292 PHANTASMS PRODUCED BY DISEASE, 



Manner of They appeared directly before me, one at a time, very 



their appear- suddenly, yet not so much so, but that a second of time 



ancc, duration . , , , , . 



and change. Bright be employed in the emergence of each, as if through 



a cloud or mist, to its perfect clearness. In this state 

 each face continued five or six seconds, and then vanish- 

 ed, by becoming gradually fainter during about two 

 seconds, till nothing was left but a dark opake mist, in 

 which almost immediately afterwards appeared another 

 face. All these faces were in the highest degree inter- 

 esting tome, for beauty of form and the variety of ex* 

 pression they manifested of every great and amiable 

 emotion of the human mind. Tliough their attention was 

 invariably dirccttUl to me, and none of them seemed to 

 ^ «peakj yet I seemed to read the very soul which gave 



animation to their lovely and intelligent countenances : 

 admiration and a sentiment of joy and afiection when 

 each lace appeared, and regret npon its disappearance, 

 kept my mind constantly rivettedto the visions before it: 

 and this state was interrupted only when an intercourse 

 Avith the persons in the room was proposed or urged. 

 Theory of It was in my recollection that Hartley in his work 



Hartley ; that ^pon Man adopts a theory, that the visions of fever are 



the visions of * .,/.,, ,, , . 



fever are com- common ideas of the memory recalled m a system so 



mon ideas of irritated, that they act nearly with the same force as 

 cd'by inltTbi- ^^^^ objects of immediate sensation, for which they are 

 iity. accordingly mistaken : and therefore it is, says he, tha^ 



when delirium first begins, if in the dark, the effect may 

 be suspended by bringing in a candle, which by illumina- 

 tion gives the due preponderance to the objects of sense. 

 It is not the This, however, I saw was manifestly unfounded. ]^.^_ "^ 

 ^^^'* in my power to thhik of absent objects (e. g. of sigl^t) \^ 



usual, but they did not appear. The ideas were in the 

 ' Diind as usual, and at the very same time, the real objects 



of sense, and the objects of diseased sensation stood visible 

 before me. 

 Ideas, scnsa- When my attention was strongly fixed on the idea of 



tionsandphan- ^^ absent place or thine, the objects of sensation and of 



tasnns can be . ^ , . , , , ,,r. 



all distinctly delirium were less perceived or regarded. When the 



prcse/itat once, ijjiiij ^yas left in a passive or indolent state, the objects 

 of delirium were most vivid, and the objects of sen- 

 sation, or real objects in the room, could not be seen. 



But 



