222 ON THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN MENTAL 



vivid imaginations give to airy nothing not only a local habitation 

 and a name, but all the attributes which physically characterize 

 matter generally ; as form, colour, feature, deformity, and beauty. 



Two examples of this state of mind producing hallucination occur 

 to me ; they are in the cases of Hamlet and Tasso. At Bisaccio, 

 near Naples, Manso had an opportunity of examining the singular 

 effect of Tasso's melancholy, and often disputed with him concerning 

 a familiar spirit which he pretended conversed with him. Manso 

 endeavoured, in vain, to persuade him that the whole was the illu- 

 sion of a disturbed imagination ; but the latter was strenuous, in 

 maintaining the reality of what he asserted, and, to convince Manso, 

 desired him to be present at one of the mysterious conversations. 

 Manso had the complaisance to meet him next day, and whilst they 

 were engaged in discourse, he observed Tasso to fix his eyes on a 

 window, and remain immoveable ; he called him by his name but 

 received no answer : at last Tasso cried out " There is the friendly 

 spirit that is come to converse with me ; look ! and you will be 

 convinced of the truth of what I have said." Manso heard him 

 with surprise; he looked, but beheld nothing but the sunbeams 

 darting through the window ; he cast his eyes over the room but 

 could see only its customary occupants, and was just going to 

 ask where the friendly spirit was, when he heard Tasso speak with 

 great earnestness, sometimes putting questions to the spirit, some- 

 times giving answers ; delivering the whole in such a pleasing man- 

 ner, and in such elevated expressions, that he listened with admi- 

 ration, and had not the least inclination to interrupt him. At last, 

 this ghostly conversation ended with the departure of the spirit, as 

 appeared by Tasso's own words, who, turning to Manso, asked him 

 if his doubts were removed. Manso was more amazed than ever ; 

 he scarce knew what to think of his friend's situation, and waived 

 any further conversation on the subject.* 



The history of Tasso is well known to all, and those who are 

 familiar with the effusions of his fine genius, and ardent imagina- 

 tion, with the workings of a mind peculiarly alive to the tenderest 

 sympathies and the nicest varieties of feeling, can judge of the tor- 

 ture of a mind thus constituted, and confined in a dreary cell, upon 

 whose solitude broke no light except that of the dim and distant 

 sun-beam, and upon whose silence no sound intruded save the rav- 

 ings of the maniac, and the ideal voice of his attendant spirit. Tasso 

 was not insane, and, comparing himself with the lunatics confined 



* Hibbert, On Apparitions. 



