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21M.013J The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture Spring 2009

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NIGBT-SIDE OF NATURE

GHOSTS AND GHOST-SEERS

C A T H E R I N E C R O W E i

A- W "IWU mWLW," "UILT M ~ I , ""/-J.," no.

'1 .moll m ' a in mch a qnationabls#h.p, Th.1 I will a p e d to thee."

R E D F I E L D : 110 A N D 1 1 2 N A S S A U S T R E E T , N E W Y O B K .

1 8 6 8 .

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BoucRTI#IYnamm,

U Q I n A f B P ) BY

Evert Jansen Wendell CLAm 0.-

HARVARD COLLEOL LIBRARY FIOU

THE BEQUEST OF LVfRT JAWEN WENDELL

IOlS

P R E F A C E .

IN my late novel of Lilly Daweon," I announced my inten- tion of publiuhing a work to be c d e d The Night-Side of Na- ture';" thii b it.

The term Night-Side of Nature" I borrow fiom the Ger- mans, who derive it from the aatl'onomers, the latter denomina- ting that side of a planet which is turned fiom the sun, its sigAt-ride. We are in tbb condition for a certain number of houm out of every twenty-four ; and as,during this interval, external objects loom upon us but strangely and imperfectly, the Ger- mum araw a parallel between these vague and misty percep tione, and the aimilar obscure and uncertain glimpses we get of that veiled department of nature, of which, while comprising as it does, the solution of questions concerning us more nearly than any other, we are yet in a etate of entim and wilful igno- rance. For science, at least acience in this county, hw put it aside aa beneath her notice, because new factrr that do not fit into old theories are troublesome, and not to be countenanced.

We are encompweed on all sides by wonders, and we can scarcely aet our foot upon the gmnnd, without trampling upon some marvellous production that our whole life and a11 our h-ultiea would not suffice to comprehend. Familiarity, however, renders us insensible to the ordinary works of nature ; we are apt to forget the miracles they cornprim, and even, sometimes,

4 PREFACE.

mistaking words for conceptions, commit the error of thinking we understand their mystery. But there is one clase of theae wonders with which, from their comparatively rare occurrence, we do not become familiar ; and these, according to the char- acter of the mind to which they are presented, are frequently either denied as ridiculous and impossible, or received as evi-dences of supernatural interference-intemptions of those general laws by which God governs the universe ;which latter mistake arises from our only seeing these facts without the links that connect them with the rest of nature, just ae in the faint light of a starlit night wo might distinguish the tall mount- ains that IiR their crests high into the sky, though we could not discern the low chain of hills that united them with each olher.

There are two or three books by German authors, entitled The Night-Side," or "The Night-Dominion of Nature,"

which are on subjects, more or less analogous to mine. Hein-rick Schuhn 's is the most celebrated among them ; it ie a sort of cosmogony of the world, written in a spirit of philosophical mysticism-too much so for E~lglish readors in general.

In undertaking to write a book on these subjects myself, I wholly disclaim the pretension of teaching or of enforcing opin- ions. My object is to suggest inquiry and stimulate oberva- tion, in order that we may endeavor, if possible, to discover something regarding our psychicd nature, m it exists here in the flesh ; and as it is to exist hereafter, out of it.

I f I could only induce a few capable persons, instead of laughing at theae things, to look at them, my object would be attained, and I should consider my time well spent,

C O N T E N T S.

CHAPTLP PA@S

I.--Introduction ...................................... 7

II.--The Dwellers in the Temple ..................... 19

In.-Waking and Sleeping. and how the Dweller in tbe Temple sometimes looks abroad ................... !&I

1V.-Allegorical Dreams, Preeentimenta. dce.............. 48

V.-Warninga ....................................... 66

VL-Double Dreaming and Trance. Wraiths, &c .......... 96

VlI.-Wraiths ............:........................... 130

W1.-Doppelgangers, or Doubles. .......................149

1X.-Apparitions ...................................... 171

X.-The Future that awaita IIB ......................... 204

XI.-The Power of Will.............................. XI0

XI1.-Troubled Spirita................................. U 2 XIII-Haunted Houees.................................273

X1V.-Spectral Lights. and Apparitions attached to Certain . .Famihes.................................... 319

XV.-Apparitions seeking the Prayers of the Living .......345

XV1.-The Poltergeist of the Germans, and Possedon ......376

XW.-Miacellaneous Phenomena......................... 411

XVIII.-Concloeion ...................................... 434

N I G H T - S I D E OF N A T U R E .

C H A P T E R I.

I -KZIOWye not 01 ye (LM tbe Temple of Qod, lad that rbe 8pttt d sod

dwdlerb io pa?"-1 Ooamn1rlr8,Ui. 16.

i

I MOST persons are aware that the Greeks and Romans enter- tained cgrtain notions regsrding the state of the soul, or the immortal part of man, after the death of the body, which have been generally held to be purely mythological. Many of them doubtlea are so,and of these I am not about to treat; but among their conceptions, there are some which, ae they win- cide with the opinions of many of the moat enlightened pereons of the preaent age, it may be desirable to coruider more closely. I allude here particularly to their belief in the tripartite kiag-dom of the dead. According to this eyetern, there were the Elysian fields, a region in which a certain sort of happinem was onjoyed; and Tartarus, the place of punishment Eor the wicked ; each of. which wae, comparatively, but thinly inhab- ited. But there was also a mid-region, peopled with innumer- able hosts of wandering and mournful spirits, who, although undergoing no torments, are represented aa incessantly bewail- ing their condition, pining for the life they once enjoyed in the body, longing after the things of the earth, and occupying them-

) mlvas with the -e purauita and o b j e c ~ as had formerly ~a

8 THE NIGHT-BIDE OF NATURE.

etituted their bueinese or their pleasure. Old habits are dn dear to them, and they can not snap the link that binds them to the earth.

Now, although we can not believe in the existence of Charon, tbe three-headed dog, or Alecto, the eerpent-haired fury, it may be worth while to consider whether the pernumion of the an-cienta with regard to that which concerne ue all so nearly-namely, the destiny tbat awaits UII when we have shaken ofl thie mortal coil-may not have some foundation in truth: whether it might not be a remnant of a tradition tranemitted from the earlieet inhabitanta of the earth, wreeted by obaerva- tion from nature, if not communicated from a higher eource: and aleo whether circumatancae of constant recurrence i r dl ages and in all nationa, frequently observed and recorded by persona utterly ignorant of classical lore, and unacquainted, indeed, with the dogmas of any creed but their own, do not, as well as various paesagea in the Scriptures, atford a etrikiog confirmation of thb theory of a future l i e ; while it, on the other hand, offera a natural and convenient explanation of their

m7-Y. To minds which can admit nothing but what can be explained

and demonstrated, an investigation of thie colt muat appear perfectly idle : for wh-ile, on the one hand, the niost acute intel- lect or the most powerful logic can throw little light on the subject, it ia, at the same time-though I have a confident hope that thie will not always be the case-equally irreducible within the present bounds of scieoce; meanwhile, experience, ob-ation, and intuition, must be our principal if not our only guides. Becaueo, in the seventeenth centu~y, credulity uutran reason and diecretinn ; tbe eighteenth century, by a natural re- action, threw imlf into an opposite extreme. Whoever closely obeervee the signs of the times, will be aware that another change is approaching. The contemptuous skepticism of tho last age is yielding to a more humble spirit of inquiry; and there is a large clam of pereolls among the most enlightened of the present, who are beginning to believe that much which they hed been taught to reject as a l e ,has been, in iwality, ill-under-

stood truth. Somewhat of the mystery of our own being, and of tho mysteries that compass us about, are beginning to loom upon us-as yet, it is true, but obscurely ; and, in the endeavor to follow out the clew they offer, we have but a feeble light to guide us. W e must grope our way through the dim path before us, ever in danger of being led into error, while we may confidently reckon on being pursued by the s h a h of ridicule- that weapon so easy to wield, eo potent to the weak, so weak to the wise-which has delayed the births of so many truths, but never stifled one. The pharisaical skepticism which denies without investigation, is quite as perilous, and mucli more con- temptible, than the blind credulity which accepts all that it iu taught without inquiry; it is, indeed, but another form of igno- rance assuming to be knowledge. And by isvestigation, I do not mean the hasty, captious, angry notice of an unwelcome fact, that too frequently claims the right of pronouncing on a question ; but the slow, modest, pains-taking examination, that is content to wait upon Nature, and humbly follow out her dia- closure^, however opposed to preconceived theories or morti-

fying to human pride. If scientific men could but comprehend how they discredit the science they really profess, by their despotic arrogance and exclusive skepticism, they would surely, for the sako of that very science they love, affect more lib-ality and candor. This reflection, however, naturally euggests an- . other, namely, do they really love science, or is it not too fre-quently with them but the means to an end ? Were the love of science genuine, I suspect it would produce verq different' fruits to that .which we see borne by the tree of knowle'dge, M

it flourishes at present; and this suspicion ie exceedingly utrengthened by the recollection that, among the numerous stu- dents and professors of science Ihave at different times encoun- tered, the real worshippers and genuine lovera of it, for its own

*

: sake, have all beer) men of the most single, candid, unpreju- diced, and inquiring minds, willing to listen to all new suggea- tions, and investigate all new facts ;not bold and self-sufficient,

1 but hum%le and reverent suitors, aware of their own ignokance and unworthiness, and that they are yet but in tho primer of

1,

10 THE NIGHT-BIDE OF NATURE.

Nature'e woske, they do not permit themselves to pronoun08 upon her disclosures, or eet limite to her decrees. They are content to admit that things new and 1 unsuspected may yet be true ; that their own knowledge of facta being extremely cir- cumscribed, the eyetems attempted to be eatabliehed on swh uncertain data, must ueeda be very imperfect, and frequently altogether erroneous ; and that it is therefbre their duty, ae it ought to be their pleasure, to welcome as a stranger every gleam of light that appeare in the horizon, let it loom from whatever quarter i t may.

But, ales ! poor Science has few such lovera ! L e a bcuva y w x dc ra casrette, I fear, are much more frequently the objects of attraction than her own fiiir face.

The belief in a God, and in tbe immortality of what we call the eoul, ie common to all nations ; but our own intellect does not enable ue to form any conception of eitber one or the other. All the inkmation we have on theee subjects ie wmprieed in such hint8 as the Scripture here and there give us : whatever other conclueions we draw, must be tho result of oheervation and experience. Unlese founded upon theee, the opinion of the most learned theologian or the most profound student of mi- ence that ever lived, is worth no more than that of any other person. They know uothing whatever about these mysteries ;

, and all d pi& reasoning on them ie utterly valuelwe. The only way, therefore, of attaining any glimpses of the truth ill an inquiry of th'i nature, where our intellect can eerve us so little, ie tsenter on it with the conviction that, knowing noth- ing, we are not entitled to reject any evidence-that may be offered to us, till it baa been thoroughly sifted, and proved to be fallacious. That the fecte preeented to our notice appear to us abnurd, and altogether inconeistent with the notione our intellects would have enabled us to form, b u l d have no weight whatever in the inveetigation. Our intellects sre no measure of God Almighty'e deaigus; and, I must my, that I do think one of the most irreverent, dangeroue, and sinful thinge man or wonran can be guilty of, in to reject with scorn and laughter any intimdon which, however ehgogely it may etriLe upon

INTRODUCTION. 11

onr minds, and how- adverse it may be to our opinions, may possibly be showing us the way to one of God's truths. Not knowing all the conditions, and wanting KDmany links of the chain, it ie impossible for us to pronounce on what ie probable a d consistent., aml what is not; and, thh being the cam, I tbink tbe time is ripe for drawing attention to certein pbenom- ena, which, under whatever Pepen we may consider them, are, beyond doubt, exceedingly interesting and curious ; while, if the view many pareons am disposed to take of them be the correct one, tbey are much more than tbie. I wieb, also, to make tho English public acquainted with the ideas entertained on these subjects by a large proportion of German minds of the highest order. I t is s distinctive characteristic of the thinkers of that country, that, in the first place, they do think indepen- dtmtly and courogeausly ; and, in the eecond, that they never shrink from promulgating the opinions they have boen led to form, however new, strange. heterodox, or even absurd, they may appear to others. They do not succumb, aa people do in thie country, to the fear of ridicule ; nor are they in danger of the odium that here pursues thorn who deviate from established notions; and the consequence ia, that, though many fallacious theories and untenable propositions may be advanced, a great deal of new truth is struck out from the collision ; and in the rmult, as must always be the case, what is true lives and is established, end wbat is fils0 dies and is fbrgotten. But here, in Britain, our critics and colleges are in such haste to strangle and put down every new discovery that does not e p n a t e from themselves, or which is not a fulfilling of the ideas of the day,

' but which, being somewhat oppoeed to them, promises to be troublesome from requiring new thought to render it intelli- gible, that one might be induced to suppose them diveated of all confidence in this inviolable law ; while the more important and the higher the result8 irivolved may be, the more angry they are with those who advocate them. They do not quarrel

i I with a new metal or a new plant, and even a new comet or a

new island stands a fair chance of being well received; the introduction of a planet apperve, from late evente, to be more

12 THE NIGIHT-BIDE OP NATURE

difficult; while phrenology. and mesmerism teetify that a y dis-covery tending to throw light on what most deeply concern us, namely, our own being, must be prepared to encounter a storm of angry persecution. And one of tbe evils of this haaty and precipitate opposition is, that the paseions and interests of the opposers become involved in the dispute : instead of invw tigatore, they become partisans; having declared against it in the outset, it is important to their peuy interests that the thing shall not lk true ; and they determine that it a l i d l not, if they can help it. Hence, these hasty, angry investigations of new facts, and the triumph with which failurea are recorded ; and hence the wilful overlooking of tlie axiom that a thousand neg-ative~can not overthrow the evidence of one affirmative experi- ment. I always dietlust those who have declared themeelveu strongly in the beginning of a controversy. Opiniops which, however rashly avowed, may have been honest ot first, may have been changed for many a long day before they are retracted, In the meantime, the march of truth ie obstructed, and its triumph is delayed; timid minds are alarmed; thow who dare not or can not think for themselves, are subdued; there is much needleea suffering iucurred, and much good lost ;

.but the truth goes quietly an its way, and reaches the goal at last.

With respect to the subjects I am here going to treat of, it is not simply the result of my own reflections and wnvictiom that I am about to offer. On the contrary, I iuteud to fortify my position by the opinions of many other writers; the chief of whom will, for the reasons above given, namely, that it ie they who have priucipally attended to the question, be Germans. . 1 em fully aware that in this country a very con&derabie number of pereone lean to some of them opiniow, and I think I might veuture to assert thnt I have tlie majority on my side, M h r aa regar& gbosts-for it is beyond a doubt that many more are diaposed to bolieve thntl to confess- and thoee who do con-fees, are not few. The deep interest with which any narration of spiritual appearances bearing the stamp, or apparent stamp, of authenticity is liotened to in every eociety, in one proof that,

13 INTRODCCTION.

Qough the fear of ridicule may suppress, it can not extinguish that intuitive persuasion, of which almost every one ie more or less conscious.

I avow, that in writing this book, I have a higher aim than merely to afford amusement. I wish to engage the earnest at- tention of my readers ; because I am eatisfied that the opinions I am about to advocate, seriously entertained, would produce very beneficial results. We are all educated in the belief of a future state, but how vague and ineffective this belief is with the majority of persons, we too well know; for although, as I have eaid above, the number of those who are what ie called believere in ghostcl and similar phenomena ie very large, it ie a belief that tbey allow to sit extremely lightly on their minds. Although they feel that the evidence from within and from without is too strong to be altogether set aside, they have never permitted themeelves to weigh the significance of the facta They are afraid of that bugbear, Superatition-a title of opprobrium whioh it is very convenient to attach to whnt- ever we do not beliem ourselves. They forget that nobody has a right to call any belief superstitious, till he can prove that it is unfounded. Now, no one that livee can aseert that the re- appearance of the dead is impossible ; all he has a right to say in, that he doee not believe it ; and the interrogation that should immediately follow this deolaratiou is, d 6 Have you devoted your life to sifting all the evidence that has been adduced on the other ride, from the earliest periods of history and tradition 1" and even tbough the answer were in the affirmative, and that the i~vesti~atibnhad been conscientiously pursued, it would be still a bold inquirer that would think himself entitled to say, the queetion was no longer open. But the rashnese and levity witb which mankind make professions of believing and disbe- lieving, are, all thinge considered, phenomena much more extra. ordinary tban the most extraordinary ghost-story that ever wan related. The truth is, that not one person in a thousand, in the proper sen= of the word, believes- anything ; they only fancy they believe, because they have never seriously considered tho meaning of the word and all that it involves. That which the .

I4 THE NIGHT-BIDE OF NATURE.

human mind can not conceive of, is apt to slip from its p p like water from the hand ; and life out of the floeh falls under this category. The observation of any phenomena, tberefore, which enabled us to maeter tbe idea, must necessarily be ex-tremely beneficial ; and it must be remembered, that one single tborougbly well-established instance of tbe reappearance of a deceased person, would not only have this effect, but tbat it would afford a demonetrative proof of the deepest of all our in-tuitions, napely, that a future life awaits us.

Not to mention the modern Germans of eminence, who have devoted themselves to this investigation, there have been men remarkable for intellect in all countriei, who have considered the subject worthy of inquiry. Among the rest, Plato, Pliny, and Lucien ;and in our own county, that good bld divine, Dr. Henry Moore, Dr. Johneon, Addieon, Isaac Taylor, and many others. It may be objected that the eternally-quoted case of Nicolai, the bookseller at Berlin, and Dr. Ferriar's Theory of Apparitions," had not then settled the question ; but nobody doubts that Nicolai'e waa a case of dieem; and he was well aware of it himself, as it appears to me, everybody so afflicted, ie. I was acquainted with a poor woman, in Edinburgh, who suffered from this malady, brought on, I believe, by drinkingy but she was perfectly conscious of the nature of the illusions; and that temperance and a doctor were the proper exorcirte to lay the spirits. With respect 'to Dr. Femiar's book, a more shallow one was assuredly never allowed to eettle any question ; and hie own theory can not, without the most violent straining, and the assistance of what he calls coincid~cer, meet even half the cases he himself adduces. That such a disease, as he de- scribes, exists, nobody doubts ; but I maintain that them an, hundreds of caees on record, for which the explanation d m not auffice ; and if they have been instancss of spectral illn-sion, all that remains to be said, is, that a fundamental recon-struction of the theory on that subject is demanded.

La Place nays, in his I 4E ~ s a yon Probabilities," that "any case, bowwer apparently incredible, if it be a recurrent case, ie aa much entitled, under the lam of induction, to a h i r mluatioq

16

'

I

1

INTRODUCTION.

as if it had been more probable beforehand." Now, no one will deny that the case in question poeeeaees this claim to invee- tigation. Determined skeptics may, indeed, deny that there exiota any well-authenticated instance of an apparition; but &at, at present, can only be a mere matter of opinion; emce many persons, aa competent to judge rta themselves, maintain the contrary; and in the meantime, I arraign their right to make this objection till they have qualiied themeelves to do so, by a long coume of patient aud honest inquiry ; always remem- bering that every instance of error or imposition diecovered and adduced, bas no positive value whatever in the argument, but as regards that eingle instance ; though it may enforce upon ae €he necessity of strong evidence and carehl inverrtigatioo. With respect to the evidence, past and present, I must be al-lowed bere to remark on the extreme difficulty of producing it. Not to mention the acknowledged carelessness of observers and the alleged incapacity of persons to distinguish between reality and illusion, there is an exceeding rrhynesa in most peo-ple, who, eitber have seen, or fancied they have seen, an appa- rition, to speak of it at all, except to some intimate friend ; so that one gets most of the etoriee second-hand ; while eveo thoae who are less chary of their communications, are imperative against their name and authority being given to the public. Beeides this, there is a pea t tendency in most people, afaer the im-preeaion is over, to think they may have been deceived ;and where there is no communication or other circumstauce renderir~g this conviction impoeeible, it is not difficult to acquire it, or at least so much of it at3 leaves tbe case valueless. The seer is glad to find tbis refuge from the unpleasant feelings engendered ;while surrounding friends, sometimes from genuine skepticism, and sometimes finom good-nature, almost invariably lean to this ex- planation of the mystery. In consequence of these difficulties and those attending the very nature of the phenomena, I freely admit that the facts I shall adduce, an they uow stand, can have no scientific value ; they can not in short, enter into the region of science at all, still leea into that of pliiloeophy. Whatever ~ d w i o n ewe may be led to form, can not be founded on pure

16 THE NIGHT-SIDE OF NATURE.

induction. W e must confine ourselves wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond which, we shall muredly founder. In the beginning, all sciet~ms have been but a wllec- tion of facts, aflerward to be examined, compared, and weighed, by intelligent minds. To the vulgar, who do not see the uni- versal law which governs the universe, everything out of the ordinary course of events, is a ~rodigy ; but to the enlightened mind there are no prodigiee; for it perceives that in both the moral and the physical world, there is a chain ofynintempted connection; and that the most strange and even apparently con- tradictory or supernatural fact or went will be found, on due investigation, to be strictly dependent on its antecedents. It is po~sible, that there may be a link wanting, and that our inves- tigations may, consequently, be fruitless ; but the link is aseu- redly there, although our imperfect knowledge and limited vie- ion can not find it.

And it is here the proper place to observe, that, in underta- king to treat of the phenomena in question, I do not propose to consider them as supernatural ; on tbe contrary, I am per- suaded that the time will come, wheu they will be reduced strictly within the bounds of science. I t was the tendency of the last age to reject and deny everything they did not under- stand ; I hope it is the growing tendency of the present one to ezaminc what we do not understand. Equally disposed with our predecessors of the eighteenth century to reject the super- natural, and to believe the order of nature inviolable, we are disposed to extend the bounds of nature and science, till they comprise within their limits all the phenomena, ordinary and extraordinary, by which we are surrounded. Scarcely a month passes that we do not hear of some new and important discov- ery in science. I t ie a domain in which nothing is stable, and evory year overthrows some of the hasty and premature theo- ries of the preceding ones; and this will continue to be the case as long aa scientific mon occupy themselves each with his own subject, without studying the great and primal truths- w h ~ t the French call Ier ueriLLa m2rer-which link the whole together.' Meantime, there is a continual unsettling. Truth,

INTRODUCTION. 17

ifit do not emanate from an acknowledged authority, is gen-erally rejected ; and error, if it do, is ss often accepted;while, whoever disputes tbe received theory, whatever it be -we mean especi4ly that adopted by the profemre of colleges-does it at his peril. But there is a day yet brooding in the bosom of time, when the sciences will be no longer isolated; when we shall no longer deny, but be able to account for, phe-nomena apparently prodigious, or have the modesty, if we can not explain them, to admit that the difficulty arinea solely from our own incrp'acity. The system of centralization in atatistics seems to be of doubtful advantage; but a greater degree of centralization appears to be very much needed in the domain of science. Some improvement in this respect might do won-ders, particularly if reinforced with a slight infusion of patience and humility into the minds of scientific men; togetber with the recollection that facta and phenomena, which do not depend on our will, must be waited for-that we must ba at their command, for they will not be at oure.

But to return once more io our own subject. If we do be-lieve that a future life awaits us, there can be nothing more natural than the desire to obtain mme information as to what manner of life that is to be for which any one of us may, before

' this time to-morrow, have exchanged his present mode of be-ing. That there does not exiet a greater interest with regard to this question in the mind of man, arises partly from tbe vague, intangiblekind of belief he entertains of the fact ; partly from his absorption in worldly affairs, and the bard and indi-gestible food upon which his clerical shepherds pasture him-for, under dogmatic theology, religion aeerns to hare withcred away to the mere huek of epiritualiem; and partly, also, from the apparent impossibility of pursuing the inquiry to any pur-pose. Ae I said before, observation and experience can alone guide us in such an inquiry; for, though most people have a more or less intuitive sense of their own immortality, intuition is silent ae to the mode of it ; and the question I am anxious here to diecuee with my Peaders is, whether we have any faeta

i to observe, or any experience from which, on t h i most inter-

18 THE NIGHT-BIDE OF k l T U R E .

eating of all subjects, a conclueion may be drawn. Great Mthe difficulty is of producing evidence, it will, I think, be pretty generally admitted that, although each individual case, as it Btands alone, may be comparatively valudees, the amount of recurrent casee forms a body of evidence that, on any other subject, would scarcely be rejected ; and since, if the f ~ t sare accepted, they imperatively demand an explanation -for, ae-euredly, the preeent theory of epeotral illusions can not com-priee them-our inquiry, let it terminate in whatever conclu- sion it may, can not be ueeleee or uniuteresting. *~arioullviews of the phenomena in question may be taken; and although I hal l offer my own opinioaa and the theories and opinions of othem, I insist upon none. I do not write to dogmatbe, but to sugge~treflection and inquiry. The booke'of Dr. Ferriar, Dr. Hibbert, and Dr. Thatcher, the American, are all written to eupport one exclueive theory ; and they only give such caeee as serve to euatain it. They maintain that the whole phenomena are rekrible to nervous or eanguineoue derangement, and are mere subjective illusions ; and whatever inatance can not be covered by this theory, they reject se f&e, or treat as a cese of extraordinary coincidence. In ehort, they arrange the fa- to their theory, not their theory to the fact.. Their booka can not, therefore, claim to be cohsidered aa anything more than eeeays on a apecial dieease ; they have no pretence whatever to the character of inveetigations. The question, consequently, remain8 as much an open one aa before they treated it ; while we have the advantage of their experience and information, with regard to the peculiar malady that forms the eubject of their works. On that subject it ie not my intention to enter; it is a strictly medical one, and every information may be obtained respecting it in the above-named treatbe, and othem emana- ting from the faculty.

The subjecte I do intend to treat of' are the various kinds of prophetic dreams, preeientimenta, second-eight, and apparitione ; and, in short, all that clerrs of phenomena which appears to throw mme light on our physical nature, and on the probable &ate of the mu1 a&er death. In thir dinouedon, I shall make

INTRODUCTION. I9

w e of my Gtetman authorities, Doatom Kerwr, Btiftisg, Werner, Esohmayer, Enwmoser, P a s ~ ~ e n t ,fhhubert, Von Meyer, h.,&.; and I here make a general acknowledgmePt to that effect, becwum it wodd embnaw my book too much to be oo~tsn t lygiving name0 and references, dthoagla, when I quote heir wordo literally, I ehdl make a point of doing 00;

and because, dm,that,as 1have been both thinking snd read-ing mu& on tbaee eubjede for a canriderable time paet, I run, in fact, no longer in a condition to appropriate, either to them or to myself, each his own. This, however, ie a matter of very little consequence,M I am not desiroue of claiming any ides as mine that can be fbund elsewhere. It is enough for me, if I encoed in making a tolersbly clear e x p d o n of the eubject, and can induce 0 t h people to re&& upon it.

C H A P T E R 11.

THE DWKLL- IN TP1 TEYPLn.

ITie almoet needltw to eke,that the Scripturea repeatedly speak of man as a tripartite being, consbting of spirit, aoul, and body : aud that, according to St. Paul, we have two bodies-s natural body and a spiritual body ; the fonner being designed as our meand of communication with the external world-on instrument to be wed and controlled by our nobler perta. It is this view of it, carried to a fanaticism, which has led to the various and extraordinary mortifications recorded of asceticg. AE is remarked by the Rev. Hare Townahend, in a late edition of hie book on mesmerism, in thie fleshly body coaeiste oar or- ganic life ; in the body which we are to retain through eternity, c o n a h our fundamental life. May not the first, he says, be

, a temporary development of the last, juet ae leaves, flowers, and fhita, are the temporary developmente of a tree ? Aqd in tbe

/ came manner that them plw, and drop away, yet leave the prin-

PO T H E NIOHT-8IDQ OP NATUPR

ciple of reproduction b e h i ao may our p-t o v k, detached from ue by death, and yet the ground of our eshmco be epared to ue continuouely."

Without eutering into the subtle diepaw ofphilo8opben, with regard to the epirit, a eubject on which there i a standkg controversy between the disciples of Hegel and those of ather teachers, I need only observe that the Scriptures seem to indi-cat , what mme of the heathen ages taught, that the epirit that dwells within us ie the epirit of God, incorporated in ur 5br a period, for certain ends of his own, to be thereby wmgbt out. What thorn ends are, it d m not belong to my present mbject to consider. In this spirit eo imparted to us, dwells, sspEb-chenmayer, the conscience, which keeps watch over the body and the eoul, saying, Tbue halt. thou do I" And it is to thb Christ addrewe himeelf when he bids hie disciples become perfect, like their Father in heaven. The soul ia mbject to the rpirit ; and its functions are, to will, or & o w , to t h k , and to feel, and to become thereby cognizant of the true, the beauti- ful, and the good ; comprehending the higheet principle, h e higheet ideal, and the moat perfect happineae. The Ego,or I, ia the reaultant of the three forces, Pneama, Psyche, Soma- spirit, aoul, and body.

In the epirit or eoul, or rather in both conjoined, dwelb, dm, the power of qnXtuu1 racing, or d r i t i w knoroing; for, ss there is a spiritual body, there is a epiritual eye, and a spiritual ear, and eo forth ; or, to speak more correctly, a!] these senat- ow functione are comprised in one universal moe,which does not need the aid of the bodily orgone ; but, on the contrary, is most efficient when moat freed from them. It remains to be secn whether, or in what degree, such separation can take place during life ; complete it can not be till death ; but whoever be-lieves sincerely that the divine spirit dwells within him, can, I ehould think, find no difficulty in conceiving th.t, although from the temporary conditions towhich that spirit ia eubjected, this univelaal faculty ie limited snd obscured, it muet still retain itcl indefeasible attribute.

We may naturally conclude that the most perfect ststeof man

1PHE D W B L L E R IN THE TEMPLE 91

on esfth aonsistr, in the most perfect unity of the npirit and the rool ; and to t b m who in this life have attained the n m s t to thet unity will the entire assimilation of the two, after they ere wpsrrted fiom the body, be the easiest; while to thoee who hve lived only their intellectual and external life, this union muet be extremely diicult, the soul having chosen i b part with rhe body, and divorced itaelt; aa much aa in it lay, from the spirit. The voice of conscience is then scarcely heard ; and the soul, degraded and debased, can no longer perfonn its functions of ctiscerning the true, the beautiful, and the god.

On these distinct functions of the soul and spirit, however, it in not my inteotion to insist, since it appears to me a subject on wbicb we are not yet in a condition to dogmatize. We know rathermore about our bodies, by means of which the soul and spirit are united and brought into contact with the material

' world, and whioh are constmcted wholly with a view to the conditions of that world ; such a8 time, space, solidity, extension, kc., &x. But we must conceive of God as necesaarhy inde- pendent of these conditiow. To Him, all times and all places must be for ever present ; and it is taw that he is omniscient and omnipresent; and since we are placed by the spirit in im- mepiate relation with God and the spirituel world, just a13we are placed by the body in immediate relation with the material world, we may, in the find placo, form a notion of the posaibil- ity thet some hint gleama of them illherent attributes may, at timee, shoot up through the clay in which tbe spirit has take11 up its temporary abode ; and we may also admit, that through the connection wbich exists between us and the pir ritual world, it is not impsible but that we may, at times, and under cer-tain conditions, became cognizant of, and enter into more im-mediate relation with it. This is the only postulate I ask ; for, as I mid before, I do not wish to enforce opinione, but to sug-geat probabilities, or at least poesibilities, and thus arouse reflec- tion and inquiry.

' With respect to the t8rm invirible w l d , I beg to remind my readers,that what we call aeeimg is merely the function of an

I argan constru~tedfor that pu rpw in relation to the external

99 THE NIGHT-BIDE OP NATURE

world ; and EO limited are its powere, tbat we are surnnmdsdby many things in that world which we can not see witbout tbe &d of artificialappliawm asld many other things which we can not me even with them ; the atmosphere in which we live, for ex-ample, although its weight and mechanical forces are the mb-jects of accurata' calculatios ia entirely imperceptible to ara visual organs. Thus, the k t that we do not commonly see them, forms no legitimate objection to the hypothdis of our being surrounded by a world of spirita, or of that world being inter-diffueed among ue. Supposing the question to be ducided that we do met imes become cognizant of them, which, bow-ever, I admit it ia not, since, whether the apparitions are subjective, or objective, that is, whether they are the mere phenomena of disease, or real oueetanding appearancee, is the inquiry I desire to promote-but, 1 my,ruppoeing that quea-tion were decided in the a h a t i v e , the next that a r k s b,how, or by what means do we see them ; or, if they ad- us,bear them 1 If that universal sense which appeare to me to be in-separable from the idea of spirit, .be once h i t t e d , I think there can be no difficulty in' answering thie question ;and if it be objected that we are conscious of no such sense, I answer, that both in dream8 and in certain abnormal st- of the body, it ia frequently manifated. In order to render thin more clear, and, at the same time, to give an intereatingiuotance of tbL ooxt of phenomenon, I will transcribe a panuage from a letter of St. Augustbe to hie f r ied Ersdius(Epistola159, Antwerp edition).

I will relate to you a ciroumstance," he w r i t . which will h r n a you matter tbr retiedon. Our brother Sennadius, well known to us dl an an eminent phyoicim, and whom we wpe-cidly lwe, who ia now at Cartbage, sfter having cliatinguisbed himself at Romy, and with whose piety and active benevolence you am well acqueinted, conk1 yet, nevertheless, as he h a lately narrated to us, by no means bring himself to believe in a life sRer death. Now, God, doubtlens, not willing that his mu1 rhould perish, there appeared to him 'one night, in a dream, a d i t youth of noble aspect, who bade him follow him ; and u Sendim obeyed, they cams to city where, on the righ

THE DWELLER IN TEE TEMPLE 9s

&, be hesrd a chonm of the most b e a d y voicas. Aa he desired to know whence this divine harmony proceeded, the youth told him hat what he heard wem the aonp of the bleb md ;wbeeupon be awoke, and thought no more of his dmap than people usually do. 00 another night, however, behold l the youth appears to him again, and aaka him if he know8 him ; and Sennadius reiated to him all the particulars of his former dream, which he well remembered. Then,'said the youth, 'wan it while sleeping or waking that you oaw theee things 1'-'I wae sleeping,' answered Sennadius. '.You are right,' re turned the youth, 'it mu in your sleep that you saw theae

- things ; and know, 0 Sermdius, that what you see now is a h in yaur sleep. But if this be so,tell me where then is your body 1' -' In my bedchamber,' m e r e d Sennadius. But know you not,' wnhued the stranger, 'that your eyes, which form a part of your body, are clomed and inactive I,--' I know it,' anawered he. 'Then,' said the youth, 'with what eyes see you them thingo I' And Sennedius could not nnswer him ; and ss he hesitated, the youth spoke again, and explained to him tbe motive of his qusetions. 'As tbe epee of your body,' said be, which lies now on your bed and sleeps, are inactive and uaelms, end yet you have eyes wherewith you we me and these

1 thingo I have sllono unto you ;eo after death, when theme bodily organs fail you, you will have a vital power, whereby you will live, and a sensitive hculty, whereby you will perceive. Doubt, therefore,no longer that there is slife atter destb.' And thus," mid this excellent man, " m a I oenvinced, and all doubts re-moved."

I confess there appears to me a beauty and a logical truth in

I tlaia dream th& 1think might wnvince tmre than the dreamor.

It ia by the hypothesis of thia universal sense, latent within us-an hypothesis which, whoever believes th& we are immor-tal spirits, iucorporated for a season m a material body, can scarcely reject-that I seek to explain those perceptions which are not comprised witbin the functions of our bodily organa. It mmr to me to be the key to all or nearly all ofthem, M far

!2.4 THE NIGHT-SIDE OF .NATURE.

this admitted, them would then remhin the ditiicuky of account-ing for the partial and capricious glimpses we get of it; while in that department of the mystery which regards apparitions, except such as are the pure result of diaeaee, we muet p p e our way, with very little light to guide us, as to the conditions and motives which might possibly bring them into any imms- diate relation with us. '

To any one who has been fortunate enough to witnew one genuine case of clairvoyance, I think the conception of this universal sense will not be difticult, however the mode of its exercise may remaiu utterly incomprehensible. As I have said above-to the great Spirit and Fountain of life, all things, in both apace and time, must be preaent. However imposaible it ia to our finite minds to conmive this, we muet believe it. I t may, in some alight degree, facilitate the conception to remem- ber that action, once begun, never ceases-an impuhe g i v a ie tranemitted on for ever ; a eouud breathed reverberates in eternity; and thus the past ir always present, although, for the purpoae of fitting us for this mortal life, our ordinary senees are ' so constituted aa to be unperceptive of these phenomena With respect to what we call the fuhcte, it is more difficult still for ue to conceive it as pres6nt; nor, as far as I know, a n we borrow from the sciences the same aeeietaoce as mechanical discoveries have just furnished me with in regard to the past. How a spirit sbee that which bas not yet, to our senses, taken plaae, seem8 certainly inexplicable. Fwmeing it is not inex- plicable : we foresee many things by arguingon given premisecl, although, from our own finite views, we are always liable to be mistaken. Louie Lambert says : " Such events ssare the pmd- uct of humanity, and the reanlt of its intelligence, have their own c a u q in which they lie latent, just as our action8 are aceompliehed in our thoughts previous to any outward demon- etration of them ; premntiments and propbecitm consist in the intuitive perception of thew causes." This explanation, which is quite oonfbrmable with that of Cicero, may aid us in eome degree as regarda a certain small class of phenomena; but there is wwething invohed in the question much mom mbtle

THE NIGHT-SIDE OF NATURE.

C H A P T E R X I I ;

TROUBLED SPIBXTB.

A VERY curious circumetance,, illustrative of the powm of will, was lately narrated to me by a Greek gentleman, to whome uncle it occurred. His uncle, Mr. M-, was Borne yesra ago travelling in Magneaia with a friend, when they arrived one evening at a caravawerai, where they found themselves anpro- I

vlded with anything to eat. I t was therefore agreed that one ehould go forth and endeavor to procure food ; and the friend I

offering to undertake the office, Mr. M- stretched himself on the floor to repose. Some time had elapsed, and hie friend Ihad not yet returned, when hie attention waa attracted by a whispering in the room. He looked up, but saw nobody, tbough i still the whispering continued, seeming to go round by tbe wall. At length it approached him ;but though he felt a burning mu- 1

sation on hie cheek, and heard the whispering distinctly, he could not catch the words. Presently he heard the f m w e p of hia friend, and thought he waa returning; but though they appeared to come quite cloee to him, and it wan perfectly light, he still eaw nobody. Then he felt a strange eenratbn-an irreaiatible impulee to rise: he felt himself dram up,across I the room, out of the door, down the stairs-be muat go,be could not help it-to the gate of the caravawrai, a little fir-thor ; and there he found the dead body of hie f n d , who bad been suddenly seeailed and cut down by robbms, unbappill too plenty in the neighborhood at that period.

W e here see the desire of the spirit to communkte his fhte Ito the eurvivor; the imperfection of tbe rapport, or the mwp I

tivity, which prevented a mom direct intercoum; a d tbe exertion of a meguetic influence, which Mr. M- could not 1

j

TBOUBLED BPIRITB NU

resist, precieely mmilar to that of a living magnetizer over hL patient.

There is a story extant in varioue Englieh collections, the circumstances of which are said to have occurred about the middle of the last century, and which I shall here mention, on account of its similarity to the one that followe it.

Dr. Bretton, who was, late in life, appointed rector of Lud- gate, lived previouely in Hemfordshire, where be married the daughter of Dr. Santer, a woman of great piety and virtue. . This lady died ; and one day, as a former eervant of hem-to whom she had been attached, and who bad aioee married- woe nursing her chid in her own cottage, the door opened, and a lady eotered so exactly resembling the late Mrs. Brett011 in dcese d appearance, that she exclaiped : "If my mistrew ware not dead, I should think you were she 1" Whereupon the apparition told her that ehe was, wd requested her to go with her, as she, had businese of importance to communicate. Alice objected, being very much frightened, and entreated her to address hereelf rather to Dr. Bretton; but Mm.B. answered that &Aad endeavored to do ro, and itad bem reomal t imu i s Air r o w fm t l id p=rpore, but irc zwr atill mIecp, asd a h had no power to do more toward awakening Aim tAar once +roovrr Airfwa Alice then pleaded that she Bad nobdy to leave with her cbild; but Mrs. B. promising that tbe child should eleep till her retarn, she at length obeyed the summom; and having acoornpanied the apparition into a large field, the latter bade bar observe Law much ehe measured off with her feet, and, bsv- ing taken a considerable compaes, ebe bade her go and bell her brother tbat, all that portion bad bean wrongfully taken &om the poor by their father, and that he must reatore it to them, add-ing that she was theomore concerned about it, since her name had h e n ueed in the transaction. Alice thee d i n g how ebe should satisfy the gentleman of the truth of her miwion, Mra. B. mentioned to her some circumstance known only toherself and thie brother; she then entered into much discouree with tbe woman, md gave her a great deal of good advice, rerpein-iPg till, beariag the wund of homsbelle, ebe oeid r A l i i I

2M T H E NIGHT-BIDE OF N A T U R E

must be seen by none but youreelf," and then disappeared. Whereupon Alice proceeded to Dr. Bretton, who admitted that he had actually heard some one walking about his room, in a way he could not account for. On mentioning the thing to the brother, he laughed heartily, till Alice communicated tbe secret which constituted her credentials, upon which he chsopd his tone, and declared himself ready to make the required tes-titution.

Dr. Bretton seems to have made no secret of this story, but to have related it to various persons ; and I think it ie ma what in its favor, that it exhibits a remarkable instance of the various degree6 of receptivity of different individoakr, wbere there was no euspicion of the cause, nor any attempt made to explain why Mrs. Bretton could not communicate her wbbm to her husband aa easily ss to Alice. The promising that the child should sleep, was promising no more than many a mag-netism could fulfil. There are several curious stories extant, of lame and suffering persons suddenly recovering, who &b-uted their restoration to the vieit of an apparition which had stroked their limbs, &c. ; and these are the more curious from the fact that they occurred before Mesmer's time, when people in general knew nothing of vital magnetiem. Dr. Binne quotes the csse of a person named Jacob Olaffson, a resident in some small bland subject to Denmark, who, after lying very ill for a fortnight, waa found quite well, which he accounted for by ssy- ing that a person in shining clothen had come to him in tbe night and stroked him with his hand, whereupon he wae preb ently healed. But the stroking is not always necssssry, mate we know that the eye and the will can produce the aame efpbct.

The other case to which I alluded, aa similar to that of Mm. Bretton, occurred in Germany, and is related by Dr. Kemer.

. The late Mr. L- St. -, he eays, quitted thii world with an excellent reputation, being at the time superintendent of an institution fbr the relief of the poor in 6.Rim inherited hi property, and, in acknowledgment of the Mthful cervices of his father's old bowkeeper, be took her into bin i b d y and eatablbhed her in a countryhoasa, a fiw milea Aom

266 TROUBLED 8PIRITB. ,

&---,which formed part of his inheritance. She h d been settled there but a short time, when she wee awakened in the night, ehe knew not how, and saw a tall, haggard-looking man in her room, who was rendered visible to her by a light that seemed to issue from himself. She drew the bedclothes over her bead ; but, as this apparition appeared to her repeatedly, she became so much alarmed that she mentioned it to her mati

. ter, begging permission to resign her situation. He however laughed at her-told her it must be all imagination-and promised to sleep in the adjoining apartment, in order that she might call him whenever thin terror seized her. He did eo; but,wben the spectre returned, she was so much oppressed with horror that she found it impossible to raise her voice. Her master then advised her to inquire the motive of its visit& This she did: whereupon, it beckoned her to follow, which, after some struggles, she summoned resolution to do. It then led the way down some steps to a paseage, where it pointed out to her a concealed closet, which it signified to her, by signs, she should open. She represented that she had no key :where-upon, it described to her, in sufiiciently articulate words, where she would find one. She procured the key, and, on opening the eloaet, found a small parcel, which the spirit desired her to remit to the governor of the institution for the poor, at B-----, with the injunction that the contents should be applied to the benetit of the inmates,-this restitution being the only meam whereby he could obtain rest and peace in tbe other world. Having mentioned these circumstances to her master, who bade her do what she had been desired, she took the parcel to the governor a ~ d delivered it, without commuuicatiug by what means it had come into her hands. Her name wse entered in their books and she was dismissed; but, afbr she was gone, they discovered to their surprise that the packet contained an order for thirty thousand florins, of which the late Mr. St. --bad dehuded the institution and converted to hie owh we.

jr., was now called upon to pay the money, whieh be r e k g to do, the &sir was at length refexred to

-,* St.Mr.

IM6 THE NIGHT-BIDE OF NATURE.

the authorities; and the houeekeeper being arrested, hd and ehe were confronted in the court, where she detailed the cir- cumstancee by which the arce el had come into her poaaeseion. Mr. St. -denied the poeeibility of the thing, declaring the whole muet be, for Rome purpoee or other, an invention of her own. Suddenly, while making thie defence, he felt a blow upon hie shoulder, which caused him to start and look round, and at the same moment the housekeeper exclaimed : See 1 there he etands, now-there is the ghost!" None perceived the figure excepting the woman herself and Mr. St. -; hat everybody present heard the following worde : My eon, repair the injuetice I have committed, that I may be at peace I" The money was paid; and Mr. St. -was so much dected by thie painful event, that he was seized with a severe illnees, from which he with difficulty recovered.

Dr. Kerner says that these circumstances occurred in tho year 1816, and created a coneiderable sensation at the time, though, at the earnest requeet of the family of Mr. St. ----, there wae an attempt made to hueh them up; adding, that in the month of October, 1819,he was himeelf assured by a very respectable citizen of 6,that it wae universally known in the town that the ghoet of the late superintendent had a p peared to the housekeeper, and pointed out to her where ebe would find the packet; that she had coaeulted the minister of her pariah, who bade her deliver it ae directed; that she bad been subsequently arrested, and the affair brought before the authorities, where, while making hie defence, Mr. St. -had received a bhw from an invisible hand ; and that Mr. St. -was eo much affected by them circumetancee, which got abroad in epite of the efforts to supprese them, that he did not lolrg survive the event.

G m e , the antiquary, makee himself very merry with the obeomtion that ghosts do not go about their buainees like other people; and that in ceaes of murder, inetead of going to the nearest juatice of peace, or to the neaxeet relation of the d e a e d , a ghoet addrellees ib l f to aomebody who had nntbing to do with tbe matter, or horera about the grave whers itr

TROUBLED BPIBITB. S.7

body is deposited. The aame circuitoue mode in pumed," be says, '(with respect to redrewing injured orphan8 or widuwa ; where it seems as if the shortest and most certain way would be to go and haunt the person guilty of the injrstice, till he were terrified into restitution." W e find the same mrt of etric- turea made on the story of the ghost of Sir George Villiers, which-inatead of going directly to his son, the duke of Ruck- ingham, to warn him of hia danger-addreped himself to an inferior peraon ; while the warning was, after all, inefficacious, as the duke would not take counsel ;-but surely such stric- tures are aa absurd as the conduct of the ghoat : at least I think there can be nothing more abaurd than pretending to preecribe laws to nature, and judging of what we know eo little about.

The proceedings of the ghost in the following case will doubt- less be equally diapleaaing to the critics. The account is ex- tracted verbatim from a work published by the Bannatyne Club, and is entitled, "Authentic Account of the Appearance of a Ghost in Queen Ann'e County, Maryland, Uuited States of North America, proved in the following remarkable +a], from attested notes taken in court at the time by one of 4 e cuunsel."

I t appeara that Thomas Harris had made some alteration in the disposal of his property, immediately previous to hia death; and that the family disputed the will and raised up difficultiea likely to be injurious to his children.

6d William Brigs said, that he waa forty-three yeare of age ; that Thomas Harris died in September, in the year 1790. In the March following he waa riding near the place where tho mas^ Harris waa buried, on a horse formerly belonging to Thomaa Harrie. After crowing a small branch, hie horse began to walk on v e 7 fast. It was between the hours of eight 'and nine o'clock in the morning. He waa alone : it was a clear day. H e entered a lane adjoining to the field where Thomaa Hal-ria wae

. buried. Hia home ~uddenly wheeled in a panel of the feoce, , looked over the fence into the field where Thomas Harris was buried, and neighed very loud. Witnew then saw Thomas Hairis coming toward him, in the same apparel he had last eeen him in in bis lifetime; he had on a sky-blue coat. Just

N B THE NIGHT-SIDB OP NATURE.

M r e he came to the fence, he varied to the right and tan-irhed; his horse immediately took the mad. Thomas Ha* came within two panels of the fence to him ; he did not see his features, nor speak to him. H e waa acquainted with Thomas Harris when a boy, and there had always been a great intimacy between them. He thinks the horse knew Thomaa Harria, be-cause of his neighing, pricking up his ears, and looking over the fence.

@@Aboutthe first of June following, he waa ploughing in his own field, about three miles from where Thomw Ha& was buried. About dusk Thomas Harris came alongside of him, and walked with him about two hundred yards. H e was d d as when firat seen. He made a halt about two etepe Grom him. J. Bailey who waa ploughing along with him, came driving up, and he lost sight of the ghost. He was much alarmed : not a word was spoken. The young man Bailey did not see him ;he did not tell Bailey of it. There was no motion of any particu- lar part : he vanished. I t preyed upon his mind M, as to affect his health. H e was with Thomaa Harris when be died, but had no p a r t i c u l ~ conversation with him. Some time after, he war lying in bed, about eleven and twelve o'clock at night, when be heard Thomw Harria groan ; it was like the groan he gave a few minutes before he expired : Mrs. Brigs, his wife, heard the groan. She got up und searched the h o w : he did not, becanse he knew the groau to be from Thomas Harris. Some time after, when in bed, and a great fire-light in the room, he aaw a shadow on the wall, and at the same time he felt a great weight upon him. Some time afier, when in'bed and asleep, he k l t a etroke between hie eyes, which blackened them both : his wife war in bed with him, and two young men were in the rrmm. The blow awaked him, and all in the room were asleep; is car-tain no one in the room struck him : the blow swelled his nora

* About the middle of August he was alone, coming fiom Hickey Collins's, after dark, about one hour in the night, when T h o m Harris appeared, d rewd aa he had Been him when going down to the meeting-houre branch, three miles and a half h m tbo grrrveyard of Tbomaa Harrio. I t wan stsrlighf H e e x t d e d

0

TROUBLED BPII[CITS 2W)

. hie arms aver his shoulders. Does not MOWbow long he remained in this situation. He was much alarmed. Thomss Harris disappeared, Nothing was said. He felt no weight on '

hie shoulders. He went back to Collim'e, and got a young -man to go with him. ARer he got home he mentioned it to the young man. He had, beforo this, told James Harris he had seen his brother's ghost.

In October, about twilight in the morning, he saw Thomm Harria about one hundred yards from the house of the witness ; his bead WM leaned to oue side ; same apparel M befbre ; his face w a ~ ~toward him ; be walked fsat and dieappeared : them was nothing between them to obstruct the view ; he was about fifty yards from him, and alone; he had no conception why ' Thomas Harris appeared to him. On the same day, about eight o'clock in the morning, he wan handing up bladea to John Bailey, who was stacking them; he saw Thomas Hams come aloq the gardem fence, d r d aa before; he vanished, and always 'to the east; was within Meen feet of him; Bailey did not see him. An hour and a half afterward, in the same place, be again appeared, coming an before ; came dp to the fence ; leaned on it within ten feet of the witness, who called to Bailey to iwk there (pointing toward Thomaa Hams). Bailey asked what was there. Don't you see Harris! Does not rectjllect what Bailey said. Witnees advanced toward Harris. One or the other spoke as witness got over the fence on the same panel that Theman Harris was leaning on. They walked M together about five hundred yards; a convenation took place an they w a b d ; he har not the converaation on his memory. He could not understand Thomas Harris, his voice was so low. He mked Thomas Harrb s question, and he forbid him. Witnew then . d e d , W h y not go to your brother, instead of met' Thomas Harris said, 'Ask me no quwtions.' ' Witnees told him his will was doubted. Thomaa Harris told him to ask his brother if he , did not remember the convemation which passed between them on the eant side of rhe wheat-stacks, the day he was taken with hie Jeeth-sicknesa; that he then declared that he wiehed all his p-y kept together by Jamm Hams, until hi children

THE IKIGBT-SIDE OF IrlATUBE.

-ved at age, then the whole should be sold and divided among hie children; and, should it be immediately sold, M e x p r d in his will, that the property would be moat wanting to hia cbil- dren while mmors, therefore he had changed his will, and mid that witneee ehould aee him again. H e then told m'tnees to turn, and dierppeared. He did not epeak to him with the same voice aa in his lifetime. H e was not daunted while with Thomas Harris, but much afterward. Wimese then went to James H a d and told him that he had men his brother three times that day. Related the conversation he had with him. Asked James Harris if he remembered the convereation be-tween him and his brother, at the wheatatack ; he said he did ; then told him whet had passed. Said he would hlfil h h broth-er'e will. He wae setisfied that witneee had seen his brother, Eor that no other p e m n h e w the convermtbn. On the mime evening, returning home about an hour before sunset, Thorn- Harris appeared to Mm,and came alongside of him. Wierrs told him that his brother said he would fulfil hie will. No . more eonversation on thii subject. He disappeared. H e bad further convemtion with Thomas Hams, but not on this sub- ject. H e waa always dreemd in the same manner. He had never related to any pereon the last conveteation, and newer would.

"Bailey, who was sworn in the cause, declared that 8s be and Brige were etacking blades. ee related by Brig , he called to witneae and said, 'Look there ! Do you not eee 9'bomas Harris 9' Witneae said, 'No.' Brige got over the h e e , and walLed some distance-appeared by hi action to be in deep conversation with some person. Witneea saw no one.

' I The counsel wan extremely anxious to hem from Mr. Brie the whole of the conversation of the ghmt, and on hie cross-ex-amination toot every me&#, without effect, to obtain it. Theyrepmaanted to him, w a religious man, he was bound to dis- oloee the whole truth. He appeared agitated when applied to, declaring nothing short of life should make him r e d tbe whole oonverertion, and, claiming the protection of the court, h t he had d d u e d all he knew relative to the cam..

TROUBLED 8PIIITL Y1

The court overruled the queation of tbe C O W U K J I . HOP Jamee Tilgman, judge.

Ht excellency Robert Wright, late governor of Maryland, and the Hon. Joseph H. Nicholson, afterward judge of o w of tbe courts in Maryland, were tbe wunsel for the plainti@.

"John Scott and Richard T. Earl, Esqs., were counwl ib the ddendanL"

Here, ae in the cane of Col. M-, mentioned in a fbmw cbpter , and some otbere I have met with, we find d~closarsr made ha t were held ascred.

Dr. Korner relates the following singular story, which he declares hiineelf to hare received from the moat satidkctory authority. Ague8 6,being at the time eighteen yearn of age, was living ae servant in a small inn at Undenheim, her ns- tive place. The host and hostsas were quiet old people, who generally went to bed about eight o'clock, while she and the boy, the only other servant, were expected to sit up till m, wben they had to h u t up tbe houee and retire to bed also. One evening, as the host waa sitting on a bench betbre the door, there came a beggar, requesting a night's lodging. The host, however, refueed, and bade him seek what he wanted in the village ; whereon the man went away.

At the ufiual bour the old people went to bed ; and the two wrvante, having c l d the shutters, and indulged in a little p i p with the watchman, were about to follow their example, wben the beggar came round the corner of the neighboring ntreet, and earneatly entreated them to give him a lodging for the night, since he could find nobody that would take him ia. At tint the young people refused, saying they dared not, with- out their muter's leave ; but at length the entreaties of the man prevailed, and they consented to let him sleep in the barn,on condition that, when they called him in the morning, he would immediately depart. At three o'clock they rose, and when the boy entered the barn, to hia dismay, he found that the old man had expired in the night. They were now much ~erplexed : with the apprehension of their master's dieplessurrt; so,after wme consultation, they agreed that the lad ehould cop~sythe

469 TEE NIGHT-BIDE OF NATURE

body out of the barn, and lay it in a dry ditch that wan .near at hand, where it would be found by the laborers, and excite no quation, as they would naturally conclude he had laid himself down there to die.

Thie was done, the man was discnvered and buried, and they thought themselves well rid of the whole affair ; but, on tbe fol- loqing night, the girl wae awakened by the beggar, whom l e MW stnnding at her bedside. H e looked at her, and then quit- ted the room by the door. Glad was I,"she says, "when the s'

day broke; but I was scarcely out of my room when the boy came to me, trembling and pale, and, before I could say a word to him of what I had seen, he told me that the beggar had been to his room in the night, had looked at him, and then gone away. H e said he waa dresaed as when we had wen him alive, only he looked blacker, which I also had observed."

Still afraid of incurring blame, they told nobody, although the apparition returned to them every night ; and although tbey found removing to the other bedchambere did not relieve them from hiEl visits. But the e@ecte of this persecution became visible on both, that much curiosity was awakened in the village with respect to the cause of the alteration observed in them; and at length the boy's mother went to the minister, requesting him to interrogate her son, and endeavor to discover what WM

preying on hi mind. To him the boy disclosed their w e n t ; and this minister, who wen a protestant, having lwtened with attention to the story, advised him, when next he went to May-ence, to market; to call. on Father Joneph, of the Franciscan convent, and relate the circumstance to him. Thie advice w u followed ; and Father Joseph, assuring the lad that the ghost could do him no harm, recommended him to ask him, in the name of Uod, what be desired The boy did eo; whereupon the apparition answered, IsYe are children of mercy, but I am a child of evil ; in the barn, under the straw, you will find my money. Take it ; it in yours." I n the morning, the boy found the money accordingly, in an old stocking hid under the straw; but having a natural horror of it, tbey took it to thoir minister, who adPised them to divide it into three parts, giving one to the

;

,1

963 TROUBLED BPIRITR

Franciscan convent at Mayence, another to the d o m e d church in the village, and the other third to that to which they themwlver belonged, which was of the Lutheran persuasion. This they did, a11d were no more troubled with the beggar. With respect to the minister who gave them this good advice, I can only eay, all lionor be to him ! I wish there were many more such 1 The cir.cumetance occurred in tho year 1750, and is related by the daughter of Agnes 6,who declared that she had frequently heard it from her mother.

The circumstance of this apparition looking darker than the man had done when alive, ie eignificant of his condition, and confirms what I have said above, namely, that the moral state of the disembodied soul can no longer be concealed aa it wae in the flesh, but that as he is, he muet necessarily appear. . There is an old saying, that we should never lie down to rest at enmity with any human being; and the story of tbe ghost of the Princess Anna of Saxony, who appeared to Duke Christian of Saxe-Eisenbuig, is strongly confirmatory of the wisdom of this axiom.

Duke Christian was sitting one morning in hie etudy, when h e was surprised by a knock at his door-an unusual circum- stnuce, since the guards as well as the people in waiting were always in the ante-room. He, however, cried, Come in !" when there entered, to his amazement, a lady in an ancient cos- tume, who, in answer to his inquiries, told him that ehe waa no evil spirit, and would do him no harm ; but that ehe was one of his ancestors, and had been the wife of Duke John Caeimer, of Saxe-Coburg. She then related that she and her husband had not been on good terms at the period of their deathe, and that, although she had sought a reconciliation, he had been in- exorable ; pursuing her with unmitigated hatred, and injuring her by unjust suspicions ; and that, consequently, although rhs was happy, he waa still wandering in cold and darkness, bet- tween time and eternity. She bad, however, long known that one of their descendante was destined to effect this reconciliation for them, and they were rejoiced to find the time for it bad at length amved. She then gave the duke eight days to cpnsider

264 THE NIOHT-SIDE OF NATURE I

if he were willing to perform this good office, and disappeared; whereupon he consulted a clergyman, in whom be had great coufidence, who, after finding the ghost's communication veri- fied, by a reference to the annals of the family, advised him to comply with her request.

As the duke had yet some difficulty in believing it was really a ghost he had seen, he took care to have hie door well watched; she, however, entered at the appointed time, unseen by the attendante, and, having received the duke's promise, she told him she would return with her huaband on the following night ; for that, though she could come by day, he could not ; that then, having heard the circumstances, the duke must arbitrate be-tween them, and then unite their bands, and blew them. The door was still watched, but nevertheless the apparitions both came, the Duke Casimer in full royal costume, but of a livid ' paleness ; and when the wife had told her story, he told bis. Duke Christian decided for the lady, in which judgment Duke Cmimer fully acquiesced. Christian then took the ice-cold hand of Casimer and laid it in that of hie wife, which felt of a natu- ral beat. They then prayed and Sang together, and the appa- ritions disappeared, having foretold that Duke Christian would ere long be with them. The family records showed that thew people had lived about one hundred years before Duke Chris- tian's time, who himself died in 1707, two years after these visits of his ancestors. He desired to be buried in quick-lime -it is supposed from an idea that it might prevent his ghost walking the earth.

The costume in which they appeared was precisely that tbey had worn when alive, aa wae aecertained by a reference to theu portraits.

The expression that her husband wae ~oct&ing is cold and j&rknur,~between time and eternity, is here very worthy of observation, ae are the circumstances that hi band was wld, while hers was warm; and also, the greatcr privilege she seemed to enjoy. The hands of the unhappy spirits appear, I think, invariably to commu~iicate a eensation of cold.

I hwe heard of three instances of pereons now aliva, wbo

TROUBLED BPIRITB. !me

declare that they hold cotltinual intercourse with their deceased partners. One of these is a naval officer, whom the anthor of a book lhely published, called The Unseen World," appears to be acquainted with. The second is a professor in a college in America, a man of eminence and learning, and full of activity and energy-yet he assui.ed a fiiend of mine that he receives constant visits from his departed wife, which afford him +eat satisfaction. The third example is a lady in this country. She is united to a second husbanh, has been extremely happy in both marriages, and declares that she receives frequent visits from her first. Oberlin, the g d pastor of Ban de la Roche, mwrted the same thing of himself. His wife came to him fre- quently after her death ; waa seen by the rest of his household, ria well as himself; and warned him beforehand of many events that occurred.

Mra. Mathems relates in the memoirs of her husband, that he was one night in bed and unable to sleep, fiom the excitement thst continiea some time aRer acting, when, hearing a rustling by the side of the bed, he looked out, and saw his first wife, who was then dead, standing by the bedside, dresaed aa when alive. She smiled, and bent forward as if to take his hand ; but in his alarm he threw himself out on the floor to avoid the contact, and was found by the landlord in a fit. On the same night, and at the same hour, the present Mrs. Mathem, who wsa far away fiom him, received a iimilar visit from her prede- cessor, whom she had known when alive. Sbe wae quite awake, and in her terror seized the bell-rope to summon assistance, which gave way, and she fell with it in her hand to the ground.

-Professor Barthe, who visited Oberlin in 1824, sap , that while he spoke of his intercourse with the spiritual world as familiarly as of the daily visits of his parishioners, he was at the same time perfectly fiee from fanaticism, and eagerly alive to all the concerns of this earthly existence. H e asserted, what I find many somnambules and deceased persons also assert, that everything on earth is but a copy, of which the antitype is to be found in the other.

H e said to h b visiter, that he might as well attempt to per-12

866 THE NIQHT-BIDE OF N.4TURE.

made him that that was not a table before them, M that he did not hold communication with the o~herworld. ('1'give you credit for being honest when you assure me that you never saw anything of the kind," said he; give me the same credit when i assure you that I do."

With respect to the faculty of ghost-seeing, he said, it de-pen& on several circumstances, external and internal. People who live in the bustle and glare of the world eoldom see tbem, while those who live in still, ~olitary,thinly-inhabited places, like the mountainous districte of various countries, do. So if I go into the forest by night, I see the phoephoric light of a piece of rotten wood; but if I go by day I can not see it; yet it is still there. Again, there must be a rapport. A tender moher ia awakened by the faintest cry of her infant, while the maid slumbers on at~dnever hears it ; and if I thrust a needle among a parcel of wood-shavings, and hold a magnet over them, the I needle is stirred while the sllavings are quite unmoved. There must be a particular aptitude ;what it consists in I do not know; for of my people, many of whom are gllost-soem, sonie are ' weak and sickly, others vigorous and strong. Here are eeverd piccea of flint : I can see no difference in them ; yet mme have so much iron in them that they easily become magnetic ; othera have little or none. So it is with the faculty of ghost-seeing. People may laugh as they will, but the thing is a fact, never-thelees.

The visits of his wife continued for nine yeara sfter her deatb, atrd then ceaeed.

At length she eent him a message, through another deceased person, to say that she was now elevated to a higher etate, and could therefore no longer revisit the earth.

Never was there a purer epirit, nor a more beloved human being, than Oberlin. When first he wae appointed to the curd of Ban de la Roche, and found hie people tallring ao familiarly of the reappearance of the dead, he reproved &em and preached against the superetition; nor was he convinced, till after the death of his wife. She had, however, previously received 8

viut from her deceased eieter, the wife of Professor Obarlin, of

TROUBLED IJPIRIT& SUT

-burg, who had warned her of her approaching death, foe which 8he immediately eat about preparing, making extra clothing for her children, and even laying in provision for the funeral feast. She then took leave of her hueband and family, and went quietly to bed. On the following morning she died; and Oberlin never heard of the warning ehe had received, till ehe disclosed it to him in her epectral visitations.

In narrating the following atory, I am not permitted to give the namee of the place or parties, nor the number of tho regi-meut, with all of which, however, I am acquainted. The ac-count waa taken down by one of the officere, with whose family I am a h acquainted; and the circumstance occurred within the last ten years.

About the month dAugust," says Captain L,my a t tantion was requeeted by the echwlmaster-eergea~~t,a man of considerable worth, and highly eeteemed by the whole corp, to at1 event which had occurred in the garrisou hospital. Hav-ing heard his recital, which, from the eerioua earneetnesa with which he made it, chnllenged attention, J resolved to inveetigate the matter ; and, having communicated the circumetancee to a friend, we both repaired to the hospi4 for the purpose of in-quiry.

laThere were two patients to be examined-both men of good character, and neither of them suffering from any disorder affecting the brain ; the one was under treatment for consump tive eymptome, and the other for an ulcerated leg : and they were both in the prime of life.

Having received a confirmation of the echoolmasteie state-ment from the hospital-eergeant, ale0 a very reepectable and truetworthy man. I sent for the patient principally concerned, and desired him to state what he had seen and heard, warning him, at the same time, that it was my intention to take down his deposition, and that it behooved him to be very careful, M

pomibly rrerious eteps might be taken for the purpose of ducov-ering whether en impoeitiou had been practised in the wards of the boapital-a crime for which, he was well aware, a very revere penalty would be inflioted. H e then proceeded to re-

We THE NIGHT-BIDE OF NATURE.

late the circumstances, which I took down in the presence of Mr. B- and the hospital-sergeant, aa follows :-

a~ a It was last Tuexlay night, somewherebetween eleven and twelve,when all of us were in bed, and all lights out except the rush-light that waa allowed for the man with the fever, when I waa awoke by feeling a weight upou my feet, and at the same moment, as I was drawing up my legs, Private W-, who lies in the cat opposite mine, called out, Ig I say, Q-, tbem'r somebody sitting upon your legs!"-and an I looked to tbe bottom of my bed, I saw some one get up from it, and then come round and stand over me, in the passage between my cot and the next. I felt somewhat alarmed, for the la& few nights the ward had been disturbed by sounds as of a heavy foot walk-ing up and down ; and w nohody could be seen, it wan begin-ning to be supposed among us that it was haunted, and faocying this that came up to my bed's head might be the ghost, I called out, Who are you, and what do you want 1"

The figure then, leaning with one hand on tho wall, wer my head, and stooping down, mid, in my ear, "1 am Mn. M- ;" and I could then distillguish that she wan dressed iu a flannel gown, edged with black riband, exactly similar to a set of grave-clothes in which I had assisted to clothe her corpsq when her death took place a year previously.

The voice, however, ww not like Mrs. M-'s, nor like anybody else's, yet it wan very distinct, and ~ w m e dsomehow to sing through my head. I could sse nothing of a Bee beyond a darkish color about the head, and it appeared to me that I could see through her body against the window-grfa

I' 'Although I felt very uncomfortable, 1 asked her what she wanted. She replied, I am Mrs. M-, and I d o h you to write to him that was my hnsband, md tell him ....."

'I am not, sir,' said Corporal Q-, at liberty to meutioa to anybody what she told me, except to her husband. He is at the dBp6t in Ireland, and I have written and told him. Sbe made me promise not to tell any one else. AAer I had prom-bed secrecy, rhe told me wmething of a matter tbat courinced I- I PCU talking to a rpirit, hr it related to what only I .rd