persons; frequently in single phrases only, but sometimes even in connected discourse. "Though at this time I enjoyed rather a good state of health both in body and mind, and had become so very familiar with these phantasms, that at last they did not excite the least disagreeable emotion, but on the contrary afforded me frequent subjects for amusement and mirth; yet as the disorder sensibly increased, and the figures appeared to me for whole days together, and even during the night, if I happened to awake, I had recourse to several medicines."* Such is the curious case of Nicolai, in which it would not occasionally be very difficult to explain why certain mental images, to the exclusion of other objects of his waking visions, should have acquired an undue degree of vividness. Frequently, however, it would be impossible to trace any correspondence which the particular complexion or disposition of his mind might have with the quality of the phantasms that were the offspring of his wild imagination. The uninteresting recollections incidental to each train of thought, as well as the lively objects of his grief, appear to have alternately assumed an embodied form. From this circumstance, then, arises the suspicion, that there were not only causes of a moral description, * Memoir on the Appearance of Spectres or Phantoms occasioned by Disease, with Psychological Remarks. Read by Nicolai to the Royal Society of Berlin, on the 28th of February, 1799. The translation of this paper is given in Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi. p. 161. but also some morbid condition of the body, which might have contributed to render the ideas of his mind of such a high state of intensity, that they became no less vivid than actual impressions. After these remarks, the general object of this Dissertation may admit of an easy explanation. An essay seriously written, with the view of confuting all the superstitious absurdities connected with the popular belief in apparitions, would, no doubt, in this philosophic age, be considered of the same importance as the publication of arguments, how weighty soever they may be, intended to weaken the confidence which some very well-disposed persons still choose to entertain on the subject of dreams, or upon the relation which is supposed to subsist between them and future events. At the same time, the utility of an inquiry into the rationale of our dreams has never been doubted, as every proper theory connected with a speculation of this kind must necessarily involve the successful investigation of certain primary laws of the human mind, by which our various states of mental feelings are governed. A similar argument applies to those embodied phantasies, which, under the general name of Apparitions, are the sportive images of what may, with the greatest propriety, be styled our waking dreams. To explain, therefore, the physical causes of such mental illusions, and, in connexion with this elucidation, to point out the origin of the popular belief in apparitions, is an attempt which precludes any notions that may be urged against it on the score of insignificance. The inquiry necessarily involves an accurate and extensive knowledge of the laws of thought, and a capability of applying them to cases, where, from the co-operating influence of certain constitutional and morbid causes incidental to the human frame, the quality and intensity of our mental states undergo very remarkable modifications. In this point of view, a theory of apparitions is inseparably connected with the pathology of the human mind. But, before entering into an independent investigation of this kind, it may be proper to inquire, What have been the opinions hitherto entertained on the subject by such philosophers as have been the least desirous to contemplate it with the superstitious feelings of the vulgar? A few of these opinions will be explained in the First Part of this work. CHAPTER II. THE REFERENCE OF APPARITIONS TO HALLUCINATIONS, &c. "Now, whilst his blood mounts upward, now he knows The solid gain that from conviction flows. And strengthen'd confidence shall hence fulfil BLOOMFIELD. It has long been common to refer apparitions to hallucinations. For instance, a person, prior to an epilepsy, may see every thing crooked. In some affections of vision, objects are greatly magnified: thus, a gentleman whom I know in Edinburgh saw, about twilight, a cow magnified to ten or twelve times its original size, grazing on a field, like some of the Brobdingnag cattle described by Swift. Many ghost-stories, however, admit of still more familiar explanations, of which I shall give a few instances. The first is from the Statistical Account of Scotland, published by Sir John Sinclair. "About fifty years ago, a clergyman in the neighbourhood, whose faith was more regulated by the scepticism of philosophy than the credulity of superstition, could not be prevailed upon to yield his assent to the opinion of the times. At length, however, he felt from experience, that he doubted what he ought to have believed. One night, as he was returning home at a late hour from a presbytery, he was seized by the fairies, and carried aloft into the air. Through fields of æther and fleecy clouds he journeyed many a mile, descrying, like Sancho Panza on his clavileno, the earth far distant below him, and no bigger than a nut-shell. Being thus sufficiently convinced of the reality of their existence, they let him down at the door of his own house, where he afterwards often recited to the wondering circle the marvellous tale of his adventure." Upon this story, I find, in Mr Ellis's edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities, the following comment is made:- -" In plain English, I should suspect that spirits of a different sort from fairies had taken the honest clergyman by the head, and though he has omitted the circumstance in his marvellous narration, I have no doubt but that the good man saw double on the occasion, and that his own mare, not fairies, landed him safe at his own door." Other explanations of ghost-stories are referable to optical mistakes of the nature of external objects. The phenomena connected with the Giant of the Broken * are known to every one. To the same class of pseudoapparitions belong the Fata Morgana, and the Mirage or Water of the Desert. Sometimes, when the mind is morally prepared for spectral impressions, the most familiar substances are converted into ghosts. Mr Ellis gives a story to this *Note 2. |