42 MAMMALIA— MAN. 



reflected on my previous thoughts, with a view to discover some law in the 

 association of ideas, by which exactly these or other figures might present 

 themselves to the imagination. Sometimes I thought I had made a dis- 

 covery, especially in the latter period of my visions ; but, on the whole, I 

 could trace no connection which the various figures that thus appeared and 

 disappeared to my sight had, either with my state of mind, or with my 

 employment, and the other thoughts which engaged my attention. After 

 frequent accurate observations on the subject, having fairly proved and 

 maturely considered it, I could form no other conclusion on the cause and 

 consequence of such apparitions, than that, when the nervous system is 

 weak, and at the same time too much excited, or rather deranged, similar 

 figures may appear, in such a manner as if they were actually seen and 

 heard ; for these visions, in my case, were not the consequence of any known 

 law of reason, of the imagination, or of the otherwise usual association of 

 ideas ; and such also is the case with other men, as far as we can reason 

 from the few examples we know. 



" The origin of the individual pictures which present themselves to us, 

 must undoubtedly be sought for in the structure of that organization by 

 which we think ; but this will always remain no less inexplicable to us, 

 than the origin of those powers by which consciousness and fancy are made 

 to exist. 



" The figure of the deceased person never appeared to me after the first 

 dreadful day ; but several other figures showed themselves afterwards very 

 distinctly ; sometimes such as I knew ; mostly, however, of persons I did 

 not know ; and amongst those known to me, were the semblances of both 

 living and deceased persons, but mostly the former ; and I made the obser- 

 vation, that acquaintances with whom I daily conversed never appeared to 

 me as phantasms ; it was always such as were at a distance. 



" When these apparitions had continued some weeks, and I could regard 

 them with the greatest composure, I afterwards endeavored, at my own 

 pleasure, to call forth phantoms of several acquaintance, whom I for that 

 reason represented to my imagination in the most lively manner, but in 

 vain. For however accurately I pictured to my mind the figures of such 

 persons, I never once could succeed in my desire of seeing them externally ; 

 though I had some short time before seen them as phantoms, and they had 

 perhaps afterwards unexpectedly presented themselves to me in the same 

 manner. The phantasms appeared to me in every case involuntarily, as 

 if they had been presented externally, like the phenomena in nature, thouph 

 they certainly had their origin internally ; and, at the same time, I was 

 always able to distinguish with the greatest precision phantasms from 

 phenomena. Indeed, I never once erred in this, as I was in general per- 

 fectly calm and self-collected on the occasion. I knew extremely well, 

 when it only appeared to me that the door was opened, and a phantom 

 entered, and when the door really was opened, and any person came in. 



