PHANTASMS PRODUCED BY DISEASE. 239 



objects being the mere consequences of indisposition, or 



what may be called internal sensation, and spoke of them 



as such. It is not a month since I was sitting alone with Account of »n 



a lady, for whose powers of mind and moral habits, I have *"''»"c«- 



the highest respect, when after a short and sudden pause, 



she said — '' This moment 1 saw M standing in 



'' his usual manner just behind your chair, and a little 



" while afterwards he was in the corner of the room :" 



Upon my inquiring respecting the appearance, she said 



the figure was paler, or less clearly visible, than usual, 



and that it gradually faded away. 



I know a gentleman, at present in the vigor of life, who Phantasm 



in my opinion is not exceeded by any one, in acquired ^hich appear* 

 1 , / , . . ,. ^ / , "^ , ed for many 



knowledge, and originality of deep research ; and who, months on ly- 



for nine months in succession, was always visited by a^^^g down to 



figure of the same man, threatening to destroy him, at 



the time of going to rest. It appeared upon his lying 



down, and instantly disappeared when he resumed the 



erect posture. This was not related to me by himself, 



but by another friend, and his absence has since prevented 



my inquiring farther. 



Little doubt remains in my mind, that many of the Many of the 

 stories of apparitions, which have been in all ages so gc- stories of appa- 

 nerally received, were true, though probably incorrect, beg°"^j. ^^^1 

 from the influence of the imagination under an impression originated in 

 of terror. When I was a boy, I once or twice in the ^^^^^s^' assisted 

 night awoke with the disease commonly called the night- ^ 



mare ; and then the fit was accompanied with a sense of Night-mare, 

 weight, as if caused by a person actually pressing on me, 

 and touching me with cold hands ; and in the momentary 

 interval between one crisis and the next, I had a con- 

 sciousness that that person hurried round the room and 

 came back to torment me again, before I could recover my 

 speech or motion. But afterwards, when I was older 

 and considered these as the effects of disease, I had an 

 attack, in which I experienced no terror, nor had any 

 concomitant notion of an external agent ; and as soon as 

 I felt a remission of the rigor, I sprung up and was re- 

 lieved ; no other consequen'ce remaining but a slight tre- 

 mor of the surface of the body. 



About twelve years ago, I had an attack of fever, ari- Narrative of 

 Vol. XV.— Dec 1806. , Rr sing the phantasnft 



