On Popular Illufions. 8i 



phas'nomena of fpeflres (in which he was a firm 

 believer) with the immaterial fyftem, that" .he 

 propofed the hypothefis of an immaterial exten- 

 fum*, a fuppofition which later metaphyficians 

 have found it convenient to adopt (t). 



The prefent advanced period of the eighteenth 

 century has produced a learned, an elegaiU, and 

 what is dill more, a fafliionable theorift, in fup- 

 port of the dodrine of apparitions j and this fub- 

 jedt is perhaps to owe more to the frejent than to. 

 the former Lavater of Zurich. This writer, ae- 

 nerally intereiling and inltrudive, often enthu- 

 fiaftic, but always amiable, may poflibly oive 

 a turn to the fortune of an opinion, which mod 

 perfons are rather anxious to deftroy, than 

 able to confute. Mr. Lavater applies, in fome 

 meafure, the doftrine of the tranjmiffion of Jpirits 

 to the theory of fpeftral phenomena. L' Imagi- 

 nation, fays he, excitee far les defirs de I'amour, on 

 echauffee par telle autre pajfton bien vive^ opere dans des 

 lieux et des temps eloignes-\. This is exadlly the doc- 

 trine of Fienus, Lord Verulam, and other fym- 

 pathetic philofophers of the laft century. But 

 Mr. Lavater has applied this pofition in a man- 

 ner, I think, entirely new, in fuppofing that the 

 imagination of a fick or dying perfon, wlio longs 

 to behold fome abfent friend or relation, afts on 

 the mind of this abfent perfon fo ftrongly, as to 



• True notion of a fpirit. f Phyfiog. torn. 111. p. 163. 

 VOL. III. Q produce 



