a human form. Of this the most curious instance is the celebrated Manx Dog: They say that an apparition, called, in their language, the Mauthe Doog, in the shape of a large black spaniel with curled shaggy hair, was used to haunt Peel Castle, and has been frequently seen in every room, but particularly in the guard-chamber, where, as soon as
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary candles were lighted, it came and lay down before the fire, in presence of all the soldiers, who at length, by being so much accustomed to the sight of it, lost great part of the terror they were seized with at its first appearance. They still, however, retained a certain awe, as believing it was an evil spirit which only waited permission to do them hurt, and for that reason forbore swearing and all profane discourse while in its company. But though they endured the shock of such a guest when all together in a body, none cared to be left alone with it. It being the custom, therefore, for one of the soldiers to lock the gates of the castle at a certain hour, and carry the keys to the captain, to whose apartment, as I said before, the way led through a church, they agreed among themselves, that whoever was to succeed the ensuing night his fellow in this errand should accompany him that went first, and by this means no man would be exposed singly to the danger; for I forgot to mention that the Mauthe Doog was always seen to come out from that passage at the close of day, and return to it again as soon as the morning dawned, which made them look on this place as its peculiar residence. One night a fellow being drunk, and by the strength of his liquor rendered more daring than ordinary, laughed at the simplicity of his companions; and though it was not his turn to go with the keys, would needs take that office upon him, to testify his courage. All the Soldiers endeavoured to dissuade him, but the more they said, the more resolute he seemed, and swore that he desired nothing more than that the Mauthe Doog would follow him, as it had done the others, for he would try if it were dog or devil. After having talked in a very reprobate manner for some time, he snatched up the keys, and went out of the guard-room. In some time after his departure a great noise was heard, but nobody had the boldness to see what occasioned it, till the adventurer returning, they demanded the knowledge of him; but as loud and noisy as he had been at leaving them, he was now be come sober and silent enough, for he was never heard to speak more; and though all the time he lived, which was three days, he was entreated by all who came near him, I either to speak, or, if he could not do that, to make some signs, by which they might understand what had happened to him, yet nothing intelligible could be got from him, only that by the distortion of his limbs and features, it might be guessed that he died in agonies more than is common in natural death. The Mauthe Doog was, however, never seen after in the castle, nor would anyone attempt to go through that passage, for which reason it was closed up, and another way was made. This accident happened about threescore years since, and I heard it

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary attested by several, but especially by an old soldier, who assured me he had seen it oftener than he had then hairs on his head. Eusebia. The story that I am about to tell you, I had from the lady herself to whom it happened. She was governess in the family of a gentleman who was travelling Italy; and who determined on spending some time at Sorrento. He took a house very pleasantly situated near the town, and, when it was ready, removed thither. All rooms were on the ground floor; and this ladys was at further end of a long passage, and had also an external door, which opened into a vineyard. The first night she was reading, rather late, in this room, when she heard steps coining through the vineyard, and then some one attempt rather violently, to open the door. She demanded who was there, but could get no answer. The visitor seemed to withdraw, and she supposed that it was some mistake, and troubled herself no more on the matter. The next night, however, at the same time, the same occurrence again happened. My friend called the man-servant, and desired him to see who was hidden in the vineyard. The man went; and presently after returned with the report that there was no one, and he did not see how there could have been any one; for fit was impossible to get over the high walls and gates with which it was fenced. A good deal terrified, the young lady on the following day informed the master of the house. He took the matter rather seriously, and said that on the next night he would watch in that room himself. He desired the man-servant to sit up, and they waited together for the appointed time. When the steps were heard, as before, they placed themselves close to the door, which they had previously unlocked; and when the visitors hand was laid on the outer handle, they threw the door open. To their horror no one was to be seen, and no one was in the vineyard. On the following day the gentleman told his family that they must leave the house. He had obtained it at a cheap rent, because it was said to be haunted; and exactly in the way that I have told you. The explanation given was this. Some years before, an old man had lived there, who reported to have a good deal of money; he usually slept in that room; and one night, robbers having forced their way in, went off with his wealth, and left him for dead. He had, however, just strength enough to crawl to the door, and open it, in order to obtain help; and there he was found dead. Ever since then, that room and that door were said to be so haunted. Eupeithes. The awful scenery of the Worms Head, in Glamorganshire, is the cradle of more than one wild legend. A Spanish galleon was wrecked, about two hundred years ago, in
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Rhosilly Bay. The Lord of the Manor laid claim to he property; but a Mr. Mansell broke into the vessel, carried off much of its spoil, fled with his ill-gotten gains abroad, and there perished miserably. The inhabitants of Gower believe that his ghost haunts the sands by night; he is to be seen in a black coach, drawn by four grey horses. In 1850, when at the Worms Head, I saw an old man, then residing at Rhosilly, but formerly at Llangenydd, who affirmed most solemnly that he once, when crossing the sands at night, met this spectre chariot. Sophron. If from these tales we turn to those where a spirit has appeared to reveal a secret which could not else have been known, we shall have the feelings of mankind far more strongly with us. The story of the Red Barn was credited all over England. I will tell you one of a similar kind related by Dr. More. In the year 1680, at Lumley, a hamlet near Chester-le-street, in the county of Durham, there lived one Walker, a man well-to-do in the world, and a widower. A young relation of his, whose name was Anne Walker, kept his house, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood, and that with but too good cause. A few weeks before this young woman expected to become a mother, Walker placed her with her aunt, one Dame Care, in Chester-le-street, and promised to take care both of her and her future child. One evening in the end of November, this man, in company with Mark Sharp, an acquaintance of his, came to Dame Cares door, and told her that they had made arrangements for removing her niece to a place where she could remain in safety, till her confinement was over. They would not say where it was; but as Walker bore, in most respects, an excellent character, she was allowed to go with him; and he professed to have sent her off with Sharp into Lancashire. Fourteen days after, one Graeme, a fuller, who lived about six miles from Lumley, had been engaged till past midnight in his mill; and on coming down stairs to go home, in the middle of the ground-floor he saw a woman, with dishevelled hair, covered with blood, and having five large wounds on her head. Graeme, on recovering a little from his first terror, demanded what the spectre wanted: I, said the apparition, am the spirit of Anne Walker; and proceeded accordingly to tell Graeme the particular which I have already related to you. When I was sent away with Mark Sharp, it proceeded, he slew me on such a moor, naming one that Graeme knew, with a colliers pick, threw my body into a coal-pit, and hid the pick under the bank; and his shoes and stockings, which were covered with blood, he left in a stream. The apparition proceeded to tell Graeme that he must give information of

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary this to the nearest justice of the peace; and that, till this was done, he must look to be continually haunted, Graeme went home very sad: he dared not bring such a charge against a man so unimpeachable a character as Walker, and yet he as little dared to incur the anger of the spirit that had appeared to him. So, as all weak minds will do, he went on procrastinating, only he took care to leave his mill early, and, while in it, never to be alone. Notwithstanding this caution on his part, one night, just as it began to be dark, the apparition met him again, in a more terrible shape, and with every circumstance of indignation. Yet he did not even then fulfil its injunction; till, on S. Thomass eve, as he was walking in his garden, just after sunset, it threatened him so effectually, that in the morning he went to a magistrate, and revealed the whole thing. The place was examined; the body and the pickaxe found. A warrant was granted against Walker and Sharp; they were, however, admitted to bail; but in August, 1681, their trial came on before Judge Davenport, at Durham. Meanwhile, the whole circumstances were known over all the north of England; and the greatest interest was excited by the case. Against Sharp the fact was strong, that his shoes and stockings, covered with blood, had been found in the place where the murder had been committed; but against Walker, except the account received from the ghost, there seemed not a shadow of evidence. Nevertheless, the judge summed up strongly against the prisoners; the jury found them guilty; and the judge pronounced sentence on them that night, a thing which was unknown in Durham, either before or after. The prisoners were executed; and both died, professing their innocence to the last. Judge Davenport was much agitated during the trial; and it was believed that the spirit had also appeared to him, as if to supply in his mind the want of legal evidence. Eupeithes. I should have been very loth to bring in such a verdict on such testimony, even if I had been persuaded of the truth of the narrator. I should have thought, as Hamlet did, -The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy, (As he is very potent with such spirits,) Abuses me to damn me. And I remember that Lavater tells a story, which would lead to the same conclusion. A friend of his, the magistrate of some German
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary town, was riding through the fields in company with his servant one morning, when they saw a man of high respectability in the neighbourhood engaged in an act of felony. He rode to this gentlemans house as fast as he could, found him in bed, and learnt, on satisfactory evidence, that he had not left his bed all night. Sophron. A similar instance to that which I last related is to be found in the conviction of William Barwick for murder, on the 16th of September, 1690, at the York Assizes. Aubrey was at the pains to procure authenticated documents, and I will read you some extracts from his account. The murder was committed on Palm Monday, the 14th of April, about two of the clock in the afternoon, at which time the said Barwick, having drilled his wife along till he came to a certain close, within sight of Cawood Castle, where he found the conveniency of a pond, he threw her by force into the water; and when she was drowned, and drawn forth again by himself, he concealed the body among the bushes. The nest night, when it grew duskish, fetching a long spade from the rick that stood in the close, he made a hole by the side of the pond, and there slightly buried the woman in her clothes. Thinking himself secure, because unseen, he went the same day to his brother-in-law, one Thomas Bufforth, who had married his drowned wifes sister, and told him he had carried his wife to one Richard Harrisons house, Selby, who was his uncle, and would take care of her. But on the Easter-Tuesday following, about two of the clock in the afternoon, the forementioned Lofthouse, having occasion to water a quickset hedge, not far from his house, as was going for the second pailful, an apparition went before him, in the shape of a woman, and soon after, she sat down upon a rising green grass-plat, right over against the pond; He walked by her as he went to the pond; and as he returned with the pail, looking sideways, to see whether she continue in the same place, he found she did, and that she seemed to dandle something in her lap that looked like a white bag, (as he thought,) which he did not observe before. So soon as he had emptied his pail, he went into his yard, and stood still, to try whether he could see her again, but she had vanished. The poor woman had been expecting, at the time of her murder, shortly to become a mother. In his information, he says that the woman seemed to be habited in a brown-coloured petticoat, waistcoat, and a white hood,such an

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary one as his wifes sister usually wore; arid that her countenance looked extremely pale and wan, with her teeth [in sight, but no gums appearing; and that her physiognomy was like to that of his wifes sister, who was wife to William Barwick. But, notwithstanding the ghastliness of the apparition, it seems it made so little impression on Lofthouses mind, that he thought no more of it, neither did he speak to any body concerning it, till the same night, as he was at his family duty of prayer, that that apparition returned again to his thoughts, and discomposed his devotions, so that after he had made an end of his prayers, he told the whole story of what he had seen to his wife; who, laying circumstances together, immediately inferred that her sister was either drowned, or otherwise murdered, and desired her husband to look after her the next day, which was the Wednesday in Easter week. Upon this Lofthouse, recollecting what Barwick had told him of his carrying his wife to his uncle, at Selby, repairs to Harrison, before mentioned, but found all that Barwick had said to be false: for that Harrison had neither heard of Barwick or his wife, neither did he know any thing of them; which notable circumstance, together with that other of the apparition, increased his suspicions to that degree that, now concluding his wifes sister was murdered, he went to the Lord Mayor of York, and, having obtained his warrant, got Barwick apprehended; who was no sooner brought before the Lord Mayor, but his own conscience then accusing him, he acknowledged the whole matter, as it has been already related. On Wednesday, September 16th, 1690, William Barwick was brought to his trial, before Sir John Powel, at the Assizes, where the prisoner pleaded Not Guilty. But upon evidence of Thomas Lofthouse and his wife, and a third son, that the woman was found buried in her clothes in the close, by the pond side, agreeably to the prisoners confession, and that she had several bruises on her head, occasioned by the blows the murderer had given her to keep her under water, and upon reading the prisoners confession before the Lord Mayor of York, he was found guilty, and sentenced to death, and afterwards ordered to be hanged in chains. Now, in this story, an unique circumstance is the apparition of the child,unborn in this world, but in the other seeming to possess a separate existence. If the pond at which the spectre appeared were notas I gather it was notthe same by which the murder was committed, here is another instance of what we sometimes see,the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary allegorical, or typical manner in which spirits communicate intelligence. Eupeithes. Lofthouses silence as to the apparition is remarkable, though it cannot be called suspicious: for had he invented the story, he would, of course, have taken care to relate it directly after the pretended occurrence. He might, possibly, be afraid of ridicule. Sophron. I have, from undoubted authority, a somewhat similar instance, which happened in the house of a well-known Northumbrian baronet. His mansion stood by the side of a river, where it made a bend, so that a terrace ran between the front of the house and the water, while some of the side windows overlooked the stream. On this terrace, one morning, one of the children was playing, while the family were at breakfast, when he came running in to say that there was a little baby, all by itself, near the gravel walk. The child was laughed at for fancying an impossibility, there being no baby in the house at the time. At last his importunity prevailed on some one to go down with him to the terrace. There was no infant to be seen; but still the boy persisted most solemnly that he had seen one, and pointed to the exact spot where he said that it had appeared. On examining this spot, the earth was observed to have been lately disturbed, and it was proposed to dig up the ground, and see what might be the cause. This was done and the remains of an infant were discovered in the very place. This was no sooner known through the house, that one of the maid-servants threw herself out of an attic window, and was drowned in the river. Eupeithes. This appearance of a child to a child has something singular in it, though I shall be able to match it by and by. An instance of the apparition of a spirit for the righting of the poor is this. It is given by Dr. Fowler, sometime Bishop of Gloucester. Dr. Britton, who was Rector of Pembridge, near Hereford, during the Great Rebellion, had a wife, of distinguished piety. Shortly after her death, she appeared to a young woman who had formerly been a maid of hers, but afterwards married to a respectable yeoman of the parish. Alice (for such was her name) was rocking her infant, when a knock was heard at the door: and on opening it, she saw a figure in all respects resembling that of Mrs. Britton. When she had a little recovered from her surprise,Were not my mistress dead, I should say that you were she. I am the same that was your mistress, replied the apparition; and I have a business of importance to employ you on. Alice trembled, and requested very earnestly that she would rather go to Dr. Britton, who must be more capable of
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary fulfilling her wishes. The spirit replied that she had already been to him, but that he was asleep, and her power did not extend to awaking him. In brief, it continued, you must go forth with me. Alice pleaded the lonely condition in which her infant would be left, none else being in the house. The spectre answered, The child shall sleep till you come back. There being no help for it, Alice, most sorely against her will, followed her mistress from the house into a large field which lay opposite. Now, said the apparition, observe how much of this field I walk round. And it walked round a large portion of the meadow. All this, it continued, belongs to the poor; it was taken from them by unjust means; and now, without his fault, is the property of my brother. Go you to him from me, and desire him, as he loved me, and as he loved his deceased mother, to surrender it up. Alice said that she could not hope to obtain credence for such a message. Tell him, then, continued the spectre, this secret, known only to him and myself: and it entrusted her with it. After this, the apparition spoke, as Mrs. Britton had been wont to speak, on the duties of her servant, and did not vanish till people were stirring. Alice went home, found her child sleeping, gave it to her neighbours care, and went up to Dr. Brittons. He knew not what to think of the account, but sent her to his brother-inlaw. That gentleman laughed heartily at first; but when told of the secret, said that he would give the poor their own, and accordingly did so; and they enjoyed that field when Dr. Fowler wrote. Eusebia. That very much resembles the story of the Portugal piece, so admirably well told by Sir Walter Scott. Sophron. And that, again, brings to my mind a remarkable Cornish tale, which I will read you from Hitchins History of Cornwall. The scene of the event was a place called Botaden, or Botathen, in the parish of South Petherwin, near Launceston; and the account is given by the Rev. John Ruddle, master of the Grammar School of Launceston, and one of the prebendaries of Exeter, and Vicar of Alternon. Young Mr. Bligh, a lad of bright parts, and of no common attainments, became on a sudden pensive, dejected, and melancholy. His friends, observing the change, without being able to discover the cause, attributed his behaviour to laziness, an aversion to school, or to some other motive which they suspected he was ashamed to avow. He was, however, induced to inform his brother, after some time that in a field through which he passed to and from school, Launceston school, of which I said that Mr. Ruddle was head
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary masterhe was invariably met by the apparition of a woman, whom he personally knew while living, and who had been dead about eight years. Young Bligh is said have been, at this time, about sixteen. Ridicule, threat and persuasions were alike used in vain by the family to duce him to dismiss these absurd ideas. Mr. Ruddle was however, sent for, to whom the lad ingenuously communicated the time, manner, and frequency of this appearance. It was in a field called. Higher Broomfield. The apparition, he said, appeared dressed in female attire, met him two or three times while he passed through the field, glided hastily by him, but never spoke. He had thus bee occasionally met about two months before he took any particular notice of it: at length the appearance became more frequent, meeting him both morning and evening, but always in the same field, yet invariably moving out of the path when it came close to him. He often spoke, but could never get any reply. To avoid this unwelcome visitor he forsook the field, and went to school and returned from it through a lane, in which place, between the quarry-park and nursery, it always met him. Unable to disbelieve the evidence of his own senses, or to obtain credit with any of his family, he prevailed upon Mr. Ruddle to accompany him to the place. I arose, says this clergyman, next morning, and went with him. The field to which he led me I guessed to be about twenty acres, in an open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into the field, and had not gone a third part before the spectrum, in the shape of a woman, which hg had described before (so far as the suddenness of its appearance and transition would permit me to discover,) passed by. I was a little surprised at it: and though I had taken a firm resolution to speak to it, I had not the power; yet I took care not to show any fear to my pupil and guide; and, therefore, telling him that I was satisfied of the truth of his statement, we walked to the end of the field, and returned: nor did the ghost meet us that time but once. On the 27th July, 1665, I went to the haunted field by myself, and walked the breadth of it without any encounter. I then returned, and took the other walk, and then the spectre appeared to me, much about the same place in which I saw it when the young gentleman was with me. It appeared to move swifter than before, and seemed to be about ten feet from me on my right hand, insomuch that I had not time to speak to it, as I had determined with myself aforehand. On the evening of this day, the parents, the son, and myself, being in the chamber where I lay, proposed to them our going to the place next morning. We accordingly met at the stile we had appointed: thence
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary we all four walked into the field together. We had not gone more than half the field before the ghost made its appearance. It then came over the stile just before us, and moved with such rapidity, that by the time we had gone six or seven steps it passed by. I immediately turned my head, and ran after it, with the young man by my side. We saw it pass over the stile by which we entered, and no further. I stepped upon the hedgeyou must remember that in Cornwall a hedge means a stone wallat one place; and the young man at another, but we could discern nothing; whereas I do aver that the swiftest horse in England could not have conveyed himself out of sight in so short a time! Two things I observed in this days appearance. First, a spaniel dog, which had followed the company unregarded, barked, and ran away as the spectrum passed by; whence it is easy to conclude that it was not our fear or fancy which made the apparition. Secondly, the motion of the spectre was not gradatim, or by steps or moving of the feet, but by a kind of gliding, as children upon ice, or as a boat down a river, which punctually answers the description the ancients give of the motion of these lemures. This ocular evidence clearly convinced, but withal strangely affrighted the old gentleman and his wife. They well knew this woman, Dorothy Durant, in her lifetime, were at her burial, and now plainly saw her features in this apparition. The next morning, being Thursday, I went very early by myself, and walked for about an hours space in meditation and prayer in the field next adjoining. Soon after five I stepped over the stile into the haunted field, and had not gone above thirty or forty yards when the ghost appeared at the further stile. I spoke to it in some short sentences, in a loud voice, whereupon it approached me but slowly, and when I came near, moved not. I spoke again, and it answered me in a voice neither audible nor very intelligible. I was not in the least terrified, and therefore persisted until it spoke again, and gave me satisfaction: but the work could not be finished at this time. Whereupon, the same evening, an hour after sunset, it met me again at the same place, and after a few words on each side it quietly vanished, and neither doth appear now, nor hath appeared since, nor ever will more to any mans disturbance. The discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an hour. These things are true, and I know them to be so, with as much certainty as my eyes and senses can give me; and until I be persuaded that my senses all deceive me about their proper objects, and by that persuasion deprive myself, of the strongest inducement to believe the Christian religion, I must and will assert that the things
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary contained in this paper are true. As for the manner of my proceeding, I have no cause to be ashamed of it. I can justify it to men of good principles, discretion, and recondite learning, though in this case I choose to content myself with the assurance of the thing, rather than be at the unprofitable trouble to persuade others to believe it; for I know well with what difficulty relations of so uncommon a nature and practice obtain belief. Through the ignorance of men in this peculiar and mysterious part of philosophy and religion, namely, the communication between spirits and men, not one scholar in ten thousand, though otherwise of excellent learning, knows any thing about it. This ignorance breeds fear and abhorrence of that which otherwise might be of incomparable benefit to mankind. On this strange relation, concludes the county historian, the editor forbears to make any comment. Eupeithes. I think that is one of the most remarkable stories which you have related; and the very thing which spoils its interest makes one the more undoubtedly receive its truth. Eusebia. You refer to Mr. Buddies silence as to the mission of the spirit. Eupeithes. Yes: it has the very impress of truth. The whole tale is most naturally related. You see the priest of the seventeenth century, rather disposed to believe in apparitions, but, with sturdy good sense, requiring some more proof of the fact than a boys word. His minute description of the manner in which the ghost appeared is very interesting; and the fact of its visibility to the dog that was with them, very curious, and not to be overlooked in a discussion of this kind. Sophron. To my mind the most remarkable part is his assurance that the spirit would appear no more. And one longs to know what business it was that could not be despatched in the morning, and yet was so easily accomplished in the evening. One can think of nothing but some inquiry on the part of the spirit which Mr. Ruddle could not answer without further time. And yet how contrary to all our ideas of an apparition, that it should come to a man for information! Theodora. You might say, perhaps, that in the morning conversation the spirit requested Mr. Ruddle to execute some commission; of the accomplishment of which it received assurance in the evening.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. That comes to much the same difficulty; for how strange that it could not have satisfied itself! Eupeithes. And then its confinement to that field is singular. Mr. Ruddle seems to have felt satisfied that it could not cross the stile when he retired into the adjoining field to prepare himself for his interview with it. Eusebia. It affords another instance of an apparition presenting itself to the most unlikely person at first. The spirit wanted nothing with young Bligh, and only appears to have used him as an instrument for getting at Mr. Ruddle. And yet how remarkable its unwillingness to appear when he first went into the field by himself! Theodora. And not less so the length of time which elapsed between Dorothy Durants death and her appearance. Well, it is one of the most striking stories I ever heard. Sophron. The following account I had from a clergyman who is now dead, whose whole life rendered it utterly impossible that he should have added to or embellished it. He was presented to a living in a midland county, which had been terribly neglected. My friend, in his first pastoral tour through the village, was talking with the good woman of some cottage, when he happened to notice across the fields another cottage, and inquired who lived there. Very odd people, was the reply. How odd? inquired the clergyman. Why, sir, they are of a different religion from any one elsenot Dissenters, nor yet Church-people: we cannot make out what they are. The new Incumbent made his way to the place, and found that its tenants, an old man and woman, were Roman Catholics, having recently become so. He was a good deal surprised at this, knowing that there was no chapel nor Priest of that Church for many miles round; and inquired to what circumstances their conversion was owing. They were exceedingly unwilling to reply; and it was only by great importunity that he extracted from them this story. The old couple had had a son, who entered the army, and, I think, served in India and had returned home only to die. The night after the funeral, as they were awake in bed, they saw their son stand at their, feet, and look in earnestly upon them. After a few moments the apparition vanished. But it came again at the same time, and in the same place night after night; and the father and mother were at last almost distracted. At length the neighbours advised them to ask the parson to lay the ghost; and accordingly

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary they told their distress to him, and asked him to do what he could. He laughed at their folly; and if I remember right, prescribed a bottle of port wine, and furnished them with it. However, the remedy was useless: the apparition returned as before. Some neighbours now told them that there was a Catholic Priest, chaplain to a nobleman who resided at no very great distance, and recommended them to apply to him. They did so: he came to the cottagehe went through the appointed prayers; and the spectre never appeared again, And then, concluded the old woman, We saw which Priest had most power over spirits, we could not doubt which was the true Church. Eupeithes. One more story of a haunted house. I give it in the exact words of the narrator. A family residing in Kennington, in a large, old-fashioned manor-house, were some few years ago much alarmed by the following circumstances;Every night, at about twelve oclock, there was beard in the room where they might be sitting, a strange bustling all down the walls, as if some person were sweeping them with a hair-broom. This continued till it had gone all round the room, when, if in summer time, it ceased at the door, and it seemed as though some person went out thereat: if it was winter, it stopped at the fire-place, and the fire, however good previously, instantly became extinguished, quite dead,not gradually, but instantaneously. After this had happened for some time, every effort was made to keep the fire burning, but all to no purpose; the sweeping noise gradually went round the chamber, and when it reached the Hearth, its effect upon the fire was always the same,it put it out immediately. Nor was this all; more than once a figure appeared to various members of the family. Its appearance was as of aged man with a sorrowful countenance, and habited in [the dress of a shopkeeper of the last century. He always stood by the fire or by the door, and vanished when the rustling ceased at either place. On one occasion he appeared to one of the ladies of the family at her bed-side; this being unusual, terrified her much, and she adjured him in the name of the TRINITY to tell her what was the cause of his visit: he beckoned her to follow him down stairs, which she did, when he disappeared on the ground-floor, but without speaking. Search, was made where he disappeared, but nothing was ever found. The tradition in the neighbourhood was, that the house had formerly been inhabited by a miserly retired tradesman, who had died suddenly, after having buried his wealth in some part of the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary house, and that, previous to his death, he had never revealed where it was hid. After some years this family left the house and though many others subsequently endeavoured to live there, they found it impossible, by reason of the strange noises and apparitions. The place was then pulled down. Persons are now living (some of the above-mentioned family) who related this account to me, and who always, with strong asseverations, vouched for the entire truth of it. Sophron. A similar occurrence came under my own knowledge. Two years ago, two brothers were together in Cornwall. They were both men of education, and not ad dieted to what is generally called superstition. The elder was a barrister of some standing; the younger was in holy orders, and had just been licensed to the curacy of the parish where they were living. Both were members of English universities; the elder of Cambridge, the other Oxford. The former was what is generally called a strong-minded man, and a notorious ridiculer of ghost stories; the younger, though not weak, was certainly more credulous than his brother. The house in which they lived stood by itself, and large and straggling. There was one room in it which not been opened for many years: the person who let the house to the brothers asserted, that in that room a former occupant and owner of the house had died, and, as it supposed, with something fearful on his conscience; for his end was very dreadful. Since his death this room had never been opened, and the place, as said the people, was haunted. This relation was, however, laughed at by the brothers, especially by the elder one. One night the younger brother came to his companions bed-room, and, knocking in great terror, aroused him, telling him that he heard most awful noises in the house, and more especially on the stairs, and in the shut-up room. He was bid not to be so silly, and to go off to bed again. He did so, but the noise still continued; and more strange still, a large mastiff dog, which slept in his room, and which was generally very watchful and fierce, flying out on the slightest noise, crept under the bed, and manifested signs of the extremest fear; nor could persuasion, nor threats, nor blows, bring him from his hiding-place. Again was the elder brothers room resorted to, and these singular circumstances detailed to him, and he was implored to

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary assist in their investigation. Upon this he arose, and taking a light went to the stairs, where the noise was the loudest. It was now his turn to be terrified too. As he stood on the steps, the most extraordinary sounds passed and repassed him: he could not, he said, be mistaken. Tramp, tramp, tramp, as if some heavy person were going up and down stairs, and so near, that he seemed to himself as if he must be in the way. Every portion of the house was searched, except the locked-up room (and that was bolted and barred so strongly, that it could not possibly opened), but nothing was found to throw any light on this wonder. Tramp, tramp, tramp, up and down it went for hours together. When this was told the persons who had the care of the house, and had let it, they said there was nothing unusual in it; that others had observed the same before, and that it was the ghost of old. The younger brother soon after was appointed to another curacy, and left this house; nor was he sorry to do so, though I know not if he was ever disturbed again. This story was related by a brother of these two, who vouched for the truth of it, as it was told him by the elder brother. Sophron. One of the most awful things connected with the appearance of unhappy spirits, is their change of colour. At each successive visitation, in several cases, they have been seen to be perceptibly darker. Who shall venture to account this? In like manner, there are also instances of apparitions becoming brighter; as if their progressively good or bad condition were symbolized in a way intelligible to earthly ideas. Eupeithes. We might expect that spiritual things would be so represented to our eyes. The whole of the supernatural appearances recorded in Holy Scripture are related on that principle. If spirits are to be visible to us, they must, so to speak, be represented as we understand them. This is a sufficient answer to all the objections against the clothes that they always seem to wear. Theodora. But why should a spirit show himself to us in the dress which happened to be the fashion of the times in which he lived? What connection between them and his present state? Sophron. We probably see a spirit under that form in which it is used to consider itself. Or, if you say that it can take any shape it pleases, why should it not appear in its own? If its design is to be recognized, that is the surest way. At all events, there are some stories where the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary garb of the apparition forms one of its most curious features. Such is that of the officer who saw his brothers wraith in the uniform of the Rifle Brigade, he not being aware at the i time that he had changed into that brigade, just before his sudden death. Eupeithes. Another example is this. A gentleman of property, residing in the West, was threatened with a law-suit by a claimant to the whole of his estates. The title deeds which ensured them to him could not be found; and s the danger of his ejectment was very imminent. As his solicitor in London was one day writing on the subject, an elderly gentleman, in a remarkably old-fashioned dress, was ushered into the room. After taking a seat: You are interested, he said, about theestates. In a chest,which he described, in such a room of the Manor House,which he also minutely pointed out,the title-deeds now missing will be found. And after some few more remarks, he went away. The lawyer hurried down to the house in question, told its owner the information he had received, examined the chest, and found the deeds. The gentleman who was thus rescued from danger, politely requested the solicitor to spend a few days with him. He was excessively anxious to discover his unknown benefactor could be; but, no light was for; some time thrown on the subject. At length, as he was showing the family portraits to the lawyer, the latter pointed out one, and said, Why, that was the gentleman who told me where I should find the deeds! That! cried the other, that was my great grandfather! he has been dead these fifty years! Nevertheless, returned the solicitor as I am an honest man, he it was.And many stories are related of a somewhat similar kind. Sophron. Divines, who have written on the subject, seem agreed on two points; the first, that no apparition that is blackthe second, that none manifesting itself in the shape of a beastcan be good. Bossuet dwells at some length on the former point, in reference to the black spirit that appeared to Zuingle with a perversion of a text of Scripture. And we should scarcely imagine a happy spirit appearing as a dog, a calf, a horse, or a monster; nor in such a way as a severed head, or hand. The Duke of Somerset, you know, the great Church destroyer, was warned of his approaching death on the scaffold by the protrusion of a Bloody Hand from the wall of the corridor along which he and the duchess were walking. Sophron. And most remarkable is the reported answer of a spirit to the inquiry, whether it could choose its own shape. No: if I had lived like a beast, I should appear like a beast.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. The evening has seemed to close quite speedily. We must reserve anything else we have to say on the subject till to-morrow.

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NIGHT VI. OF THE ALLEGED USELESSNESS OF APPARITIONS, AND OF THEIR POSSIBILITY Theodora. Just look out into the solemn loveliness of this evening. One cannot wonder that mens minds should be disposed to receive any intelligence from the world of spirits, at a time when their own world looks so spiritual itself. Sophron. It is odd that with so much less light the contrast between moonlight and moon-shade should be so much more striking than the similar contrast by day. Such a violent opposition of tints would in broad daylight be monstrous. Eupeithes. I never saw a more striking contrast than once in crossing the mountains by moonlight. We were winding up a pass, one side of the ravine being in the deepest shade. Foremost of our party rode a lady, in a white habit, mounted on a white horse. When she reached the top of the zigzag which we were ascending, she came out into the full moonshine, and the effect of that single horse and rider glaring with a snow-white brightness against the black sky, and amidst the wild mountain scenery, was indescribable. Sophron. The shadows of the contorted arms of trees in winter are most curious, and, I doubt not, have given rise to many and many a tale of haunted lanes; the very spots where such apparitions seem most useless. Eupeithes. I fear we must put off this discussion for to-night; I hear a somewhat untimely visitor. Sophron. Not so: it is my friend Scepticus, a most determined disbeliever in such relations as those we have been dwelling on. I told him the subject of our discussion, and invited him to join us in it. Eusebia. We shall then hear somewhat on the other side of the question, I presume. Sophron. Welcome, good Scepticus! We are still, you see, on the same subject. Sit down, now, and give us the advantage of your remarks. Scepticus. Well, I have no objection. Pray, on what: branch are you dwelling to-night?

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. On the question whether any argument can be drawn against the credibility of such tales from the uselessness and apparent impossibility of some. We are on the point of agreeing that an apparition, the use of which is; not to be discovered, is not in itself one whit more improbable than such as have an extreme and manifest utility. Scepticus. If such exist. If you are determined to believe everything for which you have a certain amount of testimony, I can give it you for some tales which I am sure you, or any other man possessed of common sense, would reject as absurd. Eupeithes. To what tales do you refer? Scepticus. Why, for example, that of the butler, in Ireland, who had been like to be carried away by fiends. He was sent, so Glanville says, by his master to buy cards. He fell in with a company sitting at a banquet in a field through which he passed; they invited him to sit down with them; one among them warned him, Do nothing which these people ask you. He refused any refreshments; and the whole scene vanished. That night, continues the narrator, the friendly individual among the company came to the bedside of the butler, and warned him not to stir out of doors, for that if he did, he would inevitably be carried away. He kept within till evening, but then, having stepped into the garden, while several persons were standing by him, a rope was thrown round his waist, he was pulled off with incredible speed, and only stopped by accidentally meeting with a man on horseback, who laid hold of one end of the rope, and had a smart blow given him for his pains. Here you begin to get the testimony of three or four persons, besides that of the original actor. But this is not all. The Earl of Orrery hearing of this, sent for the man to his house; he slept there, and told that nobleman on the following morning that the spectre had again been with him, and had assured him that on that day he would infallibly be carried away, and that no efforts could save him. On this, two bishops were sent for; and several strong men commissioned to keep with the butler all day. Nothing happened till towards evening, and then the unfortunate butler was observed to rise up in the air, as if about to be bodily carried away. On this, one or two of the stoutest fellows in the company endeavoured to press him down with their own weight, but to no purpose; he was whirled about at the top of the room, in which attitude you may see him represented in the frontispiece to Glanvilles book. After some time, he was let down, and so escaped. Heard ever man so monstrous a tale? And yet your worthy ghost
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary believers of the seventeenth century believed this as firmly as any other; and besides a good number of inferior witnesses, the Earl of Orrery is quoted as having seen this person carried up by invisible hands into the air. Sophron. You have forgotten one material passage in this story; namely, that the party chiefly concerned in it was subject to fits. This effectually quashes all his evidence; nor do I find any great degree of proof for the rest of the tale. If the Earl of Orrery, or any other person of unblemished reputation, had assured me that he had seen a man supernaturally lifted off his feet and carried to the roof, I could not venture to disbelieve him, unless I knew him to be a man of weak intellect. So, if Glanville had told me, or left it in writing, (which comes pretty much to the same thing,) that he had been assured, by Lord Orrery of his having seen it, I could hardly have failed to credit him( making all due allowances for the intermediate link. But you will notice that, confessedly, the tale comes at third or fourth hand; which is one serious objection, because, by a comparatively trifling exaggeration, a most miraculous story may be resolved into an every-day occurrence. So there is one objection. But a stronger one to my mind is, that this account seems really opposed to all idea of a superintending , Providence. If evil spirits carry off, at their will, those that have offended them, and are to be resisted in the same way of physical force as a human enemy, Gods superintending government seems quite put out of the question. There .does not appear, according to the tale, to have been any other idea of opposing the ghostly enemies of this man, than by mustering a large body of friends: prayer and other spiritual weapons are left out of the question. The whole thing corporealizes our notions of spirit, and weakens our belief in Providence. Scepticus. Now you are doing the very thing that believers in such tales will not allow to be donefinding an priori reason for disbelieving testimony. Sophron. I did not say that there were no a priori reasons which would justify you in rejecting such stories as those on which we have been dwelling. Anything, for example, which directly impugns any article of faith is at once to be rejected; and the more nearly it approaches to this, or seems to approach to it, with, the more caution is it to be received. This tale appears, to say the least, to be in opposition to, what we know concerning Gods Providence. Still, it may be very possible that it only appears to be so; therefore, if it have a sufficient degree of testimony, I am not unwilling to receive
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary it. But I do not find such degree in the account as given; I do find some suspicious circumstances connected with it; and therefore, while I am not justified in saying that it could not have been, I am justified in concluding that I do not believe that it was. Scepticus. Do you mean, then, to say, that the same weight of evidence which would induce you to believe the commonest and most every-day occurrence, would warrant your crediting any tale of an apparition? Sophron. Undoubtedly not. The more at variance with the usual course of Gods Providence be the tale, surely the more testimony it needs to render it credible. It is but the carrying out an every-day principle. I have a servant, on whose word I know little dependance is to be placed. He calls me in the morning, and I inquire what kind of day it is. He answers, Fine, and I implicitly believe him. The weakest kind of testimony is sufficient for so very trivial and likely a fact. But if the same servant were to assure me that he had that morning seen a mock sun, I should have very great doubts of his veracity, though the thing asserted were in itself unimportant. And if he were to assure me that he had been visited by a spirit on the preceding night, which spirit had given him a message for me, I should not dream of acting on that message, unless I could find some concurrent testimony to its credibility. But if two honest, unimaginative men came to me, and professed to be entrusted by a ghost with a message on which I was to act, I do not see on what principle I could disbelieve them, unless the nature of the message were such that I had some reasonable grounds to suspect collusion; as, if I were desired to do something for the benefit of my informants. But further, if these men gave me a token, such as they could not of their own unassisted knowledge have become acquainted with, in proof of their words, should I not be guilty of folly in disbelieving them? And further, if, as in the case of the death of the Duke of Buckingham, the event verified the prediction, should I not be mad to deny that that prediction came from a supernatural source? Are you prepared to say that apparitions are impossible? Because, if you can prove that, of course all argument from testimony is at an end. Scepticus. All things are, of course, possible to Omnipotence; but I hold the thing to partake very much of the nature of an impossibility.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. Almost impossible and quite impossible are as far apart as light and darkness; but, not to urge that, whereon do you ground your abstract idea of the very excessive improbability of such appearances? Scepticus. I think the writers on the other side have shown their appreciation of it. Dr. Henry More, in his Enchiridion, where he is writing on the true-nature and essence of spirit, with a view to prove the possibility of apparitions, is compelled to argue that spirits are material. His whole philosophy on this matter was staked on that point; and, in his annotations on various relations of apparitions, he takes care to dwell on the easy percribration of spirits through porous bodies, and the like topics. Sophron. I might answer you in your own way, that your friends, his opponents, were guilty of glaring absurdities in their opposing arguments. What say you to the Nullibists, who, even affirming that there were such things as spirits, nevertheless, following Des Cartes, asserted that they could, not, being immaterial, be said to exist any wherethat spirits, in short, exist nowhere? What say you to the Holenmerians, who affirm that spirits are not only, as a whole, in the whole place occupied by them, as all matter is, but, as a whole, in every part and point of the whole? nay, and who make it their very definition of spirit, that the whole must be in the whole, and the whole in each part of the whole also? No; all that these discussions prove is our ignorance of the subject: they will never convince any one either for or against the possibility of apparitions. Scepticus. It seems to me thatthough that is not the strongest argumentit is very doubtful whether physical senses, like ours, could see a spirit. Eupeithes. What say you, then, to all the instances in Holy Scripture to the contrary? more especially to that where the young man, at the prayer of Elisha, had his eyes opened to behold the chariots of fire and horses of fire that surrounded the city? Scepticus. I say that, in those instances, the, eyes of individuals were miraculously opened to behold those supernatural appearances. That is a very different thing from such tales as are now in vogue. In them a spirit is usually represented as appearing when it pleases, where it pleases, and to whom it pleases; as if the mere fact of presenting itself to a man made it also visible to him.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. On the contrary, where such is the case, I should agree with you on the point. In all those instances in which ghosts have appeared, God must be considered as having supernaturally enabled the objects of their visitation to behold them. The miracle is rather in the person seeing than in the thing seen. Scepticus. But then again, those appearances in Scripture are confined to the visits of angels. These, we know, are ministering spirits, and might be supposed to appear on messages whether of love or rebuke; but of the spirits of departed men we are not told as much, nor have we any instance of a similar thing. Sophron. That, with your favour, is a great deal more than can be asserted. How can you tell that the spirits of the departed just may not be sometimes meant under the title of angels in the Old Testament? But whether they may be or not, we have the one instance of Samuel raised by the witch of Endor, which is a host in itself. Scepticus. No one can reasonably assert that that apparition was in reality the soul of Samuel: it was simply the illusion of an evil spirit. Sophron. On the contrary, the whole tenor of the story most manifestly shows that it was Samuel. The enchantress plainly was astonished at what she saw. She expected, probably, to behold some spirit in the shape of Samuel; but when the old man covered with a mantle came up, she perceived that it was something more than she had looked for. She stood in need of Sauls comfort: a marvellous thing, if she were only pursuing her usual craft! This completely destroys the objection, that enchantments can have no power over the souls of the just. Of course they cannot; nor heed any one say that they had here. Scepticus. You will allow thus muchthat Samuel, if it were really he, could not appear without the command of God. Sophron. Or His permission. Scepticus. Well; His command or His permission. And would that command or that permission have been given in answer to a wicked endeavour on the part of Saul? See what this would come to: Saul sought, in the usual and appointed ways, for the direction of God; no answer was returned; he then employed a method expressly and absolutely forbidden, and in itself a capital crime, and at once obtained a reply.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. And in that reply his own punishment. But what more astonishing in the fact that an answer was returned when impiously sought, which had been denied when endeavoured after in the appointed manner, than there is in the fact that, when Ahaziah sent to consult Baalzebub, God returned him an answer by the mouth of His prophet? And the case was the same with Balaam. When he was endeavouring to discover some means of cursing Israel effectually, God met him, and put a word in his mouth. Scepticus. But the tenor of what this apparition said makes against you. Why hast thou disquieted me, it asked, to bring me up? Therefore, here is an express proof that it was not the spirit of him whom it personated? because we are all agreed that witchcraft, which undoubtedly existed in the Mosaic dispensation, could not have any, effect over the happiness of the Blessed. Sophron. Nor is there reason to look on these words as any thing more than figurativeas a representation to human faculties of what is above them. Why hast thou; given me the trouble of coming up? You might just as well build an argument on the words coming up; which would be manifestly absurd. Scepticus. He says again, To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. Now, in the first place, the battle of Gilboa did not take place on the morrow; and, in the second, Saul, at its conclusion, was certainly not with Samuel, but in his own place. Sophron. As to the word to-morrow, that must taken with the same latitude which we allow to the expressions for ever, &c, in Holy Scripture; and as to being with me, what meaning so natural asthou shall be in the state of the dead in another world? Scepticus. Still, whatever may be decided about this relation, it is not of very much importance to the present inquiry, because it occurred in the Jewish theocracy, and there is no arguing from that, in a matter of this kind, to the Christian dispensation. In the New Testament we find hardly a hint of the possibility of departed souls re-appearing; though many, I willingly grant you, of the appearances of angels. Sophron. When our LORD appeared to the disciples as they were on the sea, they were terrified in the thought that they had seen a spirit. He never rebuked them for this thought; He simply assured them that they were mistaken in the fact, not that they imagined an impossibility. It Is I: be not afraid. And still more remarkably in
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary another instance. After His resurrection, they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. How did He answer? Handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have; which seems quite to show the possibility of their seeing a spirit. And I can Understand nothing else by the persuasion of the Church of Jerusalem, when S. Peter was loosed out of prison,then said they, It is his angelthan their belief that it was his ghost. No; I think the New Testament is more express even than the Old, on the possibility of such apparitions. In the former we have one solitary instance, and that in-stance not unattended with objections and difficulties; in the latter, we have two virtual admissions of our LORD Himself, that the appearance of spirits is a possible thing. Scepticus. You are fond of building on one argument, which, considered quietly, has no weight at all. People call the seeing a ghost the effect of imagination. Not so, say the advocates on your side the question, because if one person may fancy such an apparition, two at the same time, And in the same place, certainly would not. On the contrary, my own belief is, that if one person took such a fancy into his head, it would be contagious. You know that in the great Plague, a whole crowd asseverated that they beheld; & ghost, which one fanatic pointed out. Sophron. True. But it was pointed out to them first. They did not simultaneously fancy it. That is what I assert, in a case of mere fancy, to be impossible. In the greater part of those instances, where a spirit has appeared to two persons at the same time, both have become sensible of its presence in the same identical moment; not one pointed it out to the other. Though, were an instance of this last to be produced, it would determine nothing definite against that apparition, because such was the case with Saul and the witch of Endor. The enchantress, it is manifest from the story, perceived it before the monarch. But this argument of yours about fancy, never possessing any great weight, is most unphilosophical of all, where you have to imagine a curious coincidence of the fancy and the thing fancied; as when, at the moment of his death, the dying man appears to a friend at a distance. Scepticus. But the difficulty of verifying such stories! The impossibility of verifying them at first hand! Sophron. Of course, if a man does not endeavour to verify them, we cannot expect to find them verified. It is no difficult thing to do, with

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary respect to modern stories; and as regards ancient accounts, several of them are re ported with a degree of testimony that would be amply sufficient to establish the most important piece of history. Such is that relation of the Banshee seen by Lady Fanshawe; of the appearance of the ghost of Sir George Villiers to Parker; such, also, in recent times, the tale we yet have to relate of the fate of Booty. Scepticus. Consider the moral consequences of such; a belief: what cowards it tends to make men; how superstitioushow unfit for the ordinary concerns of life. Sophron. Nay; confess yourself, which would be more terrified of the two at a real apparition; the man who had always believed such an event possible, though unlikely; or he that had regarded it as absolutely impossible? It would be all the difference between an army that came prepared on an expected enemy, and one which fell into an unlooked for ambush. And one thing I take to be worthy of relation? I never yet heard of a spectre that was said to have appeared, when he by whom it was seen had been talking or thinking of such matters; that is, when he was in the state of mind, which, according to you, would be most likely to produce such imaginations. I say never: for I do not think an obscure story of an apparition, which was said to have presented itself on board the Victory to the officers, when they had been discussing such matters, to have been more than (what was so very likely on board any ship, and still more on board a ship not in active service) a trick. Scepticus. Well, seeing is believing. When I see a ghost, I shall believe that others may have done so. Sophron. Why, to be consistent, you ought not to believe it a whit the more then. If others had fancied such things, so may you; and therefore such fancy would be no ground for any change in your views. But seriously, the state of mind that will not believe except on sight, is a most unhappy one...... Scepticus. On this subject, I fear it will never alter. Nevertheless, I shall be glad, if you will allow me, to attend a renewal of this discussion. Eusebia. Have we, then, sufficiently considered the argument of uselessness? for, it does seem to me that unbelievers have a right to rely on it, and to argue that, if God ever breaks through the established laws of nature, it might reasonably be expected that it would be to some good end.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. You have first to prove that a seemingly useless apparition may not be sent for a very good end, although we may not be able to know it. I might urge that any thing which, tends to convince us of the nearness of our connection, with the invisible world has a manifestly good end, only you would reply that such stories are seldom believed, and therefore cannot produce such conviction. Yet they may do so in the persons immediately concerned; and that is something. On the whole, I would rather say that we know far too little to decide whether any given supernatural appearance is useless or not; and there are cases where some that have seemed useless, and indeed absurd, have afterwards been proved very much the contrary. I will read you one of these from a lately published book. A gentleman was returning to his house at Evesham, (I think,) one summer evening in the late twilight. When a short distance from the town, he saw, on the opposite side of the road, a friend whom he well knew to have been for some years dead. Excessively terrified, he quickened his pace; the figure did the same: he walked slowly; the apparition followed his example. So the pair kept on, till they were almost in the town, when the gentleman in question saw two ill-looking fellows crouching down at the side of a hedge, and heard one of them say to the other, It wont do, Tom; there are two of them. Shortly after passing these men, the apparition vanished. Some time subsequently, it was discovered that the two men had formed a design of robbing, on that particular evening, the gentleman in question, and were only restrained from doing it by the belief that he was accompanied by a friend. Theodora, Mr. Dendy thus beautifully tells another story of the same kind. I remember, as I was roaming over the wild region of Snowdonia,.....the Welsh guide was looking down in deep thought on Llyn Guinant; and, with a tear in his eye, he told us a pathetic story of two young pedestrians, who were benighted among the mountains in their ascent from Beddgellert. They had parted company in the gloom of the evening, and each was alone in a desert. On a sudden, the voice of one of them was distinctly heard by the other, in the direction of the gorge which bounds the pass of Llanberris, as if encouraging him to proceed. The wanderer followed its sound, and at length escaped from this labyrinth of rocks, and arrived safely at Capel Curig. In the morning, his friends body was found lying far behind the spot where the phantom voice was first heard, and away from the course of their route. Was this .... a solemn instance of friendship after death, as if the phantom had been

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary endued with supernatural power, and became the guardian angel of his friend? Sophron. I can give you two stories, which, taken together, will produce a similar conclusion. There was a house in Cambridge, in S. Andrews Street, where for many days and nights together the bells rang almost incessantly, no cause being assignable, and continued to do so even when the ropes were cut. Of course, in an University, this was set down to some folly among the young men; but, though every possible endeavour was made to find out the cause, it never could be discovered. The disturbance finally ceased if I have been rightly informedon the last day of the year. Now, the facts of this story no one can deny; but that the instrumentality was supernatural, I for a long time fairly disbelieved: partly on account of the superior ease with which such a freak might be performed in Cambridge, as compared with any other town; partly on account of the uselessness of the visitation. At present I could not speak so decidedly; for, though my first argument remains as strong as ever, my second has been cut away from me by the following story:in a lone part of the country, but not so very far from London, were two gentlemens houses at a short distance from each other; besides these two, there were none very close. The gentleman and lady who owned the better of the two, were professedly, if not Atheists, any how Deists. They had invited several friends to dinner one evening, and the lady was sitting in her drawing-room that afternoon, when she was annoyed by the constant ringing of a bell in the kitchen. She rang, and inquired what was the matter. The servant replied that they did not know who was ringing; but first one bell, and then another, and then two or three together were pulled. The mistress, of course, grew angry at what she thought an impertinent answer; but as the noise continued, she was obliged to examine into the matter for herself, and she found the servants answer perfectly correct. The bells were ringing, and no one could tell why or how. A trick was suspected, and the bell-wires were cut: still the bells went on. The lady became alarmed, and her husband thought the circumstance curious; and as the guests were now beginning to arrive, it was mentioned to them. And, indeed, it was almost necessarily talked of, for the disturbance continued all dinner time and all the evening; and when her friends were going away, the lady tad worked herself into such a state of agitation, as to request one or two of them to stay. They consented; still the bells rang on, nor did they cease till about midnight: after which they were quiet. Nothing remarkable happened in that house, but in the neighbouring one there was a

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary robbery, and murder was committed. Now was not this interference, if supernatural, useless? Theodora. Why, if that be all the story, it would certainly seem so; at all events it was useless where it occurred. Sophron. Well, that was all the story for some time. At length, the robbers who had broken into the other house were taken up, tried, and condemned. They then confessed that it had been their intention to have broken into that of which I have been telling you, where the plate was much more valuable; but that there was such an unaccountable ringing of bells, and (as they heard) so many visitors, that; they preferred making an attempt on the other. Whatever you may think, the lady and gentleman in question were so thoroughly convinced that they had been the subjects of a miraculous interposition of Providence, as to renounce Deism, and thenceforward to live like good Christians. Eusebia. Well, that is the happiest termination we have yet heard. But you do not mean to say that there are many tales of apparitions, of which you could not, by any possibility, discover or imagine the use? Sophron. Certainly not: nay, I rather draw an argument the other way from the fact. If the visitations of all spirits were attended with an apparent use, it would be natural to conclude, in many of them, that the use suggested; the device of the ghost. Again, on the other hand, if no such apparitions had any use, I confess it might be brought forward as an argument against the theory, from seeming to show the want of any connection of an overruling Providence with such appearances. Eusebia. But is it not considered one fair test of a miracle, whether it is of any utility or not? Sophron. It has been so considered: but by whom? By men who, like Douglas, rested their defence of Scripture miracles well nigh on the destruction of all others. Not that even then they could secure their point. Look at the miracle of Elisha, when he caused the iron to swim. Was not that (to use the almost profane language of such writers) an useless miracle? Granting that the man who lost the axehead were poor, as the fact of his having borrowed it has been supposedI know not with what justiceto prove, is it to be imagined that none of the sons of the prophet possessed money enough to purchase another axe, or charity sufficient to help a
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary brother in distress? Again, when our LORD was required to pay His share of the temple tribute, we know that the Apostles had a common bag, cannot but believe that so small a sum might have been from that. But it pleased Him rather to work a miracle, and cause a fish to bring the piece, in his mouth. Eupeithes. There is also good evidence for some most useless apparitions. That which was seen by Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, is as well authenticated as most. When he, one morning in 1632, woke, and saw a spectre, with a black face, but with long white clothes, stand by his bedside, his thoughts immediately turned to his wife, Anne, daughter to the Earl of Northumberland, then staying with her father at Naworth. He went thither: being, at the time, about forty miles off. As he entered the house, he met a manservant, with a letter from his wife, in which she requested his immediate return: for that, at the same hour of the same morning, she had seen the same spectre. Sophron. I believe, as you say, that this tale is very well authenticated; and it certainly seems useless. If you make, however, utility the ground of your belief, you may be amply satisfied. You all know the story of the sentinel at Windsor Castle, whose life was saved by the clock of S. Pauls striking thirteen instead of twelve. Something of the same kind occurred in a house near Woolwich, with the family in which I am acquainted. They were to give a large dinner party one evening; and, as they were known to have a great deal of plate, a gang of thieves in the neighbourhood chose that night as a fit time for an attempt on the house. The servants would be tired; the silver, probably, less care-fully put away; and any casual noise more likely to be accounted for. Accordingly, one of the number secreted himself in a closet, with the understanding that when the clock struck two, he was to come out, and to open the front door. The party went on; the visitors left one by one; and by half-past twelve the family were in their rooms. The butler was going to bed just at one oclock, when the hall clock struck TWO. At the same moment, he heard a closet door open, and footsteps along the passage. He went out directly, saw the robber, collared him, called for help, and secured him. The scheme was thus discovered: the man had believed it an hour later than it really was, in consequence of the clocks having struck two instead of one.

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NIGHT VII. OF WRAITHS, OR APPARITIONS AT THE MOMENT OF DEATH Sophron. We said, some nights ago, that the well authenticated instances of the apparition of spirits, at the moment of their departure from the body, were far more numerous .than those of any other kind. There is so much sameness in these relations, that we shall probably not be desirous of hearing very many: five or six examples, on incontrovertible authority will prove as much as fifty. Scepticus. I enter a protest against all cases in which the visitation of these apparitions has not been mentioned till after the death of the person was known. One can never tell how far the sheer desire of having a wonderful occurrence to relate will lead a man. Sophron. You will not generally find that people have kept such kind .of visitations secret; therefore, that argument will be cut away from under you. These visitations 5 are generally useless, using the word as we have all along A used it; though there may be an instance or two to the contrary. Eupeithes. One such I will tell you. The father of a dignitary of our Church, very well known in London, was a Colonel on service in Canada. His regiment was quartered in some place in that country, and two of his officers were stationed in an outpost at some distance from head quarters. They slept in the same room, and on the following morning one said to the otherPray, did you see any thing remarkable last night? Yes, said the other, I did; dil you? Assuredly, was the reply, I saw the apparition of Colonel Blomberg. Did he say anything to you? Yes. So he did to me: we will not tell each other what it was; but we will make a deposition of it, and see if our two accounts agree. They accordingly did so; the two depositions agreed exactly, and to the following effect;That Colonel Blomberg had appeared to each of them; that he had requested them, when they returned to England, to convey his son, then a young child, thither; on reaching London, to go to such a room, in such a house, in such a Btreet, naming each; and when there, to look in such & drawer of such an escritoire, which he described exactly; that in that drawer they would find a paper, which he also particularized; that they should present this paper, together with his son, to Queen Charlotte; that if they did this, it would be the making of the boys fortune, and that they themselves would be gainers. On finding that their two stories so completely

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary tallied, they rode together to headquarters, and there learnt that Colonel Blomberg was dead. Shortly afterwards, the regiment was ordered to England; they took charge of young Blomberg, went to the house described on arriving in London, and found the paper without any trouble. They presented it and the child, as directed, to the Queen; the boy was thenceforth taken under royal patronage, and obtained as many pieces of preferment as he could hold; and the officers themselves were shortly afterwards promoted. This story comes from the relation of the party principally concerned, namely, Colonel Blombergs son himself. Scepticus. Not, then, from that of the officers? Eupeithes. No. Scepticus. Then you have no witness at all to the fact of the apparition; merely to events which took place in consequence of that event, real or supposed. Eupeithes. Why, you would hardly accuse two officers of the grossest deceit, practised, too, for no imaginable end! If they were not informed of the paper and the escritoire supernaturally, they must have heard the story from Colonel Blomberg in his lifetime: and why be at the trouble of denying this fact, and getting up another, which, till the event proved it true, must have exposed them to great ridicule? Scepticus. But why should not Colonel Blomberg have told them the secret in his lifetime, as well as after his death? Eupeithes. Oh, you may imagine many reasons for that. He might naturally have been unwilling, when in health, to trust it to any one; when he lay on his deathbed, as I said, his two friends were absent, and he might have been unable to write. But, after all, there is a simpler and easier solution, which is by no means improbable, namely, that Colonel Blomberg might not have become acquainted with the importance that that paper would exercise on his sons fortunes till he entered the invisible world. Sophron. Very true. I think, Scepticus, we may turn Dr. Johnsons dictum against you: He who relates nothing beyond the limits of probability, has a right to demand that they shall believe him who cannot contradict him.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Scepticus. So you call such an appearance as this, nothing beyond the limits of probability? Sophron. In itself, certainly not: you say there is an antecedent improbability, which we do not see. Eupeithes. I need not remind you, also, that the thing was sworn to, and could therefore, I presume, be legally verified in Canada. Sophron. Few people, I suppose, will doubt that there are instances where the wraith has been seen before death. Strictly speaking, in that case it is a fetch. It is a highly probable supposition, I think, that in instances of this kind of apparition, the last thoughts of the dying person were in the place where his form appeared. I do not know above one or two stories in whichas it turned out afterwardsthe spirit of a dying man was seen by those who were unacquainted with him in the flesh. And we have some proofs in confirmation of the conjecture I have mentioned. A lady, dying in Malta of consumption, was exceedingly desirous to see her children, then in England, once more. Her last hour drew on; and still her thoughts were continually harping on this subject: Oh! if she could but be in England! About an hour before death, she fell into a kind of trance: and on awaking, said,her whole face lighted up with joy,Now I am ready. I have seen the children, and I am satisfied. She described what they were doing, and in a few minutes quietly expired. Of course this was then set down to delusion. But at that very hour, the wraith of this lady had been seen by her children, and they were engaged as she had described. This is an instance of the soul, just before its departure from the body, reasserting in some degree its native powers, and triumphing over space and time. Eusebia. But I should like to know if there are any cases in which, indisputably, the wraith did not appear till after death? Sophron. One should, priori, say that this would be the case in all instances of violent death. But then one is met by such examples to the contrary as that of the officer who appeared to his sister in England in the morning, and fell at Vittoria in the afternoon. I have never yet myself met with a case in which death had beyond all doubt taken place, though with many in which it probably had so done. Mrs. Crowe, however, in her very interesting work, gives some instances which appear conclusive; though that on which she seems to lay most stress does not appear to me an absolute proof. It is that of an officer who, having made an appointment with a shooting

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary party to return to their boat at a certain time, came back, as they thought, just before them: when, on not finding him there, a search was instituted for him, and he was found drowned. But, in cases of death by drowning, one never can say at what moment soul and body are really separated. The spirit, hanging between death and life, is just in the condition which seems requisite for the appearance of a double: intense longing, probably, to see those whom it loves; comparative freedom from corporeal chains. And it is worth while to notice, how many stories of this kind of apparition are connected with drowning. Eupeithes. I, too, should greatly desire to have the possibility of a certain answer to Eusebias question. The thing, however, is not easily susceptible of proof; time cannot be kept at a distance with such extreme accuracy: and, unless the spirit were to speak, as in the case of Lord Tyrone and Lady Beresford, which I think is a decisive instance, the point could scarcely ever be definitively settled. Eusebia. One cannot but wonder at the rashness and wickedness of striking at such appearances: and yet how often one hears of it! I knew an instance which occurred in Surrey, at the distance of about twenty miles from London. There was a manor house, with a long avenue of trees leading up to the principal door. The gentleman to whom the property belonged was walking here one summers evening, when an apparitionhe knew not of whompresented itself to him. He was a most fearless man, and demanded what it wanted. My business is not with you, said the spectre. Then Ill not have you here, said the owner; Be off! The figure maintained its position; on which the other struck at it with his stick. He was flung instantly to the ground, and was long before he recovered the shock. Theodora. Of the same kind is that sad story which occurred in Paris, where a spendthrift son, seeing the wraith of his father, from whom he had parted on bad terms, and believing it to be simply an illusion, struck at it with his riding whip. And at the same moment, the father, on his dying bed, cried out in agony, What have I done! What have I done! He is striking me with a whip! Eupeithes. A lady, with whom I have not the pleasure of a personal acquaintance, gave me the following account, which I quote as much for the beauty of the language, as for the fact which it relates. She is speaking of the dangerous illness of a child. Poorhas had delirium for some nights, not painful to witness, except as an

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary evidence of illness, but awfully solemn. Her idea was that she was surrounded by the spirits of the departed,those who died in the LORD. These spirits conversed with her, and comforted her in her sufferings. One of her most frequent (imagined) visitants was her little brother, and that was not wonderful; the other was poor Capt.! Considering that she was only ten years old when she saw him, and that only once,that she never heard him mentioned again till she heard of his death, it seems passing strange. Her father told me that about the time of your cousins death, (I was in Scotland,) she had an illness, and talked of him as of one that was gone. The news had not then reached us. How mysterious is the thought that the spirits of the blessed may be about us, and speak to the innocent and the suffering as angels ministering. There are few people to whom I would write all this. Some would laugh, and others would think me mad,or delirious, like the child. It is very different, though, reading or speaking of these things in cold blood, as it were, to sitting at night in a darkened room, listening to the strange, dreamy, unearthly voice of delirium, and to watch the awestruck eye of one who sees what we cannot see, and hears what we do not hear. I think the bravest person would feel a something of trembling to hear the hushed voice say, Do you not see him? You must: his hand is almost on your head! I will now give you another instance which occurred in Malta. Major GainfootI use a name ( was at the mess table with his brother officers, when his servant stepped in, and announced his brother, Colonel Gainfoot, as just arrived from England. Bring him in, bring him in, Gainfoot, cried several of the officers, by whom he was well known. The major stepped out with that design, and presently returned by himself. He seemed in rather a singular state, said he; he pleaded business, and said that he was obliged to decline your invitation. But how is he? said some one. Why, truly, he said very little about himself or anything else; but I suppose I shall see him by and by. However, that day and the next passed, and no Colonel Gainfoot appeared; and by the next mail from England, came news of his death at the precise moment that his arrival was announced to the officers. Scepticus. I can hardly imagine one brother conversing with another, and not finding out that he was talking to an apparition, if the case really were so. How many questions of When, and how, and why did you come? and such like, must naturally be asked, which would not be answered!

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. One should expect so; and so, indeed, it actually might have been in this case. Any how, Major Gainfoot thought that his brothers behaviour was strange and unaccountable. But I will read to you, from Lord Byrons Life, a more remarkable instance of the same thing. Lord Byron, says Moore, used sometimes to mention a strange story, which the commander of the packet, Captain Kidd, related to them on the passage. This officer stated that, being asleep one night in his berth, he was awakened by the pressure of something heavy on his limbs; and, there being a faint light in the room, could see, as he thought, distinctly the figure of his brother, who was at that time in the same service in the East Indies, dressed in his uniform, and stretched across the bed. Concluding it to be an illusion of the senses, he shut his eyes, and made an effort to sleep; but still the same pressure continued; and still, as often as he ventured to take another look, he saw the figure lying across him in the same position. To add to the wonder, on putting his hand forth to touch this form, he found the uniform, in which it appeared to be dressed, dripping wet. On the entrance of one of his brother officers, to whom he cried out in alarm, the apparition vanished; but, in a few months after, he received the startling intelligence that, on that night, his brother had been drowned in the Indian seas. Of the supernatural character of this appearance, Captain Kidd himself did not appear to have the slightest doubt. Eupeithes. I said, some time ago, that I could give you an instance of the apparition of one child to another. A Mr. B., of considerable practice as a surgeon, and who lived in Golden-square, was attending the infant of his brother-in-law, who was ill of scarlet fever. Desirous of preserving the other children from infection, he offered them a temporary home in his own house. The offer was accepted, and the children accordingly removed. One of them, a little girl of about five years of age, was playing in a dressing-room which opened out of a bed-room then used as a nursery, her aunt, Mrs. B., being in this nursery, all on a sudden she called out, Oh, aunt! come and see the baby, the poor baby! There he isthere! pointing to a corner of the room, and half way between the floor and the ceiling. Mrs. B. came in, and nothing was to be seen; but the child persisted in her story. This was about five oclock in the evening; and shortly afterwards Mr. B. returned home, and said that the infant had actually died at that time. Now, will you say that this was a singular coincidence, or confess that it was supernatural? Scepticus. If the tale were told by the child before the news of her brothers death were received130

The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. As it most undoubtedly was. Scepticus. Then, I think, that is a very strong case on your side. Eupeithes. And so deep was the impression made on the childs mind, that she afterwards used to request permission to go into the dressing-room, under the idea that she should see her brother there. There certainly was no deceit in the case. There could be no room for fancy; nor does it reach you by any circuitous course. Mrs. B. told it to a lady, from whom I have it. Eusebia. I have heard a somewhat similar story, though I cannot avouch its truth so positively. A gentleman, whose mother was in a declining state of health, was keeping house in the absence of his wife. One of his children, who was little more than an infant, slept in a closet opening out of his bed-room. He awoke in the middle of the night, under the impression that some one was kissing his cheek; and, to his horror, he saw the figure of his mother standing by him. Do not be sorry for me, it said; I am happy: and forthwith vanished in the direction of the closet. At the time of its disappearance, the child who slept in that closet shrieked out as if much alarmed. The gentleman of course imagined that his mother was dead; he resolved, however, to wait for the post. A letter came, not sealed with black; he opened it, and found that she was better. But, on re-perusing it, he observed that it was dated a day earlier than it ought to have been; and on looking at the outside, found the stamp, too late. He now waited with great anxiety for the next post; and that brought him an account of the death of his mother, at the very time that he had seen her figure by his bed-side. Scepticus. So those stories always terminate; but the exact time, I should think, was often difficult to ascertain. Eupeithes. Why so? The time of death is always noticed; and if you saw such an apparition as we have been discussing, would not almost your first impulse be, to consult your watch? An historical example is the occurrence that is related by Lord Balcarres. He was confined in Edinburgh Castle, on a suspicion of Jacobitism, when his friend, Viscount Dundee, entered the room, walked to the mantelpiece, stood leaning upon it with one arm for several minutes, while his eyes were fixed on the prisoner, and then vanished. At that same time Dundee was shot at Killie-crankie. I will read you one of a more domestic kind, in the words of the person,a respectable tradesman,to whom it occurred. I had heard that something of the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary sort had been seen by him; and, in answer to my inquiries, he thus writes:My brother Josiah came home from a voyage to spend a short time with us. He wished me to lend him some money. I refused to do so, knowing that my father had given the captain orders to let him have whatever he wanted; and I knew that so much money to a sailor on shore might lead him into temptations which he could not withstand. I told him so, on which he was displeased; and before he left Liverpool, he wrote me an angry letter, saying that I would rather see him drowned than lend him money. I had no opportunity to write to him before he sailed: I often felt hurt at the remarks in that letter. On the 18th of October, 1845, as near as I can remember, I dreamed that he turned the handle of my bedroom door, opened it, walked to my bedside, held out his hand, and said, Dear brother, I hope you are not angry, and will forgive me. I took his hand, and said, Tes, Josiah. Ho then disappeared. In the morning, I mentioned the dream at the breakfast-table, in the presence of my wife, my son, and another young man, and said, We shall hear something of poor Josiah.1 About one month after, a letter came to say that he was on his way home; but the letter was written before the date of my dream. A short time after, as the same persons sat at the breakfasttable, a letter came from my father to say that my brother had been drowned off Cape Horn, in a storm, about four oclock in the morning of the 18th of October, 1845. The young man at the table immediately said, Tour dream was true! and brought all the circumstances to our minds. We tried by various things to fix the time, but could not; but all agreed that it was about that time. I have such a vivid recollection, at this moment, of the occurrence, although more than seven years ago, and of my sitting upright in bed, that I cannot tell whether it was a dream, or whether it was a reality, that I did see him.On this story I have one remark to make. Granting that the wraith was seen on the night of the 17th to the 18th of October, it was a true Fetch; and must have preceded the death of the unfortunate brother by several hours. Four a.m. at Cape Horn, is about half-past nine am. in the East of England; and the party round the breakfast-table must therefore have discussed the apparition while the doomed man was as yet unconscious of his fate. Sophron. Glanville has one instance of the same kind; but it is not a very striking one. Dr. Bush, afterwards Bishop of Dromore, a name not ignoble among our divines, vouched for its truth. A London tradesman, named Watkinson, who lived in Smithfield, had a daughter married to one Francis Topham, resident at York. The
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary match had taken place against the parents consent; but the offence had been forgiven, and Mrs. Topham sometimes visited her father. When she was last with him, proceeds the story, upon their parting, she expressed a fear that she should never see him more. He answered her, if he should die, if ever God did permit the dead to see the living, he would see her again. Now, after he had been buried half a year, on a night when she was in bed, but could not sleep, she heard music, and the chamber grew lighter and lighter; and she, being broad awake, saw her father stand at her bedside, who said, Mall, did I not tell thee that I would see thee once again? She called him father, and talked of many things; and he bid her be patient and dutiful to her mother. And when she told him that she had a child since he did die, he said that would not trouble her long. He bade her speak what she would now to him, for he must go, and that he should never see her more till they met in the Kingdom of Heaven. So the chamber grew darker and darker, and he was gone, with music. And she said she did never dream of him, nor ever see any apparition of him after. He was a very honest, godly man, as far as I can tell. Eusebia. A singular instance of an apparition unattended with terror on the part of the person visited by it. Eupeithes. Ben Jonsons relation, in one respect, differs from any other similar story. He was in the country, at Sir Robert Cottons house, a fellow-visitor with Camden, the antiquary. One night, his son, a child, appeared to him as he slept; but, mark you, not as a child: of a manly shape, are the words, and of that growth he thinks he shall be at the Resurrection. His forehead was gashed by a bloody cross, as if made by a sword. In process of time came letters to say that the child had indeed died of the plague, at that very hour: the bloody cross being apparently connected with the red plague cross, used to mark the doors of infected houses. Sophron. An occurrence, so far resembling that which you have just related, as it points to the perfect renovation of our bodies, is related in Burkes Tales of the Peerage. Gabriel Hamilton, of Westburn, in the county of Lanark, was the representative of an ancient and distinguished branch of the Duke of Hamiltons family, viz., Hamilton of Torrance, a cadet of the great house of Raploch, which was immediately sprung from the Lords of Cadzow, the ancestors of the Earls of Arran and Dukes of Hamilton. The grandmother of this Hamilton of Westburn was a daughter of Sir Walter Stewart, of Allanton. And thus Westburn and Allantonwere near kinsmen, at a
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary time when relationship and intimacy were synonymous. The death of Westburn took place about 1757 or 1758, and Allanton had predeceased him several years. Their estates, moreover, were situated in the same county, and they were on the most affectionate and familiar terms with each other. Westburn, who was an elderly man, and not in very strong health, was in the habit of reposing during an hour after dinner, and his wife, the beautiful and estimable Agnes Dundas, heiress of Duddingston, usually sat by the side of the couch, reading to him, or conversing until he fell asleep. One day he slept longer, and apparently more soundly than usual, and at length he suddenly awoke, and said that he had been roused by the fluttering of the wings of doves. He then addressed his wife, and related to her the following remarkable dream: I was walking in the most lovely gardens and pleasure-grounds that I ever beheld, and so struck was I with their extraordinary extent and romantic beauty, and with the bright and glorious colours of the flowers which sprung up around me on every side, that I exclaimed, This can be no other place than Paradise! this must be the garden of the Lord! I had hardly uttered these words, when a youth of radiant beauty and heavenly expression approached me, and smiling sweetly on me, he accosted me familiarly by name, giving me a cordial welcome to his happy home. I expressed my surprise at his friendly and familiar greeting, seeing that we were but strangers. And yet, said I, there is that in your countenance which makes me feel as if you were my friend! Seek not, said he, to deny our old and intimate acquaintance. You are my near kinsman, and a familiar neighbour and friend; and, observing that I looked astonished and incredulous, he said, Is it possible that you have forgotten me? Is it, even with you, so soon, out of sight, out of mind? Do not you know me? I am your cousin, Stewart of Allanton. Impossible, said I; for my dear friend Allanton was old and plain-looking, whereas you are the most beautiful youth my eyes did ever behold. Even so, said the youth; all those who come here are made youthful and beautiful. There is here neither age nor plainness. I am no other than your dear cousin and old friend Allanton, and within twenty-four hours you will be here with me, and you will be young and beautiful like me. Hereupon, I heard the loud fluttering of the wings of doves, and I suddenly awoke. It may be imagined that Westburns dream made a deep impression, not unmingled with awe, on his affectionate wife. She
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary deemed it to be a warning that she must hold herself in readiness to resign him ere long, at the call of his heavenly Master and Father; and even so it came to pass. On the following morning, Westburn was found dead in his bed. His spirit had departed during the night, and had gone to join his early friend and kinsman in the gardens of Paradise. Theodora. That Longfellows: naturally recalls those beautiful verses of

She is not dead, the child of our affection, But gone unto that school Where she no longer needs our poor protection, And Christ Himself doth rule. In that great cloisters stillness and seclusion, By guardian Angels led, Safe from temptation, safe from sins pollution, She lives, whom we call dead. Day after day we think what she is doing In those bright realms of air: Year after year, her tender steps pursuing, Behold her grown more fair. Thus we walk with her, and would keep unbroken The bond which nature gives: Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken, May reach her where she lives. Not as a child shall we again behold her; For when, in rapture wild, In our embraces we again enfold her, She will not be a child: But a fair maiden in her Fathers mansion, Clothed in celestial grace; And beautiful, with all the souls expansion, Shall we behold her face. Sophron. They are very touching lines. I remember a Danish legend of the same nature as those on which we are dwelling. Archbishop Absalon, one of the great lights of that Church, was, notwithstanding his piety, apt at times to be overbearing and oppressive. He was in a declining state of health; when a poor man, who considered himself

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary to have been injured by the Prelate, and who was on his death bed, summoned him to appear before the Throne of God in twenty-four hours, and answer for what he had done. That evening, the monks were at vespers in that stately church of Soro, when they heard a sweet but melancholy voice behind the high altar, O Sora, Sora, pro me supplex precor ora! They searched the church, and could find nothing; but at that very hour Archbishop Absalon had gone to his account Eupeithes. There is a captain in the West India packet service, now living, who affirmsand he is known for a man of honourthat the spirit of his deceased wife appears to him at stated intervals, and that he looks forward to her visits (I think they occur once a month) as the greatest happiness of his life. Sophron. But the most complicated story, so to speak, of an apparition, is one which occurred on board a Brazil packet. A lady was lying on the sofa in the ladies saloon, when, to her surprise, a gentleman entered it from the grand saloon, and passing through it, went out by the door that led towards the hold. She was much astonished, both that any one should enter the room at all, at least without knocking, and at not recognizing the gentleman who did so, as she had associated with the passengers for some days. She mentioned the matter to her husband, who said that he must have been confined to his berth till then, but that it would perhaps appear, when the passengers sat down to dinner, who he was. At dinnertime, the lady carefully examined her companions, and was positive that no such person was among them. She asked the captain if there were any passenger not then at table. He answered her, that there was not. She never forgot the circumstance, though her husband treated it as a mere fancy, and thought no more of it. Some time afterwards, she was walking with him in London, when she pointed out a gentleman in the street, and said, with some agitation, There! there! that is the person whom I saw on board the packet. Do go and speak to him; pray do go, and ask him if he were not there. Impossible, my dear, replied her husband; he would think that I meant to insult him. However, his wifes importunity and agitation prevailed. Stepping up to the gentleman she had pointed out, and apologizing for the liberty he was about to take, Pray, sir, said he, may I ask whether you were on board the - Brazil packet at such a time? No, sir, replied the person addressed, I certainly was not; but may I inquire why you thought that I was? The

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary interrogator related the circumstance. What day was it? asked the other. That having been settled, Well, sir, said the stranger, it is a very remarkable circumstance that I had a twin brother, so like myself, that no one could tell us apart. He died, poor fellow, in America, on that very day. Eupeithes. The most remarkable point in that story is its localism, so to speak. A man dies in America; and his spirit is seen, on that very day, on board a ship between America and England, as in crossing from one country to the other. Scepticus. Well, if that be not materialism, I cannot imagine any thing that is. Eupeithes. I only said what it seemed like; I do not presume to say what the real explanation may be. But I can see no more materialism in imagining a spirit to move locally, than to rest locally, as in the case of haunted houses. Sophron. The story I am about to tell you I heard from the person to whom the event occurred. He was a most honourable man,a merchant actively engaged in business,a Dissenter, with strong religious feelings. He had several ships employed in his trade, and was of course intimately acquainted with his captains. One night he was lying awake in bed, when to his infinite surprise Capt. N., whom he knew to be on the point of sailing from Hull, stood by the bedside with every appearance of distress,and, wringing his hands together as in agony, cried out,and kept repeating the words, Oh that I had put back! Oh that I had put back! My friend, in great alarm, woke his wife, who tried to persuade him that it was a dream;and at last he was not indisposed to think that it might have teen so. But not long after, he was told that the mate of this very ship wanted to see him on the most urgent business. You here! cried my friend. I imagined that you were at sea.What is the matter?So we did put to sea, sir, replied the mate. We were all against itevery one said it was madnessthe wind was threatening a hurricanebut Capt. N. would put out. I never saw a man so obstinate. But, poor fellow, it cost him dear enough: we had a tremendous gale, and on-day night last, a heavy sea swept him off the deck, and we saw no more of him.That was the very night on which my friend had seen the apparition. Eusebia. It must have made a deep impression upon him.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. Yes: he never liked to hear it spoken of, nor even alluded to. Here is another story: An elderly gentleman who lived on the banks of the Thames, near Richmond, had a nephew in London, a youth, who used to visit him generally on Saturdays and Sundays. One Saturday he did not come, nor was any message sent to explain the cause of his absence: as however, this was not uncommon, the old gentleman thought little of it. In the evening he walked out by the side of the river, and saw some boys bathing. On a sudden he heard one of them, who was further off from the bank than the rest, cry out, Help! help! I am drowning, I am drowning! What was the gentlemans grief to see his nephew struggling in the agonies of death! He immediately called to the other bathers to rescue their companion, but they all declared there was no one beside themselves, and by this time the struggling youth had gone to the bottom. The old gentleman returned home greatly alarmed and perplexed, and found a letter, which informed him that his nephew had been attacked by fever, and was in great danger. The next morning a second letter arrived, to say that his nephew was dead. He had died at the very moment h uncle had seen him struggling in the water, and, in the delirium of his fever his cry had been Help! help! I am drowning! I am drowning! Now let me read you a remarkable trial in the Court of Kings Bench, London, as extracted from those for the years 1687, 1688, by Cockburn in his travels. An action in the Court of Kings Bench was brought by a Mrs. Booty against Captain Barnaby, to recover 1000 as damages for the scandal of his assertion that he had seen her deceased husband, Mr. Booty, a receiver, driven into hell. The journal books of three different ships were produced in court, and the following passages recorded in each, submitted to the court by the defendants counsel. Thursday, Mayl4, 1687. Saw the island of Lipari, and came to an anchor off the same island, and then we were at W.S.W. Friday, May 15. Captain Barnaby, Captain Bristow, Captain Brown, I, and a Mr. Ball, merchant, went on shore to shoot rabbits, on Stromboli; and when we had done, we called all our men together to us, and about three quarters past three oclock we all saw two men
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary running towards us with such swiftness that no living man could run half so fast; when all of us heard Captain Barnaby say, LORD bless us; the foremost is old Booty, my next-door neighbour; but he said he did not know the other, who ran behind. He was in black clothes, and the foremost was in grey. Then Captain Barnaby desired all of us to take an account of the time, and pen it down in our pocket-books: and when we got on board we wrote it in our journals, for we saw them run into the flames of fire, and there was a great noise, which greatly affrighted us all, for we none of us ever saw or heard the like before. Captain Barnaby said, He was certain it was old Booty which he saw running over Stromboli, and into the flames of hell. Then coming home to England, and lying at Gravesend, Captain Barnabys wife came on board the 6th day of October, 1687, at which time Captain Barnaby and Captain Brown sent for Captain Bristow and Mr. Ball, merchant, to congratulate with them; and after some discourse, Captain Barnabys wife started up, and said, My dear, old Booty is dead; and he directly made answer, We all saw him run into hell. Afterwards Captain Barnabys wife told a gentleman of his acquaintance in London what her husband had said, and he went and acquainted Mrs. Booty of the whole affair: upon that Mrs. Booty arrested Captain Barnaby in a 1000 action for what he had said of her husband. Captain Barnaby gave bail for it, and it came to a trial in the Court of Kings Bench, and they had Mr. Bootys wearing apparel brought into court, and the sexton of the parish, and the people that were with him when he died; and we swore to our journals, and it came to the same time within two minutes. Ten of our men swore to the buttons on his coat, and that they were covered with the same sort of cloth his coat was made of, and so it proved. The jury asked Mr. Spinks (whose handwriting in the journal that happened to be read appeared) if he knew Mr. Booty: he answered, I never saw him till he ran by me on the burning mountains. The judge said, LORD, have mercy on me, and grant I may never see what you have seen. One, two, or three may be mistaken, but thirty never can be mistaken. So the widow lost her cause. The defence set up was, that the defendant had spoken no more than had been seen by a number of persons as well as himself. [A Voyage up the Mediterranean, &c., in 1810 and 1811, by Lieut. Gen. Cockburn. Vol. ii. p. 335, &c.]

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. I will give you my text tale in the very words of the housekeeper,a most respectable person,who related it to me. At Lewes, between twelve and one in the day, my mother heard her brother, who was a soldier in a regiment at Malta, call Bessum: that was a pet name he always called her by: her real name was Elizabeth. Hearing his voice, she went to the window, and there she saw her brother in his regimentals quite plainly: she had never before seen him in them. She went down stairs, and he was not there; and when my father came up to dinner, she was nearly crying, and said that she was sure that she had seen Alick, and that he was dead. They afterwards heard that his death, had occurred at the time at which my mother saw him. Now this was a family of ghostseers; for the tradesman whose letter I just now read about the appearance of his brother Josiah, was a son of the good woman who saw this apparition. It is singular that a brother should appear the mother, and also to the son.I have no doubt that the power exists, in families, as much of appearing as of seeing: of being able, when disembodied, to put oneself en rapport, as, when in the body, to be put en rapport with a spirit. Sophron. Another of these popular stories, which may or may not be true, runs thus. At some one of the great theatres a diabolical dance was introduced, which was performed by twelve fiends. The first night it was exhibited the dancers perceived to their horror that a thirteenth fiend had introduced himself among them. They were so terrified that they retired from the stage, and the thing was never exhibited again. It was said at the time that there was no possibility of a trick; and certainly, if the appearance of a real fiend might ever be expected, it would be on such an occasion. Eupeithes. I will now relate something which happened to myself, and of which I am as certain as any human being can be of a fact. About six weeks ago, a gentleman, residing near me, and with whom I had some connection in the way of business, died suddenly, and at a distance from home. There were some papers which it was our duty to look over together; but the examination had been procrastinated from one cause or another, and was never completed. At the time of his death, which was about eleven oclock on a Monday night, I was reading in my study. I should tell you that its door opens at the foot of a staircase, and close to another door, which leads into a court-yard. I heard a very heavy, quick, decided step crossing the court,some one shook the outer door violently and impatiently, opened it, and went half way up stairs,with the same heavy step. Wondering who it could be, and why he neither went to
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary the top nor came back, I took a candle, opened my door, and looked out;but, to my utter surprise, could see nothing. Then I looked in the rooms near,and still, nothing was to be discovered. I thought it odd, certainly, but nothing further crossed my mind at the time. When I heard of my friends death at that particular time, I was a good deal struck with the coincidence. But a few days later, a lady, who was staying in the house happened to mention that she had been very much alarmed, while going up to her bedroom the Saturday week before, about eleven oclock, by hearing a heavy step behind her, which seemed to go half way up the staircase, and then to stop. On Saturday was it? I asked. No, replied she: now you come to mention it, it must have been on Monday: that is, it was at the very time that I, a good way off, had heard the same thing; which, mind you, I had never mentioned to her. Eusebia. And did nothing happen in consequence? Eupeithes. Apparently not:at least I could trace nothing that might be connected with the occurrence. Sophron. It is a singular story; and it is not often that one hears such a tale related in the first person. A Dissenting preacher, now dead, related to me the following occurrence, which happened to himself. He was reading in his study, which opened on to a passage, at the end of which passage was the drawing-room. In the drawing-room two ladies were sitting; and it was evening. My informant heard heavy steps coming along the passage, and advancing to the drawing-room door, where they stopped, and then returned again. He felt alarmed, without knowing why;looked out into the passage,then examined the rest of the house, and could find nothing to explain the sound. On this, he went and sat in the drawing-room, where the ladies had not been conscious of the disturbance. Before long, however, they all heard the steps coming along the passage;the minister got up, stood with his hand on the latch of the door, and when they seemed to be close to it, suddenly opened it. There was nothing to be seen,and the whole party were, of course, extremely terrified. On that same evening the aunt of one of these ladies died. Eupeithes. Valerius Maximus mentions an occurrence which came to him, he says, with the most convincing evidence. Two friends were travelling in Greece, and arrived at Megara. The one took up his quarters for the night at the house of an acquaintance in the city; the other slept at an inn. The former dreamed that he saw,or actual

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary did see,his companion standing by him. The landlord, said the apparition, is about to murder me for the sake my money;come to my assistance; you will be in time save me. Starting from his bed, the traveller was about to hurry to the assistance of his friend. But the thought rushed into his mind,How absurd to be thus moved by a dream!and he asked himselfthe question, I dare say, had as much weight in Megara then as it has in London nowwhat will the world say? So he went back to his bed, and composed himself to sleep. A second time his friend stood before him, but pale and covered with blood. It is too late now, said the spirit: the landlord has murdered me. But, though you are too late to save me, you are not too late to avenge me. At this moment he is hiding my body in a dung cart, which he will take out of the city at such a gate; go you thither, and the murder will be discovered. The dreamer sprang up, dressed himself, and went to the indicated gate. Presently the dung cart came up: the watcher stopped it,mentioned his suspicions to the guards,insisted that it should be searched; the yet warm body of the murdered man was discovered; the murderer was arrested, and paid the penalty of his crime.

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NIGHT VIII. OF FETCHES AND DOUBLES, AND OF SECOND SIGHT Eupeithes. We should now consider those examples of apparitions, where a person, still in the flesh, has either been seen at a distance from the place in which he actually was, or, in some less common instances, has seen himself. Sophron. We agreed, the other night, that we have very few, if any, authenticated instances, where we can be certain that a wraith appeared after death. Wherever it has been seen before dissolution, there it is an example of the thing we are now to consider. Nevertheless, we have properly kept that class of apparitions separate, as being very different from, and far more usual than, the occurrence of doubles, more correctly so called; where a person, being in perfect health, sees himself, or is seen at a distance from the spot where he really is. Eupeithes. The earliest example that I know of this belief is related by S. Augustine. I will read it to you in his own words. A certain man, by name Praestantius, had requested from a philosopher the resolution of some doubt; the latter persisted in refusing. On the following night, though Praestantius was awake, he saw the philosopher standing by him, who gave the solution of the difficulty, and forthwith vanished. The next day, Praestantius met the philosopher, and said, Why, since you did not answer my question when I asked, you yesterday, did you come late at night, when you were not requested, and give me an answer? The philosopher replied: It was not I that came; but in a dream I imagined that I was doing you this service. Theodora. I have heard an even more incomprehensible story of this kind. The mistress of a family was slightly indisposed, and had told her servant that she should breakfast in bed. This servant was engaged in the hall, when, to her surprise, the lady came down stairs in her dressing gown, and, though the morning was very cold, hurried out of doors in an agitated manner. The servant went up into the ladys bed-room, and found her asleep. On coming down to her family, this lady said, that she had that morning had a troublesome dream; she had imagined that a robber had entered the room, and that she had hastened down stairs in her dressing-gown, and had left the house.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. In Germany, where a person is seen by himself, it is regarded as a sign either of extraordinarily prolonged life, or of almost immediate death. In England it has usually been held to be the latter. Queen Elizabeth, you know, is said to have seen her double, ghastly, wan, and shrivelled, in the bed that she was about to occupy: and this vision increased the melancholy which ended in her death. Sir Richard Napier, in the time of Charles II., was on a journey, and was shown to his room at the inn where he was to sleep. On the bed he saw a dead man laid out; and looking at it more attentively, discovered, to his horror, that it was himself. He continued his journey, and reached the house of a Mr. Steward, in Berkshire, where he was taken ill, and died. Lady Diana Rich, as she was walking in her fathers garden at Kensington, about eleven oclock, met her double, dressed exactly as she then was. A month afterwards, she died of the small pox. This faculty seems to have been connected with the family; for her sister, afterwards Lady Isabella Thynne, had a vision of the same kind before her own death. And here is an example, related to me by the gentleman who was principally concerned in it, Mr. C. He was returning from S. Petersburgh; and the steamer was to call at Dantzic. On arriving off that town, however, the captain learnt that, if he entered the harbour, the vessel would afterwards be put in quarantine, on account of the cholera, which was then raging in Russia. He accordingly resolved to continue the voyage; but the first mate, who was engaged to a lady in the town, said that, let the consequences be what they might, he would go on shore. Accordingly, he put off in a boat, and the steamer proceeded on her passage. Before long, one of those odd reports got about, which it is impossible to trace to any satisfactory source, that the mate had been drowned; and the stoker that evening declared that he was haunting the engine-room, and could scarcely be prevailed on to enter it. Mr. C, who was anxious to proceed as quickly as possible, went down there, and found the chief engineer by himself. Come, said he, you should really persuade these men not to play the fool; cant you tell them how absurd it is to give any credit to such old womens tales as stories of apparitions? Well, sir, replied the engineer, that may be your experience; mine goes the other way. Yours goes the other way! cried Mr. C. Why, how can that be? My father, returned the other, was engineer to the first steamer that ran out of the Clyde; and his whole life was spent on board such boats. One evening, when we were in these seas, (I was with him then,) he called me down into the engine-room, and Bill, says he, pointing into one of the corners, what do you see there? I looked. Why, father, I answered, I see you. Well, said my

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary father, I have seen that appearance to-day twice; now, mark if anything follows it. That night he was caught in the engine, and torn to pieces. Sophron. Then there is the German tale, which James has so well worked up in one of his novels, of the Hamburg student, who, returning one night to his lodgings, a house occupied only by himself, and which he entered with a passkey, saw his Dppelganger go along the street before him, take a key from his pocket, open the door, and enter. The young man, in great terror, took refuge at a friends house, where he spent the night. Next morning, recovering his courage, he went home, and there found that the deep plaster cornice of the ceiling had fallen in on his bed, and must have crushed him to pieces had he occupied it. Theodora. This is a case where, had the student, unfortunately-for himself, possessed a little more courage, the apparition would have been set down as a warning of approaching death; whereas, in truth, it seems to have been designed as a merciful means of escaping it. One could wish to know whether, in any other instances, the same warning might have been similarly intended, though, being disregarded, it was useless. Sophron. These cases are, of all, the most rare; and therefore it is, of course, very seldom any beneficial result can be pointed out from them. Of the other kind of doubles,those, I mean, where the living person is seen by friends, not by himself,there are many more examples; and they are principally warnings of the death of the person so seen. The Countess of Thanet, in the time of Charles II., being in bed in London, saw her daughter, Lady Holland, who was then at Horton Kirby, in Northamptonshire. Some years after, the latter was blown up in the castle at Guernsey, where her husband was governor, the powder being accidentally fired by lightning. Eupeithes. The two cases which I am going to relate occurred to sisters; the daughters of a lady of whom I shall have a remarkable tale to relate. With one of them I am intimately acquainted. She was staying in the same house with me; when one morning she told me that a younger sister, who was then residing about a hundred and fifty miles off, had come to her bedside, and had said that she, the sister, would not long be here. At that time she was in. perfect health; but some weeks after she was seized with scarlet fever, and died.The other is far more remarkable. This same lady was dangerously ill in the West Indies; and another sister was attending

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary her. Miss L., for so I will call her, had left the sick room to obtain a little rest; and was passing through a corridor that opened on to it, when the other watchers heard her give a loud shriek, and hurrying to see what was the matter, found her insensible on the ground. She told them that Colonel E., to whom she was then engaged, had appeared to her; had informed her that their engagement would be broken off; that circumstances, which she would soon learn, would make this absolutely necessary; that, however, they would meet once more, but only once. At this time, Colonel E. was stationed in quite a different part of the island. Shortly after, this lady and her sister, now convalescent, were residing, for the benefit of their health, in a country house which overlooked a large sea view. They noticed a ship standing out of the harbour that lay stretched at their feet; and shortly after, an old friend came up to them from the town. His errand was a sad one. He came to say that Colonel E. had been suddenly taken ill; that he was ordered, as a last chance, to return to England; that he had neither time nor strength to write, but had desired that Miss L. might be informed of this. I knew, she answered, that our engagement was at an end; but I also know, on the same testimony, that I shall see him once more. Tears passed on; Colonel E. did not die; but recovered to be the wreck only of his former self; and the family heard of him as with his regiment in different parts of the world. Miss L. married. Some time afterwards, she happened to be travelling in Ireland with her husband. As they were entering a country town, a regiment was marching oat of it; and riding by its side was Colonel E. They recognized each other, and then both passed on. A few days later, Colonel E. died.So here is an instance in which a man prophesies that which he does not consciously himself know; and that, too, an event which was only to take place many years subsequently to the prediction. Sophron. Mr. Barham, in his journal, relates a somewhat similar occurrence. I will read it to you from his life. Nov. 1832.At the death of her father, Miss Einherited, among other possessions, the home-farm called Compton Marsh, which remained in her own occupation, under the management of a bailiff. This man, named John-was engaged to be married to a good-looking girl, to whom he had long been attached, and who superintended the dairy. One morning, Miss E-who had adopted masculine habits, was going out with her greyhounds, accompanied by a female friend, and called at the farm. Both, the ladies were struck by the paleness and agitation evinced by the dairy maid. Thinking some lovers quarrel might have taken place, the visitors questioned her strictly

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary respecting the cause of her evident distress; and at length, with great difficulty, prevailed upon her to disclose it. She said that, on the night preceding, she had gone to bed at her usual hour, and had fallen asleep, when she was awakened by a noise in her room. Rousing herself, she sat upright, and listened. The noise was not repeated, but between herself and the window, in the clear moonlight, she saw John standing within a foot of the bed, and so near to her, that by stretching out her hand she could have touched him. She called out immediately, and ordered him peremptorily to leave the room. He remained motionless, looking at her with a sad countenance, and in a low, but distinct tone of voice, bade her not be alarmed, as the only purpose of his visit was to inform her that he should not survive that day six weeks, naming, at the same time, two oclock as the hour of his decease. As he ceased speaking, she perceived the figure gradually fading, and growing fainter in the moonlight, till, without appearing to move away, it grew indistinct in its outline, and finally was lost to sight. Much alarmed, she rose and dressed herself, but found everything still quiet in the house, and the door locked in the inside as usual. She did not return to bed, but had prudence enough to say nothing of what she had seen, either to John or to any one else. Miss R-commended her silence, advising her to adhere to it, on the ground that these kind of prophecies sometimes bring their own completion along with them. The time slipped away, and notwithstanding her unaffected incredulity, Miss R-could not forbear, on the morning of the day specified, riding down to the farm, where she found the girl uncommonly cheerful, having had no re turn of her vision, and her lover remained still in full health. He was gone, she told the ladies, to Wantage market, with,; a load of cheese which he had to dispose of, and was expected back in a couple of hours. Miss R-went on, and pursued her favourite amusement of coursing: she had killed a hare, and was returning to the house with her companion, when they saw a female, whom they at once recognized as the dairy-maid, running with great swiftness up to the avenue which led to the mansion. They both immediately put their horses to their speed, Miss Rexclaiming, Good God! something has gone wrong at the farm! The presentiment was verified. John had returned, looking pale and complaining of fatigue, and soon after went to his own room, saying he should lie down for half an hour, while the men went to dinner. He did so; but not returning at the time mentioned, the girl went to call him, and found him lying dead on his own bed. He had been seized with an aneurism of the heart.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Theodora. The well-authenticated vision of Dr. Donne is a good instance of a fetch. I will read it to you from Izaak Waltons life. Dr. Donne was in Paris, at the house of Sir Robert Drury: his wife, whom he tenderly loved, was in England. Sir Robert, says Walton, returned about an hour after; and as he left, so he found his friend alone, but in such an ecstasy, and so altered in his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him. Mr. Donne was not able for some time to answer the question, what had befallen him; but, after a long and perplexed pause, at last said, I have seen a dreadful vision since I last saw you; I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms: this I have seen since I saw you. To which Sir Robert answered, Sure, sir, you have slept since I saw you, and this is the result of some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now awake. Dr. Donne replied, I cannot be more sure that I now live, than that I have not slept since I saw you; and am as sure that, at her second appearing, she stopped, looked me in the face, and vanished. Rest and sleep had not altered Dr. Donnes opinion the next day; for he then affirmed this vision with a more deliberate, and so confirmed a confidence, that he inclined Sir Robert to a faint belief that the vision was true. It is truly said, that desire and doubt have no rest; and it proved so with Sir Robert, for he immediately sent a servant to Drury Lane House, with a charge to hasten back, and to bring him word, whether Mrs. Donne were alive; and, if alive, in what condition she was as to her health. The twelfth day the messenger returned with this account: that he found and left Mrs. Donne very sad and sick in her bed; and that, after a long and dangerous labour, she had been delivered of a dead child. And, upon examination, it proved to be the same day, and about the same hour, that Mr. Donne affirmed he saw her pass by him in his chamber. Eusebia. Here is a modern instance. A friend of mine writes thus: An old woman living in the village of Blisworth, told me that she was one day in her garden, when she saw a neighbour, whom she knew at the time to be very ill, walking along the end of her house in the village. She noticed the dress she wore, and the way of walking, which was as if in pain and with difficulty. Knowing how extremely ill the person was at the time, she told one of the family with surprise that she had seen her out; but they assured her that it was utterly impossible; the poor woman was unable to raise herself even in bed, and had not been dressed for some time. She very soon after, in the course of a day or so, died.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. Now, if you wish, we may talk about second sight. Its locality is not so confined as is generally believed: for, besides Scotland, it is not unusual in Denmark, it is not unknown in Spain, and in Ireland it is as common as in Scotland. I do not believe that any traveller in the Hebrides, who really took pains to inquire into the matter, ever denied it. The faculty is limited: the man that possesses it can only tell of the future when the vision is upon him; at other times he is but like the rest of men. The power also is notoriously hereditary, and that more especially in the Isle of Skye, and seems to be principally confined to the arrival of strangers, and the predictions of death. Sophron. There is something very awful in the manner in which the seer receives intimations of an approaching death;in the figure which he beholds of the doomed person, enveloped, in a greater or less degree, in the shroud; and in the signification of the different positions. If it only reaches to the ancles, the person may live two or three t years. The next vision shows it to be advanced to the knees; the next, perhaps, to the chest; then it rises the neck; then it envelopes the head, and at last covers the nose and mouth,when death is certain to follow, whatever be the then state of the fated person, within a few days or hours. Eupeithes. Not that the vision necessarily goes through all those stages. Frequently it begins with the last: and the prophet is aware that some man has but a few hours to live, whom, perhaps, the rest of the world are congratulating on his health and prosperity. One of the more usual instances is given in a letter written by a gentleman resident in Strathspey to Aubrey. Andrew Macpherson, of Clunie in Badenoch, being in suit of the Laird of Grawlochs daughter, as he was upon a day to Gawloch, she was going somewhere from her house without knowing the road where Clunie was coming. The lady perceiving him, said to her attendants, that yonder was Clunie, going to see his mistress. One that had the Second Sight, in her company, replied, and said, If you be she, unless he marry within six months, he will never marry. The lady asked,How did he know that?He said, Very well: for I see him, saith he, all inclosed in his winding sheet, except his nostrils and his mouth, which will also close up within six months: which happened even as was foretold.So in another letter from a Scottish scholar. For instance, if a mans fatal end be hanging, they will see a gibbet, or a rope about his neck: if beheaded, they will see a man without a head: if drowned, they will see water up to his throat: if unexpected death, they will see a winding sheet about his head.And here is another
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary story from the same letter. I cannot pass by an instance I have found from a very honest man in the next parish, who told it me himself. His wife being near her delivery, he brings half a dozen of boards to make her a bed against the time she lay in. The boards lying at the door of his house, there comes an old fisherwoman, yet alive, and asked him, Whose were those boards? He told her, They were his own. She asked again, For what use he had them. He replied; For a bed.She again said, You may intend them for what use you please, she saw a corpse lying on them, and that they would be a coffin: which struck the honest man to his heart, fearing the death of his wife. But when the old woman went off, he calls presently for a carpenter to make the bed, which was accordingly done. But shortly after the honest man had a child died, whose coffin was made of the ends of the boards. Eusebia. Such a power quite recalls Schillers noble lines: Dein Orakel zu verknden, Warum warfest du mich hin In die Stadt der ewig Blinden, Mit dem aufgeschlossnen Sinn? Warum gabst du mir zu sehen, Was ich doch nicht wenden kann? Das Verhngte muss geschehen; Das Gefrchtete muss nahn. Frommts, den Schleier aufzuheben, Wo das nahe Schreckniss droht? Nur der Irrthum ist das Leben, Und das Wissen ist der Tod. Nimm, o, nimm die traurge Klarheit, Mir vom Aug den blutgen Schein! Schrecklich ist es, deiner Wahrheit Sterbliches Gefss zu seyn. Meine Blindheit gieb mir wieder Und den frhlich dunklen Sinn! Nimmer sang ich freudge Lieder Seit ich deine Stimme bin. Zukunft hast du mir gegeben; Doch du nahmst den Augenblick, Nahmst der Stunde frhlich Leben. Nimm dein falsch Geschenk zurck!

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. And still more so, when it can predict, (as it sometimes, though rarely, happens that it can,) the death of the seer himself. But I can give you an instance of the power of which we have been speaking, which happened to a lady whom I knew well. She was walking with a sister near the town in which she resided, (and does still reside) and happened to go into a churchyard about a mile from the place. The sister sat down on one of the tombstones to rest: this lady herself, finding the church open, went in. After a few minutes she came out, and said,There is a funeral going on; but, only think how disgraceful! Instead of providing tressels, they have placed the coffin on the top of the pews! Her sister went to see; but came bank directly, crying,Why, Anna, there is no funeral at all! What did you mean by saying there was? And sure enough the whole thing was a delusion, if it may be so called. They walked homewards, and on their way they met the clerk of this church, and stopped to speak to him. Pray,at last said the lady, when you have a funeral in your church, where do you put the coffin during the service?We put it on the top of the pews, he replied.This, I think, was a clear case of second sight. Sophron. Dr. Johnson, born as he was in a most unbelieving age, was too wise a man to deny the power of second sight, coming as it did under his immediate notice in the Hebrides. He had courage enough, too, to maintain the possibility of other kinds of apparitions; a belief for which Churchhill, with his minute mind, took care to ridicule him. Theodora. Sir Christopher Wren, when an Oxford Scholar at his fathers house at Knahill in Wiltshire, in 1651, had a dream which approaches very nearly to second sight. He thought that he saw a fight in a great market place where he had never been: some were flying, others pursuing: among the former was a relation of his, who had gone to join the Kings Army in Scotland. The next night, this very kinsman fled for refuge at Knahill, having escaped from the Battle of Worcester. Eupeithes. I do not know whether the following tale can exactly be called second sight, any more than Sir Christopher Wrens dream. It was related to me by the husband of the lady to whom it happened. She had not very long been married, when she one night woke my informant, and said, I have had a very strange dream. I thought that I was about to be buried in a church of which I have the most vivid remembrance, in a vault in the nave. And she particularized the details of this church, and expressed her belief that the dream would,
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary ere long, be fulfilled. Her husband consoled her as well as he could; and she gradually became less agitated. She never, however, lost the impression of the dream. Some months afterwards, she was seized with consumption. Change of air being recommended, she went to the house of her husbands family, where, it happened, she had never been before. She went to church on the first Sunday after her arrival; and when she returned, she said to her husband,Now I know what church it was of which I dreamed; it was this.The vault she had seen in her dream was the family vault; and the prophecy was, no long time after, made good. The next tale that I will relate is of a like kind: one hardly knows whether to set it down to a dream or to second sight. The lady herself, the mother of the two sisters of whom I have just spoken, was my informant. She had settled in Jamaica: but her father resided in England. One night she woke her husband, and told him that the watch which hung at her head was ticking so hard, and so constantly repeating her fathers age, that she could not sleep. He could scarcely hear the ticking, but he removed the occasion of it, and composed himself again to sleep. Presently his wife again woke him, told him that her father was dying, and described the standers by his bed. One of her brothers, who lived in the same town, was not there; one, who was believed to be on the continent, was there.A third time she aroused her husband, told him that her father was now dead, and desired him to observe the time. This circumstance made some little sensation: for, during the three months which, according to the then course of the post, elapsed before intelligence could be received from England, the lady persisted in declining all invitations. When the mail arrived, the vision was found to have been, in all respects, correct. At S. Helena, a few years since, a young lady, with whose name I am acquainted, who was engaged to the mate of a merchantman, dreamed that her lover had been in action with a pirate, and that she saw him with others made to walk the plank. She related the dream in considerable distress of mind; and a few weeks proved it true. Sophron. The famous historian, Thomas May, assures us that, when King James I. was leaving Scotland on his accession to the Crown of England, an old man, possessing second sight was sent for by him. He took no notice of the Prince of Wales, but assured the Duke of York, after wards Charles I. that he should be one of the most miserable kings that ever existed.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. Although the usual symbol of death in the visions of second-sight seers is the winding sheet, yet their rule is not universal. Dannabroeck gives an instance, which occurred at Delft, where the mistress of a house being sent by her husband to a distance of thirty miles, to escape the plague, the servant shortly after saw her fetch without a head, which, she said, was always the allegorical way in which any death was made known to her. The mistress died. There is a tale of a gentleman, who, happening to dine out, saw behind the lady of the houses headless fetch standing: he was horror-struck, and left the table. That night, the lady committed suicide.One of the most celebrated Highland Seers was Archibald Macdonald of Ardnamurchan. He, in 1683, foretold that the Earl of Argyll, who was then abroad yet in hiding, would return to Scotland, head an insurrection, would be taken prisoner, and beheaded at Edinburgh,and that his head should be set on the Tolbooth: all which came to pass accordingly.I myself know a gentleman, who never gave any other indications of second sight, but who said to a school-fellow, on the 30th of October, 1797, I am quite sure that a great battle is at this moment being fought. It was the day of the Victory of Camperdown. This gentlemans father, who also never at any other time was a seer, was once so when a youth. He was mending a pen, when he saw a figure rise from the floor, slowly pass through the air, and make its exit by the ceiling. He called into the kitchen, and desired the cook to tell him the time. Ten minutes past one. He noted it carefully down, but never had the least clue to any circumstance connected with the apparition. He was not fond of talking of the story; and would never say what kind of figure it was that he had thus seen. I will now read you a letter from a celebrated physician of Canada, Dr. Hamilton, which authenticates a remarkable instance of second sight before death: Goderich, January 18th, 1853. Dear Sir,In reply to your note of the 14th, relative to the remarks made by Captain Brown, touching the death of the late Duke of Wellington, I will give you the facts. On the morning of the 15th of September last, I received a note from my sister-in-law, urging me to lose no time in seeing her father, who was losing blood to a fearful extent. I immediately left the town, and on my arrival found him in great pain: his mind perfectly clear. I left his room to prepare medicine. My sister-in-law followed, and

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary remarked that he had been wandering during the night; as he insisted on. repeating to her that Arthur, Duke of Wellington, was dead; and that there was great work in England at his sudden death; that the Duke, Napoleon, Mahomet Ali, and George Brown were born the same year; and that he was the last of the four. On the 16th he was much relieved, and able to leave his room for the parlour: and while in jocose conversation, I made the remark that I had been greatly alarmed at his having killed the Duke of Wellington the night before, and fancied that he was wandering. He said his mind was never clearer. On the 17th his case rapidly assumed a hopeless character, he became insensible towards night, and continued in that state till the following morning at 10 a.m. Two gentlemen called just before he died, and I mentioned to them what had occurred; and I was constantly asked by persons as to the truth of the foregoing facts, many days before the melancholy tidings of the Dukes death could reach America. I remain, &c, Morgan Hamilton. The Duke died at half-past three p.m. of the 14th of September, or 9 a.m. of Goderich time; that is, in the morning of the day, at the conclusion of which Captain Brown dwelt on the subject. Now will the coincidence-finders call this a coincidence too? Sophron. Prophetic dreams have very much of the nature of second sight. Archbishop Abbots mother, who lived at Guildford, (they show the house still) dreamed that if she could eat a jack, the child, whose birth she was then expecting, should be a Bishop. She thought nothing of the dream: but going down the next morning with her pail at the Wey, and filling it there, she found, on reaching home, that there was a jack in the pail. Accordingly she ate it; and her son became Archbishop. The story is still related and believed at Guildford. Eupeithes. An honest Sussex farmer whom I know lost some cattle. He dreamed that if he went to East Grinsted and inquired for a place called Killpuddings, he would find them there. He had before been a Clear-seer in dreams; and accordingly he resolved to act in compliance with that. He went to East Grinsted; but was rather ashamed to ask for a place with so absurd a name, and in the existence of which he had no reason, except his dream, to believe. He put up at one of the inns; and after talking about some other

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary matters,Pray, said he, is there a farm anywhere hereabouts called Killpuddings, or some such name? Oh yes, said the person addressed; certainly there is: and directed him to it. He went and found his cattle. A daughter of this mans was in service, and the eldest child was staying at a distance from home. Her father went to see her; and as soon as she was gone, this nurse said to a fellowservant, My master will find Miss A. ill, either with the scarlet-fever or the measles; for I saw her last night all covered over with red spots. He did find that the child had been, in the preceding evening, seized with the measles. Sophron. Captain Wingate, before the breaking out of the Great Rebellion, dreamed that he was seized by an enemy, and condemned to be put to death before a great castle, which he had never seen. He joined the Parliamentary forces, and was taken prisoner at Edgehill. A court-martial was held on him before Kenilworth Castle, the very castle he had seen in his dream. He was condemned to be shot; but afterwards he was exchanged for Montague Lindsey, and enjoyed a government post after the Restoration. Eupeithes. The dream that Aubrey has related as having occurred to a friend of the Earl of Abingdon in 1694. I. H, Esq., being at West Lavington with the Earl of Abingdon, dreamed, December 9, that his mother rose up in mourning; and anon the Queen rose up in mourning. He told his dream the next morning to my Lord; and his Lordship imparted it to me, then there, Tuesday, December 11. In the evening comes a messenger post from London to acquaint Mr. H. that his mother was dangerously ill. He went to London the next day; his mother lived but about eight days longer. On Saturday, December 15, the Queen was taken ill, which turned to the smallpox, of which she died December 28, about two oclock in the morning. Sophron. A gentleman, residing in Cornwall, dreamed in the year 1812, that he saw the Lord Chancellor shot in the lobby of the House of Commons. When he related the dream to his friends, they laughed, and asked him how the Chancellor could possibly have come there? So it was, he said, in his dream. But tell us, said one of his friends, what kind of looking person was he? The gentleman described him. Oh, cried the other, that is the Chancellor of the Exchequer! I hope nothing will happen to him. A few days afterwards, Spencer Perceval was shot in that very lobby.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. Do you remember how truly, and with a wisdom how far beyond that of his age, Addison concludes his essay on what he is pleased to call superstition? Let us end this evenings conversation with it. I know but one way of fortifying my soul against these gloomy presages and turns of my mind, and that is by securing to myself the friendship and protection of that Being Who disposes of events, and governs futurity. He sees at one view the whole thread of my existence, not only that part of it which I have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. When I lay me down to sleep, I recommend myself to His care; when I awake, I give myself up to His direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to Him for help, and question not but He will either avert them, or turn them to my advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the death I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it: because I am sure that He knows them both, and that He will not fail to comfort and support me under them.

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NIGHT IX. OF INTERCOURSE WITH GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS. Eupeithes. It is a singular, but certain fact, that of the many recorded stories of apparitions which have occurred in later times, almost all are those of spirits that once tenanted a human body; hardly one of angels, whether good or bad. Sophron. And the reverse is what you might expect. For one account in Holy Scripture of the re-appearance of a human spirit (unless, indeed, that magnificent description of Eliphaz the Temanite, be referred to this head,) we have thirty or forty visitations of angels, both to the good, and also to the bad. Theodora. It is that last consideration which renders the matter more difficult to explain; else it might be said that the weakness of present faith, and the abundance of present iniquity, were amply sufficient to account for the fact. Eusebia. It cannot, however, be said, that the visible ministrations of angels have entirely ceased. We have that Derbyshire relation, in which a child was taken out of the stream, into which she had accidentally fallen, by (what she declared to be) a beautiful lady, clad in white. As no such person was discoverable, far or near, the parents not unnaturally concluded that an angel had been commissioned to save their little one from death. Theodora. I, too, have heard a story of a similar nature. A widower, with his two children, was on a visit at the house of a friend. The children were playing about (for it was an old-fashioned place) in its rambling passages, their father being ignorant that one of them opened on a deep and uncovered well, when, according to their own account, they were met by the figure of their deceased mother, who made them return. If the apparition were indeed she whom it personated, it is a beautiful instance of the endurance of earthly love beyond the grave: if it were their guardian angel, permitted to assume that shape, it is hardly a less striking lesson of the heed we should take not to despise one of these little ones. Sophron. I have been told, on good authority, the following tale. The little daughter of an eminent dignitary of the English Church was walking with her mother in the city where they resided. The child, in crossing a street, ran over by herself; when at the same moment a travelling carriage whirled round a sharp corner, and in an instant she was under the feet of the horses. Her mother, in an agony of
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary terror, sprang forward to the place where she lay, expecting, (at the very least, to find her most seriously injured. The child sprang up gaily, and said,Oh, mamma, I am not at all hurt, for something all in white kept the horses from treading upon me, and told me not to be afraid! Eupeithes. A lady gave me the account which I am going to read to you. It relates to a poor old woman, a neighbour of hers in the country. She told me that her little grand-daughter, who lives with her, and whose mother died about a year before, had been overheard by her, talking to some one at night, and laughing. She questioned the child about it, and she told her that a woman in white came to her every night, and stayed some time, and smiled at her so. The child did not appear alarmed at the time, but in the day the shock of these nightly visitations affected her nervous system, and her grandmother became uneasy about her; but after a few nights the visits ceased, but were renewed again at the end of some weeks. The child slept with her father; and this man had, soon after his wifes death, kept company with a girl whom he seduced, and then left her; and the grandmother imagined that the child saw the spirit of her own mother returning to upbraid her guilty husband, and watch over her only child. The woman firmly believed all I have here narrated. She is a quiet stolid kind of personnot of an imaginative or enthusiastic cast of mind at all. Eusebia. I know not well under what head of our subject to class the following. A lady, who resided at one of the suburban villages near London, took her little boy up to Town by railwayI think to a dentist. The child, in the train, seem quite entranced and enraptured; and said he was listening to the most beautiful music he had ever heard. When in London, he lost these sounds; but on returning, he again said that they were lovely beyond anything that he could have fancied. When they reached home, as he looked tired, his mother desired him to lie down. In half-an-hour she went to see if he were asleep: and so he wasbut it was the sleep of death. Sophron. Now I will tell you a story on a larger scale, so to speak, than any which we have yet heard. In the year 1694, one Captain Rogers was in command of a ship called the Society, then in the Virginia trade. She was out-ward bound, for a cargo of tobacco; and as it was paid for in specie, she was very lightly laden. Wind, seas, and weather were favourable: day by day the good ship went bounding over the green waves of the Atlantic; and she was now but a few days sail distant from the Capes. One day, as usual, the noon
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary observation was taken: captain and mates compared their reckonings;all agreed that they were about a hundred leagues from shore: wind fair, stud-sails set, crew in high spirits, sky perfectly clear. The captain and mates passed a social evening: and towards ten oclock, the Society having now run by log about thirty leagues, the Captain turned into his hammock. He slept soundly for some three hours: then woke, and heard the watch relieved. The second mate passing his cabin, he inquired, What sort of night? The finest night I ever knew, said the mate: I heaved the log just now, and she is running near ten knots an hour. We shall be in tomorrow evening, said the Captain. Good night. And he went to sleep again. Still the vessel flew on Eke a race-horse: there was no motion: steadily she cut the calm sea, and, except the rush at her prow, all was as still as death. The phosphoric lights danced gloriously behind; and the man at the wheel could hardly resist the sleepy contagion of time and place. Suddenly something pulled the Captain, and said, Get up, and turn out. The Captain started up,saw nothing,thought it was a dream, turned round and went to sleep again. Again he was pulled,again he heard the words, Get up, and turn out. Still he thought that it was a dream, and again composed himself for sleep. Then he was pulled more strongly, and the voice came louder, Get up, and turn out directly. Amazed at the occurrence, he got up, dressed, and went on deck. The night was clear; the wind fair as ever; the second mate walking up and down; all things in the highest degree favourable. You, sir! said the mate: whats the matter? I cant tell, said Captain Rogers: but either somebody told me to get up and turn out, or I dreamt it, three times over, and I could lie still no longer. A dream, I suppose, said the mate. Alls well, as you see. So it is, said the Captain. Hows her head? or, as the phrase then went, How does she cape?

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sou-west by South, replied the mate: the wind East and by North. Nothing can be better, answered the Captain: Ill turn in again. And he was going to do so, when a voice, as if close at his ear, cried, Heave the lead, heave the lead. When did you heave the lead? he asked. About an hour ago. What water had you? Sixty fathoms. I wish you would heave again. There can be no occasion, sir, said the mate; but if you like, it shall be done. No, said the Captain: there can be no occasion certainly. Goodnight. Again he heard the warning voice. Heave the lead! heave the lead! I cant tell what ails me, said he, turning back, but I cant be easy; call some hands aft, and heave the lead. The sailors were summoned; the line dashed into the sea. What water? said the Captain. Eleven fathoms, was the answer. Impossible, cried the Captain. Heave again. How now? Seven fathoms, sir. Helm-a-lee! shouted the Captain. Call all hands! The ship obeyed the rudder. Now, sir, heave the lead again. It came up at four and a half. The Captain stood seaward till day-break: and then, a few leagues under her stern, the fair hills of Virginia towered through the morning mist. Had it not been for the Providential interpositions I have related, in half an hour from that time the vessel must have been ashore.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Eupeithes. A very remarkable tale: and certainly possessing the character of direct angelic interference. The absence of any apparition; the direct appeal to the Captains feelings, without any, or with hardly any, mediate action on his senses, these things seem to point out the agent as a soulless spirit; and of such, doubtless one of those angels who are ministers to the heirs of salvation. Theodora. How beautiful an idea! the guardian spirit following the ships course over the Atlantic, and interfering just when, and no sooner than, supernatural interference became absolutely essential! Eupeithes. It is also rare to find instances in which evil spirits, known and confessed as such, have appeared. I pass by the instances of witchcraft, as better spoken of another time; but putting these, be they universally false, or with a mixture of truth, aside, there is hardly a case on record where any man professes to have seen or spoken with an evil spirit. Sophron. The case most in point, perhaps, is that famous one at Hammel, in Saxony, where, on the 20th of June, 1484, a piper entered the town, playing a tune which seemed to exercise an irresistible fascination on all the children that heard it. One hundred and thirty, in spite of all efforts used to prevent them, followed the man, and were never afterwards heard of. Of indefinite apparitions of evil spirits there are traditions enough; and the old writers on demonology invented, as we have seen, a particular class of fiends, whom they called ambulones, whose business it was to mislead travellers on wide heaths and solitary places. Eupeithes. With respect to the ambulones, let me read you the following extract from Lord Lindsays travels:Milton, as has been well remarked by Warton, probably borrowed this idea from the popular narrative of Marco Polo, and speaking of the hungry desert, as it is called, of the Mongols, he says, it is asserted as a wellknown fact, that this desert is the abode of many evil spirits, which amuse travellers to their destruction with most extraordinary illusions. If, during the day-time, any persons remain behind in the road until the caravan has passed a hill, and is no longer in sight, they unexpectedly hear themselves called to by their names, and in a tone of voice to which they are accustomed. Supposing the call to proceed from their companions, they are led away by it from the direct road, and not knowing in what direction to advance, are left to perish. In the night time they are persuaded they hear the march of a large cavalcade on one side or other of the road, and concluding the

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary noise to be that of the footsteps of their party, they direct theirs to the quarter from whence it seems to proceed; but upon the breaking of day, find they have been misled, and drawn into a situation of danger. Sometimes, likewise, during the day, these spirits assume the appearance of their travelling companions, who address them by name, and endeavour to conduct them out of the proper road. It is said, also, that some persons, in their course across the desert, have seen what appeared to them to be a body of armed men advancing towards them, and apprehensive of being attacked and plundered, have taken to flight. Losing by this means the right path, and ignorant of the direction they should take to regain it, they have perished miserably of hunger. Marvellous, indeed, and almost passing belief, are the stories related of these spirits of the desert, which are said at times to fill the air with the sounds of all kinds of musical instruments, and also of drums, and the clash of arms; obliging the travellers to close their line of march, and to proceed in more compact order. [Book i. c. 35, p. 159, Marsdens edition.] It will be seen from the following passage of Vincent Le Blanc, that a similar belief prevails in the Arabian desert; the Bedouins are always uneasy if the traveller loiters at a distance from his caravan. From thence (the Dead Sea) we took our way through the open desert, marching in rank and file. Upon our march we were from hand to hand advertised that some one of our company was missing, that strayed from the rest; it was the companion of an Arabian merchant, very sad for the loss of his friend: part of the caravan made a halt, and four Moors were sent in quest of him, and a reward of a hundred ducats was in hand paid them, but they brought back no tidings of him; and it is uncertain whether he was swallowed up in the sands, or whether he met his death by any other misfortune, as it often happens, by the relation of a merchant then in our company, who told us that two years I before, traversing the same journey, a comrade of his, going a little aside from the company, saw three men, who called him by his name, and one of them, to his thinking, favoured very much his companion; and as he was about to follow them, his real companion calling him to come back to his company, he found himself deceived by the others, and thus was saved. And all travellers in these parts hold that in the deserts there are many such phantasms and goblins seen, that strive to seduce the travellers, and cause them to perish with hunger and despair. [World Surveyed, p. 11.]

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary For one, says Lord Lindsay, who, like the writer, has once felt, though but for a few moments, what it is to lose his way, and feel himself alone in the desert, it is not difficult to realize the feelings of the unfortunate merchant alluded to. Many of these superstitions have probably arisen from those optical phenomena common in the desert; others, doubtless, from the excited, and, as it were, spiritualized tone, the imagination naturally assumes in scenes presenting so little sympathy with the ordinary feelings of humanity. As an instance of this power of fancy, I may mention, that when crossing Wady Araba, in momentary expectation of encountering the Jellaheens, Mr. Ramsay, a man of remarkably strong sight, and by no means disposed to superstitious credulity, distinctly saw a party of horsemen moving among the sand-hills; and though we met none,, and afterwards learnt that the enemy had already passed up the valley, I do not believe he was ever able to divest himself of the impression, Sophron. It is curious to observe how, in the common fictions with respect to intercourse between man and his great enemy, the devil is constantly represented as one whom it is most easy to interest and to dupe. He rarely gets the best of a bargain: it is the man who overreaches the evil one. Some flaw is discovered in the engagement; some cunning method of eluding the most express and binding compacts; and the man exults in having outwitted Satan. Now I know not whether this arises from a good or a bad cause: it may arise from either. At first sight it seems a device of the evil one himself, content to be despised in this life, if thereby he may the more easily secure his prey in the next. And certain it is, that the light and trifling way of naming the devil in all European languages, and the familiar and absurd names which are bestowed on him, have done incalculable harm. This seems to lead to the conclusion that the source of this contempt is bad. But then, again, when I consider that this feeling prevails most strongly in the most Catholic country under the sun, namely, Brittany, I see another possible origin for it. For in like manner as many heathens hated and abhorred the evil spirits whom they worshipped, and yet worshipped them, because they so greatly dreaded them, so the feeling of the Church with respect to her ghostly enemies would be precisely the contrary. She too would hate and abhor them, but it would be a hatred without the smallest particle of respect, or fear, or doubt of final victory; she would feel that she was conquering them every day, and would go on conquering to the end; and that feeling involves also the most bitter scorn and contempt. If only for that reason, no mediaeval poet

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary could have written Paradise Lost. And in the same way mediaeval painters generally represent fiends as rather absurd and grotesque than frightful; something which would occasion laughter, were it not for the strong mixture of disgust. Eupeithes. Perhaps there may be somewhat of truth in both statements, namely, that the feeling was at first and in itself good, but perverted by the evil one to evil. Sophron. This naturally leads us to one of the most curious and difficult of speculationsthe whole subject of witchcraft. And it is one, I suppose, on which more may he said for both sides of the question, than almost any other. I dare say Scepticus will tell us what arguments he should employ, were he arguing against a believer in the thing. Scepticus. I should endeavour to show him that the belief in witchcraft is a kind of moral epidemic, prevailing; only at certain times, and in certain places. This argument cuts off all advantage from multiplied testimony. Just as in the great Plague at Milan, when public opinion ran that the public walls and the sides of houses were smeared with a poisonous ointment that produced the infection; no sensible man would permit a hundred or a hundred thousand instances of people who were supposed to be taken in the fact of thus anointing the walls, to have any more weight with him than one such alleged example; because the thing is clearly impossible! In like manner, if you believe in a moral epidemic, such as the wholesale butchery of witches involves, you are freer from any necessity of answering or explaining individual cases in which witchcraft has been supposed to be exercised. Sophron. It is an easy way of solving the difficulty; and doubtless such epidemics have raged. Of the same kind was the Tarantula dance in Italy; the mania for the discovery of plots in the time of King Charles II.; the Mississippi scheme in Prance, and the nearly contemporaneous South Sea bubble in England; the Tulip mania in Holland; and the speculation mania of 1825. You give us an advantage, however, by this view of the matter; because, there is no reason why there should not have been a mania of seeing ghosts, as well as for discovering witches, were both equally false. But we have never heard of anything at all similar to this. Eupeithes. I allow that the belief in witchcraft has been most curiously circumscribed both in time and place; yet that does not

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary deprive the believers in them (of whom I do not wish to profess myself oneI had rather that adhuc sub judice lis sit,) of their great argument: that, undoubtedly, such a power as witchcraft has heretofore been exercised, and therefore might be so again. The antecedent improbability that any such power should exist is very great,I willingly allow it; at the same time, unless we deny inspiration, this antecedent improbability vanishes; and the question is reduced to this:has witchcraft ever been practised in a Christian country? Scepticus. I am willing to allow what you say with regard to the Levitical Law, that it certainly does recognize the existence of witches as such, and is not to be understood of mere jugglers, conjurors, mountebanks, and the like, which is the evasion of some. This, I own, I do not consider honest. But still there is very little resemblance between, that ancient and our modern sorcery. Eupeithes. Why, there are some very singular resemblances. The most striking is the employment of the art by women, rather than by men, in both cases. And then the familiar spirit of old times is quite in accordance with the modern idea of witchcraft. Scepticus. Do you mean, then, to say, that the localism of the belief is, in your eyes, no argument against it? Eupeithes. I do not; I think it is; but no sufficient argument. There is a localism, also, about many crimes: revenge and its attendant wickednesses are chiefly confined to southern countries; drunkenness to nations of the Teutonic race, and so forth. You will find, too, that the asserted prevalence of witchcraft occurs almost entirely in countries which are not Catholic. Scotland, Germany, and the colonies in North America, and Sweden, have furnished its most singular displays; and it chiefly prevailed in England during the Great Rebellion, and the years which succeeded it. Sophron. True: whereas in other European nations, you would not find its belief in any degree so prevalent as in these. But Scepticus, I think, has a fair answer. Scepticus. In this way: that the nations you have mentioned, Scotch, Germans, Swedes, and English colonies, are just those which are bound together by a peculiar kindred of blood and language. They embraced the Reformation with more or less avidity; whereas the other European people sooner or later rejected it. There is, no doubt, a nationalism of mind; and that may well have led to the belief,
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary among one set of nations, and the disbelief among another, of the power ascribed to witchcraft. Perhaps, there may be a certain quantum of superstition essential to all people: those of the south took it out, so to speak, in a readiness of belief in miracles which their northern brethren never displayed; those of the north in the gloomier credit they attached to tales of witchcraft. Eupeithes. You have set the case in the light in which I suppose many persons would view it. I do not object entirely to the statement, though I would rather put it thus:If men will not believe in Gods miracles, the necessity of believing something leads them to give credit to the devils. Sophron. And of course, where the Church has less power, the great enemy of the Church will have more. But all this cannot ever do away disbelief in the great mass of tales relating to sorcery. There is something so utterly revolting to common sense in the foolishness of the compact made between the evil one and his victims; something so entirely consonant with the low and groveling ideas which vulgar minds would form of such a compact; nothing grave, nothing solemn; the power wantonly given and foolishly employed; above all (what we had occasion to notice before,) a system of things without reference to Divine Providence. And there, I think, the great difference lies between the sorcerers of old and of our own days. The former do not seem to have exercised their power for hurting others, but only for the discovery of secrets, or a revelation of the future. They neither did good nor did evil; they simply told, or discovered both. But in our modern tales, one neighbour takes a dislike to another, enters into a compact with the evil one to be revenged on his enemy, and, after all, takes the most miserable and silly revenge that it is possible to conceive. Scepticus. The confession of such poor wretches is easy enough to explain. Often in their dotage; often wearied out with interrogatories, and sometimes with torture; kept on purpose without sleep; it is not wonderful that they would do anything, or confess anything, to be left at ease. Doubtless there were many poor creatures in the same state as the old beldame mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, who, on being led to the stake, said, Eh, sirs! but this warm fire, and sae mony gude neighbours, and a sae cheerfu, is the brawest sight I have seen this mony a lang day. Eupeithes. It is marvelous how such a sensation could be excited by the discovery of a witches Sabbath, in Sweden, in 1670. The thing

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary itself, to any one that will read it, is perfectly incredible; but it is almost equally hard to believe that three or four hundred people, of whom the greater part were children, should profess to have been concerned in such an enterprise,that twenty-three should have been executed without one protesting their innocence, on simply being ask to plead guilty or not guilty,and that the accounts of Blockula, the place to which they affirmed that they used to resort, should tally so exactly. I think there must have been diabolical possession one way or the other; not physically, but morally. Sophron. And the possibility of that, in many instances, I should be the last to deny. But in many more, an accusation of witchcraft was the easiest means of annoying, and sometimes of getting rid of an enemy. If it failed of being proved, the accused person had at all events been made an object of suspicion, and the accuser was looked on in the light of a public benefactor. If it succeeded, the prison or the gallows were most effectual means of putting an obnoxious person out of the way. Eupeithes. You will observe, that, in all Catholic traditions of the part which the evil one has taken in human affairs, there is, in connexion with that deep contempt which the Church encourages her sons to feel for him, a solemnity of conception not ill-befitting the occasion. The Church, too, believed, that spiritual malice might be defeated by physical agency. The sign of the cross, from the very earliest times, has been regarded as a sufficient protection against the powers of darkness. Holy oil, again, and holy water, and above all, bells, were believed to possess the same virtues. Almost the whole question of supernatural agency resolves itself into this, whether spiritual beings are capable of producing and suffering physical interference. Take the sign of the Cross. Many people, in these days, will allow its utility; but ask them what they mean, and you will find that they speak only of a moral use. The very act of making the sign will, they say, be the means of inducing holy thoughts; and these holy thoughts, so induced, will of course have the effect of enabling him, whose mind they fill, to resist temptation. This, no doubt, so far as it goes, is perfectly true. But it is utterly false to imagine that in this light only did the laity in the mediaeval Church view that sign. They looked on it as possessing per se virtue; made with whatever carelessness, made, indeed, any how, except in mockery. Theodora. And even sometimes without that exception they believed in the virtue of a holy sign. Think of that remarkable story of the two players, one of whom baptized the other in mockery; and the person
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary baptized instantly professed himself a Christian, and suffered for that belief. Sophron. That is also a curious relation of S. Gregory, the Wonderworker, when, compelled by stress of weather, he had passed the night in a heathen temple. The priest, when the saint had gone on his way, could obtain no response from the oracle. He guessed at the reason, or was informed by the demon that haunted that unholy shrine. On this, he pursued S. Gregory; and, on overtaking him demanded with threats that the oracular power, the source of his lucre, should be restored to the temple. To show you, said Gregory, how great is His power, the meanest of Whose servants is thus able to command your deities, I will do as you request; bring me, therefore, ink and a pen. Sitting down, he wrote on a small piece of paper, and desired the priest to lay it on the altar, and to await the result. The priest returned, and had the curiosity to look at the words which were to produce such an effect. They were simply these:Gregory to Satan: enter. He did as he was desired, and the oracle resumed its functions; but did not resume them for long; for the priest was so convinced of the weakness of the gods whom he served; that, says the legend, he thenceforth renounced them, and clave to the faith of CHRIST. Scepticus. You, I see, are not disposed to regard oracles as mere impostures. For my part, I can see no reason to look at them in any other light. Sophron. Nor do I deny that there was a great deal of imposture in them. All such answers as are capable of double meanings, doubtless were so. Such was the famous one, Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse: Such also that to Croesus,

Croesus, when he hath passed the Halys, shall destroy a: mighty kingdom. But there are so many instances in which the event was remarkably prophesied, that I do not think we can set the fulfilment down to a mere coincidence. Such was the oracle given to Hannibal; such was that which foretold the actions of a Philip before the birth of Philip of Macedon; such was that given to Scipio, of the destruction of Carthage. And you are to remember, that in no instance is an egregious failure on the part of an oracle recorded.
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Neither can we be justified, I think, in rejecting all the accounts of Apollonius of Tyana. No story seems to have been more generally credited than the famous tale of his telling the hour of Domitians death. Lecturing on Philosophy at Ephesus, he suddenly broke off, and exclaimedCourage! strike the tyrant! strike him! And then, after a pauseThe tyrant is dead! One need not believe all the tales that Philostratus tells of his hero; but they could scarcely ever have been related, had there not been some foundation for them. Eusebia. Do you not think that we might naturally conclude, that in opposition to the stupendous miracles of the early Church, Satan would enable his own worshippers to perform some supernatural signs? The case of the Egyptian magicians seems a case in point. Sophron. One has a right to think so; and there are instances in which evil spirits seem to have been forced reluctantly to bear witness against themselves. Plutarch relates, as a well known fact, the following story:A grammarian named Epitherses, wishing to leave Greece for Italy, went on board a ship bound to the latter country, and sailed with a prosperous wind. When the vessel, however, was opposite the Echinades, it fell a dead calm, and it was with great difficulty that they were able to reach Paxos. Here they rode at anchor, and, late at night, the crew were either asleep, or engaged in the necessary business of the vessel. Among the latter was Tamois, the Egyptian pilot. On a sudden, a voice was heard from the island, Tamois! Tamois! The pilot, either taken by surprise or terrified, made no answer. Again the voice was heard Tamois! Tamois! What have you to do with me? he replied. The voice answered, When you arrive at Phalacrum, announce as loud as you can speak, that great Pan is dead. And again all was silence. The pilot and the crew were alike terrified, and consulted what was to be done under the circumstances. At last, Tamois resolved that, when he neared the promontory in question, if the wind were fair, he would run past it; if otherwise, he would do his errand. They approached the headland; and when they were close to it, it again fell a perfect calm. Then Tamois, calling up his resolution, mounted the prow of the vessel, and called out in a loud voice, Great Pan is dead. On this then arose from the continent the sounds of lamentation and wailing, as if an innumerable multitude were joining in it. A fair wind sprang up, and carried the vessel safely to Italy. Of course, the occurrence made a great noise in that country, and was related, in due course of time, to the Emperor Tiberius. He sent for Tamois, and heard the story at length. Plutarch relates this story, in his book on the Cessation of Oracles, as connected with that
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary circumstance. But Christian writers have imagined, and not without some likelihood, a far more solemn explanation of the event. The voyage of Epitherses took place in the nineteenth year of Tiberius, and it would appear likely, in the spring of that year. In the nineteenth year of Tiberius, and in the spring of that year, our Lobd was crucified. It has been supposed that on the evening of that very day, and in reference to that event, the message was given. For you must remember that Pan was not only a silvan deity, but among the Arcadians, and perhaps other tribes, a name for the great God of all things; as, indeed, the name signifies. Eupeithes. It may be so indeed; but how wonderful an arrangement of things does such a belief presuppose! Certainly, the services of angels and men are ordained and constituted in a wonderful order, if the hypothesis be true. Sophron. Whether the voice which gave the message proceeded from a good or bad spirit, may be a question of doubt; but there can be no doubt as to the nature of those beings by whom it was received with lamentation. But how wonderful a thing it is that spiritual beings should be in want of, or, at least, should be desirous of employing, human agency in this way! Eupeithes. Unless one should say that it was done by the direction of Providence, as a testimony to the nature of the event then occurring; and yet it is difficult to imagine that, because, after all, the occurrence only stands on a guess, and requires testimony itself. Scepticus. The story is all the more worthy of credit, I allow, from being related by a heathen; for we know the vast number of prophecies of the SAVIOUR, which Christian ingenuity forged under the name of Sibylline verses. Eupeithes. All such predictions, in heathen countries, of our LORD, are not to be so sweepingly condemned. Every one knows that it was the expectation of the world, at the time of His birth, that a mighty Prince was about to arise out of the East. And I can never read the Pollio of Virgil, without believing, either that the poet meant more than a reference to Marcellus, or whomever else the ingenuity of commentators has discovered or imagined to have been born in that year; or else, that he was actually, in an inferior sense, inspired, to speak that of which he did not understand the full meaning: and that of him it might be said, as it was of CaiaphasAnd this spake he not of himself. If Caiaphas might be inspired, assuredly Virgil

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary might. And surely we can hardly believe otherwise, when one reads of the Virgin returning, of the golden age commencing, of the traces of former crime disappearing from the earth, of the serpent perishing, of earth, and sea, and heaven rejoicing; hyperboles too immense to have been tolerated in an emperors son, while the father of the subject of that Eclogue, whoever he might be, had certainly not then attained to the imperial dignity. Sophron. And in the same way, as we had occasion some nights ago to remark, there is no doubt that the symbol of the cross was venerated long before the coming of our LORD. Scepticus. You will at least grant, that all the various kinds of divination so much in use among the ancients, by birds, by entrails, by rods, by sieves, by cocks, by water, by the hand, and in a thousand other ways, were sheer pieces of jugglery. Sophron. Yes: though I believe that, now and then, the demons who prompted the worship of the ancients were permitted to encourage it, by speaking the truth even through these trivial and superstitious inquiries. Of these, the Sortes Homericae or Virgilianae, where, by opening Homer or Virgil at random, the line which first met the eye was taken as the answer, afforded some of the most remarkable instances. Not to mention the line of the Iliad, presented to Socrates I should arrive On the third day in Phthias gleby land; from which he foretold that his execution would take place on the third day: the Emperor Hadrian, about to adopt L. Varus, and anxious to know his fate, opened on the line of Virgil, Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, nec ultra Esse sinunt, which was exactly fulfilled. So our Charles I. consulted the Virgilian lots in the Bodleian, in company with Lord Falkland. The former opened on, Jacet ingens litore truncus, Avulsumque humeris caput, et sine nomine corpus. The latter on,

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Heu miserande puer! si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris. Boissarde assures us that he knew a gentleman who was persecuted in every possible way by a nobleman, at the instigation of his wife. Unable to discover what secret enemy he had, he consulted the Virgilian lots, and read, Causa mali tanti conjux iterum hospita. And, in reality, the above named nobleman and his wife had been compelled at that time, through the civil wars in France, to leave their own estate, and to retire to Basle. The early Christians continued the use of the same lot, only substituting the Bible for Homer and Virgil. But it was strenuously opposed by the Fathers, who called it an undoubted tempting of GOD. However, the practice continued to be sometimes employed till a much later period; as is evident from the example of S. Francis, who formed his institute on three sortes from the New Testament. It was a very favourite practice among the Puritans, and much in vogue among their preachers. I remember to have read of one, who was desirous of prognosticating success in some undertaking he contemplated, and opened on the verse, Go, and the LORD be with thee. He went, in reliance on the text, and lost his life. Eupeithes. The observation of days, natural and common enough among the heathen, descended with equal force to most Christian countries. The superstition which makes Friday an unlucky day is, I suppose, common to every nation. By none is it more strongly held than by sailors; and a curious and fruitless effort was made, some time ago, to break them of it. A ship, called Friday, had her keel laid on a Friday, was launched on a Friday, was commanded by a Captain Friday, and sailed on a Friday; and, finally, was never more heard of. Sophron. In the same way, in our eastern counties, Childermas daythat is, that day of the week on which the Holy Innocents fell the preceding yearwas, and in some degree is, held unlucky. Eupeithes. And there were many sayings as to the various festivals of the Church, some of which were, no doubt, true. Some had a great appearance of likelihood; and some, perhaps, a little savoured of superstition. There was a rhyme as to S. Pauls day:

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Clara dies Pauli bona tempora denotat anni; Si fuerint venti, designant proelia genti; Si fuerint nebulae, pereunt animalia quaeque; Si nix, si pluvia est, prsedicunt tempora cara. And another for the Purification: Si sol splendescat, Maria purificante, Major erit glacies post festum, quam fuit ante. And this intense cold was held to last for forty days. On S. Vincents day (Jan. 22), in vine districts, it was believed that a fine forenoon heralded an abundant vintage: and the monks of houses under the invocation of that saint were accordingly well treated on that day. A rainy Easter was held to predict an abundant corn harvest. The concurrence of Lady-day with Good Friday was considered unlucky: an old rhyme says, When our Lady falls in our LORDS lap, Then let England look for mishap. S. Medarduss day, in May, and S. Urbans, the 24th of that month, were regarded, the first by vinedressers, the second by husbandmen, as presaging, by their fairness or foulness, a plentiful or scarce year. Thunders in March were held extremely unlucky. An old French proverb tells us, that, Jamais le villageois na matire de dire, Hlas! Sil ne voit sa maison arse, ou sil noit tonner en Mars. And other presages from the sky are well known, such as that, Blessed is the bride that the sun shines on; Blessed is the corpse that the rain rains on. Sophron. This leads us to the subject of charms. It is curious to see what a gradation there is in these: from prayers, not only harmless but beautiful, though superstitiously used, to the most absurd trash that ever entered the mind of man. For instance: to heal a wound, and prevent it from gangrening, it was ordered to say the two following verses five times a day, laying the hand meanwhile on the part affected: Vulneribus quinis me subtrahe Christe ruinis; Vulnera quinque Dei sunt medicina mei.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary This, for curing any wound: Christus fuit natus, Christus fuit amissus, Christus fuit inventus. We had this in England, for stanching blood: Sanguis mane in te, Sicut Christus fuit in se; Sanguis mane in tua vena Sicut Christus in sua poena: Sanguis mane fixus, Sicut Christus quando fuit crucifixus. A French charm, for the same purpose, was the letting a straw fall on the ground several times, and saying, Herbe qui de Dieu est cre, Montre la vertu que Dieu ta donne. In England, to cure wounds, they said, Jesus CHRIST, of Maiden born, Was pricked both with nail and thorn; And it did neither boll nor swell, And I trust in Him this never will. A French charm, for a burn, was: Feu, Feu, perd ta chaleur, Comme Judas sa couleur Quand il trahit le Sauveur. We had this: There came three Angels out of the East, One brought fire, the other brought frost: Out fire, in frost, In the Name of the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY GHOST. The Media vita in morte sumus was a celebrated charm in the Middle Ages against death in battle; and many councils have forbidden its use to soldiers. A strange charm, against fevers, was the following, to be worn round the neck: Quand Dieu vit la Croix o son corps fut mis, sa chair trembla, son sang semeut: les Juifs lui ont dit, Je crois que Tu as peur, ou que les fievres Te tiennent: Je nai point peur, ni les fievres ne Me tiennent point. This was against cramp:

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Cramp, be thou faintless, As our Lady was painless, When she bare Jesus. Then, we get to mere absurdities, such as the famous Abracadabra, so much vaunted in the Great Plague. Ananizapta was almost equally famous, and, I should think, as useful. This was applied by being thus written on a piece of paper: Ananizapta ferit mortem quae laedere quaerit, Est mala mors capta dum dicitur Ananizapta: Ananizapta Dei jam miserera mei. One finds passages of Scripture serving as charms. For instance: to stop the bleeding of the nose, make the sign of the Cross over it, saying, Consummatum est. To cure tooth-ache, touch it, repeating the words, There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. To protect a horse from stumbling, touch his forefoot, and say, A bone of him shall not be broken. Eupeithes. Of prophecies in modern times, there are not many that are very curious. The most remarkable is that well-known one, Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus. That we know, from Lord Bacon, to have been in vogue before 1588, and therefore could not have been made for the Armada; and is yet more strikingly applicable to 1688. A similar prophecythough I know not the exact wordsconnects the year 45 with misfortune; and 1645 and 1745 seemed to verify it. Another prophecy, When hempe is spun, Englands done, was ingeniously interpreted; but one can hardly look on it as more than a coincidence. Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, Elizabethwhose initials made the word hempehaving reigned, the name England was merged in Great Britain. Other prophecies seem to have been thrown out on the world, in the hope that some one would invent interpretations for them. Such is that (mentioned, as the two former, by Lord Bacon), There shall be seen on a day. Between the Baugh and the May, The Black Fleet of Norway.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Then England shall have houses of stone; For after wars you shall have none. That has also been expounded of the Armada, but with little plausibility. It is difficult to imagine that the Egyptian sorcerers of modern times are impostors. Lane, in his Modern Egyptians, seems to have put the matter out of doubt. Eusebia. And there was that remarkable prophecy that Constantinople would remain four hundred years in the power of the Infidels, and would then again become the capital of a Christian State; in 1853 the four hundred years are complete, and the prediction certainly seems near its completion. Eupeithes. Boissarde tells, on his own authority, a story of an event which occurred to some friend, whose name, from prudential reasons, he suppresses. He had married a young and beautiful bride, not without meeting with great difficulty from an obnoxious rival. Shortly after the wedding, the unsuccessful lover was slain in a duel by the husband; and for this crime he was obliged to leave the country. Extremely anxious to know how his wife employed her solitude, he heard, in the place of his exile, of a celebrated magician, and, half out of joke, applied to him. The philosopher assured him that he could fulfil his wish. A day was appointed; and the young nobleman brought several of his friends to be spectators of the event. A young girl was brought in by the magician (just in the same way as is the case with the Egyptian sorcerers), and desired to look in a glass. She described accurately, first the room in which the lady ordinarily sat, then the ladys person; and wound up the whole by adding that a young man was at her side, and apparently enjoying no Small part of her affection. The unfortunate husband mounted his horse, and hardly stopped till he approached the city whence he had been banished. Not daring to enter it, he sent a message to his wife, desiring her to meet him at such a spot in a neighbouring forest; proposing first to upbraid her with her infidelity, and then to kill her. She came full of joy; and her husbands heart was softened by her agitation and tears of gladness. Taking her, however, by surprise, he demanded the name of the stranger who, at such an hour of such a day, was with her. She replied, without hesitation, that it was her brother-in-law. Fortunately the matter was susceptible of proof; and the nobleman, thoroughly satisfied, returned to his place of exile, cursing from his very heart the jugglery and delusion of fiends.

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary Sophron. There was a prophecy, current before the death of James I., which, was remarkably fulfilled. Sexte, verere Deos: vitae tibi terminus instat, Cum semel in medio ardebit carbunculus igne. The King was seized with an ague at Trinity College, Cambridge; thence he went to Theobalds, and while sitting there by the fire-side the carbuncle fell out of the ring he usually wore, into the fire. His illness ended, as every one knows, fatally. Eusebia. The most remarkable, however, of the authenticated prophecies of modern times, is that celebrated prediction of M. de Cazotte. I will read it to you, as related by La Harpe, from Dr. Gregorys Letters on Magnetism. It appears but as yesterday, yet, nevertheless, it was at the beginning of the year 1788. We were dining with one of our brethren at the Academy, a man of considerable wealth and genius. The company was numerous and diversified; Courtiers, Lawyers, Academicians, &c.; and, according to custom, there had been a magnificent dinner. At dessert the wines of Malvoisin and Constantia added to the gaiety of the guests that sort of licence which is sometimes forgetful of bon-ton. We had arrived in the world just at that time when anything was permitted that would raise a laugh. Chamfort had read to us some of his impious and libertine tales. Prom this arose a deluge of jests against religion. One quoted a tirade from the Pucelle; another recalled the philosophic lines of Diderot, Et des boyaux du dernier prtre Serrer le cou du dernier roi, for the sake of applauding them. A third rose, and, holding his glass in his hand, exclaimed, Yes, gentlemen, I am as sure that there is no God, as I am sure that Homer was a fool; and, in truth, he was as sure of the one as of the other. The conversation became more serious; much admiration was expressed of the revolution which Voltaire had effected, and it was agreed that it was his first claim to the reputation which he enjoyed: he had given the prevailing tone to his age, and had been read in the ante-chamber as well as in the drawing-room. One of the guests told us, while bursting with laughter, that his hair-dresser while powdering his hair, had said to him, Do you observe, sir, that although I am but a poor miserable barber, I have no more religion than any other. He concluded that
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary the Revolution must soon be consummated; that it was indispensable that superstition and fanaticism should give place to Philosophy; and we began to calculate the probability of the period when this should be, and which of the present company should live to see the reign of reason. The oldest complained that they could scarcely flatter themselves with the hope; the young rejoiced that they might entertain this very probable expectation; and they congratulated the Academy especially for having prepared the great work, and for having been the great rallying point, the centre, and the prime mover of the liberty of thought. One only of the guests had not taken part in all the joyousness of this conversation. This was Cazotte, an amiable and original man, but unhappily infatuated with the reveries of the illuminati. He spoke, and with the most serious tone. Gentlemen, said he, be satisfied; you will all see this great and sublime revolution, which you so much admire. You know that I am a little inclined to prophecy: I repeat, you will see it. He was answered by the common rejoinder, One need not be a conjuror to see that. Be it so; but perhaps one must be a little more than a conjuror, for what remains for me to tell you. Do you know what will be the consequence of this revolution,what will be the consequence to all of you, and what will be the immediate resultthe well-established effectthe thoroughly recognized consequence to all of you who are here present? Ah! said Condorcet, with his insolent and half-suppressed smile. Let us hear; a philosopher is not afraid to encounter a prophet. You, Monsieur de Condorcet, you will yield up your last breath on the floor of a dungeon; you will die from poison, which you will have taken, in order to escape from execution,from poison which the happiness of that time will oblige you to carry about your person. At first astonishment was most marked, but it was soon recollected that the good Cazotte is liable to dreaming, though, apparently wide awake, and a hearty laugh is the consequence. Monsieur Cazotte, the relation you give is not so agreeable as your Diable Amoureux, (a novel of Cazottes.) But what has put into your head this prison and this poison, and these executioners? What an all these have in common with philosophy and the reign of reason? This is exactly what I say to you; it is in the name of philosophyof humanityof liberty; it is under the reign of reason, that it will happen to you thus to end your career; and it will indeed be the reign of reason; for then she will have
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary her temples; and, indeed, at that time, there will be no other temples in France than the temples of reason. By my truth, said Chamfort, with a sarcastic smile, you will not be one of the priests of these temples. I do not hope it; but you, Monsieur de Chamfort, you will be one, and most worthy to be so; you will open your veins with twenty-two cuts of a razor, and yet you will not die till some months afterwards. They looked at each other, and laughed again. You, Monsieur Vicq dAzir, you will not open your own veins, but you will cause yourself to be bled, six times in one day, during a paroxysm of the gout, in order to make more sure of your end, and you will die in the night. You, Monsieur de Nicolai, you will die upon the scaffold; you, M. Bailly, on the scaffold; you, Monsieur de Malesherbes, on the scaffold. Ah! God be thanked, exclaimed Roueler, it seems that Monsieur has no eye, but for the Academy; of it he has just made a terrible execution, and I, thank heaven . . . . . You! you, also, will die upon the scaffold. Oh, what an admirable guessed! was uttered on all sides; he has sworn to exterminate us all! No, it is not I who have sworn it. But shall we then be conquered by the Turks or the Tartars? Yet again . . . . . Not at all; I have already told you, you will then be conquered only by philosophy, only by reason. They who will thus treat you will be all philosophers, will always have upon their lips the self-same phrases which you have been putting forth for the last hour, will repeat all your maxims, and will quote, as you have done, the verses of Diderot, and from La Pucelle. They then whispered among themselves, You see that he is gone mad, for he preserved all this time the most serious and solemn manner. Do you not see that he is joking? and you know that in the character of his jokes there is always much of the marvelous. Yes, replied Chamfort, but his marvellousness is not cheerful; it savours too much of the gibbet; and when will all this happen? Six years will not have passed over before all that I have said to you shall be accomplished. Here are some astonishing miracles, (and this time it was myself who spoke,) but you have not included me in your list. But you will be there, as an equally extraordinary miracle; you will then be a Christian. Vehement exclamations on all sides. Ah, replied Chamfort, I am comforted; if we shall perish only when La Harpe shall be a Christian, we are immortal. As for that, then observed Madame la Duchesse de Grammont, we women, we are happy to be counted for nothing in these
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary revolutions; when I say for nothing, it is not that we do not always mix ourselves up with them a little; but it is a received maxim that they take no notice of us, and of our sex. Your sex, ladies, will not protect you this time; and you had far better meddle with nothing, for you will be treated entirely as men, without any difference whatever. But what then are you really telling us of, Monsieur Cazotte? you are preaching to us of the end of the world. I know nothing on that subject; but what I do know is, that you, Madame la Duchesse, will be conducted to the scaffold; you, and many other ladies with you, in the cart of the executioner, and with your hands tied behind your backs. Ah! I hope that, in that case, I shall have a carriage hung in black. No, Madame, higher ladies than yourself will go, like you, in the common car, with their hands tied behind them. Higher ladies! what? the princesses of the blood? Still more exalted personages. Here a sensible emotion pervaded the whole company, and the countenance of the host was dark and lowering; they began to feel that the joke was becoming too serious. Madame de Grammont, in order to dissipate the cloud, took no notice of the reply, and contented herself with saying in a careless tone, You see that he will not leave me even a confessor. No, Madame, you will not have one; neither you nor any one besides. The last victim to whom this favour will be afforded, will be .... He stopped for a moment. Well! who then will be the happy mortal to whom this prerogative will be given? Tis the only one which he will have then retained, and that will be the King of France. The master of the house rose hastily and every one with him. He walked up to M. Cazotte and addressed him with a tone of deep emotion: My dear Monsieur Cazotte, this mournful joke has lasted long enough. You carry it too fareven so far as to derogate from the society in which you are, and from your character. Cazotte answered not a word, and was preparing to leave, when Madame de Grammont, who always sought to dissipate serious thought, and to restore the lost gaiety of the party, approached him, saying, Monsieur the prophet, who have foretold us of our good fortune, you have told us nothing of your own I1 le remained silent for some time with downcast eyes. Madame, have you ever read the Siege of Jerusalem, in Josephus? Yes, who has not read that? But answer as if I had never read it. Well, then, Madame, during the siege a man, for seven days in succession, went round the ramparts of the city, in sight of the besiegers and besieged, crying unceasingly, with an ominous and thundering voice, Woe to Jerusalem; and the seventh time he cried, Woe to Jerusalem, Woe to myself; and at that moment an

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary enormous stone, projected from one of the machines of the besieging army, struck him and destroyed him. [La Harpe, Posthumous Memoirs. Paris, 1806. Vol. I. p. 63.] And after this reply, M. Cazotte made his bow and retired. When for the first time I read this astonishing prediction, I thought that it was only a fiction of La Harpes, and that that celebrated critic wished to depict the astonishment which would have seized persons distinguished for their rank, their talents, and their fortune, if, several years before the Revolution, one could have brought before them the causes which were preparing, and the frightful consequences which would follow. The inquiries which I have since made, and the information I have gained, have induced me to change my opinion. M. le Comte A. de Montesquieu, having assured me that Madame de Genlis had repeatedly told him that she had often heard this prediction related by M. de La Harpe, I begged of him to have the goodness to solicit from that lady more ample details. This is her reply: November, 1825. I think I have somewhere placed among my souvenirs the anecdote of M. Cazotte; but I am not sure. I have heard it related a hundred times by M. de La Harpe, before the Revolution, and always in the same form as I have met with it in print, and as he himself has caused it to be printed. This is all that I can say, or certify, or authenticate by my signature. COMTESSE DE GENLIS. I have also seen the son of M. Cazotte, who assured me that his father was gifted in a most remarkable manner with a faculty of prevision; of which he had numberless proofs: one of the most remarkable of which was, that on returning home on the day on which Ms daughter had succeeded in delivering him from the hands of the wretches who were conducting him to the scaffold, instead of partaking the joy of his surrounding family, he declared that in three days he should be again arrested, and that he should then undergo his fate: and in truth he perished on the 25th September, 1792, at the age of 72. In reference to the above narrative, M. Cazotte jun. would not undertake to affirm that the relation of La Harpe was exact in all its

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary expressions, but had not the smallest doubt as to the reality of the facts. I ought to add, that a friend of Vicq dAzir, an inhabitant of Rennes, told me that that celebrated physician, having travelled into Brittany some years before the Revolution, had related to him, before his family, the prophecy of Cazotte, It seemed that, notwithstanding his scepticism, Vicq dAzir was uneasy about the prediction. Letter on this subject addressed to M. Mialle by M. le Baron de La Mothe Langon: You inquire of me, my dear friend, what I know concerning the famous prediction of Cazotte mentioned by La Harpe. I have only on this subject to assure you upon my honour that I have heard Madame la Comtesse de Beauharnais many times assert that she was present at this very singular historical fact. She related it always in the same way, and with the accent of truth;her evidence fully corroborated by that of La Harpe. She spoke this before all the persons of the society in which she moved,many of whom still live, and could easily attest this assertion. You may make what you please of this communication. Adieu, my good old friend. I remain, with immutable attachment, Yours, Baron de La Mothe Langon. Paris, Dec. 18,1833. Sophron. And what are we to say or to deem of the wonderful pretensions of astrology? Are we to believe that, from the age of the Chaldeans downwards, it has been one science of imposition and guess work, never right, except by chance; or that it is based on rules, and that those rules have a certain aim, and are worthy of trust? Eupeithes. There can be no doubt that the majority of professors of astrology have believed in their own science; and it seems recognized as one, though as a forbidden one, in the Levitical law. It has been made the means, it is clear, of innumerable impostures; but all this does not prove that, if it were given to men to fathom it, there is not a real law of the future, from the position and influences of the stars. It is hardly possible that so general a belief in sidereal virtue, should have prevailed amongst all nations, if there were no foundation for such credence. Nay, do we not read in Holy Scripture itself, that the stars in their courses fought against Sisera? which

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary clearly to me seems to mean either nothing, or that the influence of the planets was against him. Theodora. It is hardly credible that there should be such a science, and yet that it should be a forbidden one. Eupeithes, Why so? Surely not more incredible than that the tree of knowledge of good and evil should have stood in the midst of Paradise, and should yet have been forbidden to our first parents. Sophron. There are rules for the science, which any how are learnt, and are observed. The rules may themselves be impostures or absurd, but yet may be followed out in good faith. Eupeithes. I remember a professor of astrology visiting one of our universities, and being consulted by many persons who would have been most sorry to appear in the business. In particular, I recollect one instance, either of a curious verification of his rules, or of a most fortunate guess, for the information could have been acquired in no other way. A man took him the nativity of a deceased friend, and desired him to calculate it. On going again to the astrologer, It is a very curious thing, said the latter, that the person whose nativity you gave me, must, according to all the rules of science, be dead. His visitor, by way of trying him, persisted that it was not so. I must then have made some mistake, replied the other, and will work my calculations over again. He did so; and on receiving a second visit from the man of whom I speak, It is a most remarkable circumstance, he said; if your friend be not dead, I frankly confess that the laws of our science have for once failed. At what time ought he, according to your computations, to have died? inquired the visitor. The astrologer named a. day. He did die at that very time, rejoined the other; and you have given me the best possible proof of the reality of your art. Sophron. I have heard that the modern professors of the science do not, in reply to questions as to the extent of the inquirers life, mark out any certain time for his death, but content themselves with telling him that at such a time he will be in imminent danger; if he escapes that, at such another time he will be so again; and so forward, till they pass the period to which, in the natural course of things, he can hope to live. Eupeithes. We began with speaking of the beauty of the stars; and where we commenced, there, it seems we conclude. It is a wonderful inquiry in which we have been engaged; and one which, in this
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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary world, we can never hope to understand. But one cannot wonder, when pursuing such trains of thought, at the impatience of Cleombrotus to possess the world of immortality which Plato had opened to him. Theodora. Nor is it less striking to remember the friends with whom we may have discussed such questions, but who are now in that place where they understand them fully. One often fancies how much they must desire to impart some of this knowledge to us whom they have left behind. Sophron. The writers of the sixteenth century on apparitions, endeavoured to show that the spirits of the departed faithful have just as much liberty of motion, and of appearing to whom they please, that we in the flesh possess. I do not think it. I do not believe that, if they retain their earthly affection that animated them here, they could refrain from visiting those whom they have loved, and from whom they are now separated. It would rather seem that some strict law of the unknown state forbids such apparitions, unless especially permitted. Doubtless, well for us it is so. Eupeithes. How it would alter the whole course of human existence, if such apparitions constantly took place! Whether they lost, or whether they still retained their terror, it would hardly be compatible with worldly business that they should be permitted. Theodora. In all such stories, a superintending Providence seems most clearly manifest. These strange visitants tell just what they were commissioned to tell, and nothing more; they have a message to deliver, and they deliver it of their own state, of the manner in which they were judged, of their employments, of their associates, they say nothing. Sophron. To that conclusion of a superintending, and a most minutely superintending Providence, our whole discussion, I trust, has been calculated to lead us. The intercommunion of the world of spirits with our own must needs be a most elevating, and ought to be a most consoling, belief. To have those whom we have best loved locally near us, to believe that we are assisted by them in dangers, to remember that they are witnesses of our temptations, and rejoicers in our victory, is one of the most encouraging and inspiriting thoughts that a Christian man can possess. All the ideas, then, that have been raised in our minds, of holy thoughts suggested, unseen evils warded off, space or time annihilated, for the safety of one in peril;

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The Unseen World: Communications With it, Real or Imaginary courage renovated, ways directed by the ministrations of spiritual beings: all these things ought to fill our hearts with gratitude, when we express our belief in the Communion of Saints.

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