110 LETTEES ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



apt to think, if I durst venture my eyes, I could still 

 make the phantasm return by the power of my fancy. 

 This story I tell you, to let you understand, that in the 

 observation related by Mr. Boyle, the man's fancy 

 probably concurred with the impression made by the 

 sun's light to produce that phantasm of the sun which he 

 constantly saw in bright objects."* 



I am not aware of any effects that had the character of 

 supernatural having been actually produced by the causes 

 above described ; but it is obvious, that, if a living figure 

 had been projected against the strong light which im- 

 printed these durable spectra of the stin, which might 

 really happen when the solar rays are reflected from 

 water, and diffused by its ruffled surface, this figure would 

 have necessarily accompanied all the luminous spectres 

 which the fancy created. Even in ordinary lights strange 

 appearances may be produced by even transient impres- 

 sions, and if I am not greatly mistaken, the case which 

 I am about to mention is not only one which may occur, 

 but which actually happened. A figure dressed in black 

 and mounted upon a white horse was riding along exposed 

 to the bright rays of the sun, which, through a small 

 opening in the clouds, was throwing its light only upon 

 that part of tjie landscape. The Hack figure was pro- 

 jected against a white cloud, and the white horse shone 

 with particular brilliancy by its contrast with the dark 

 soil against which it was seen. A person interested in 

 the arrival of such a stranger had been for some time 

 following his movements with intense anxiety, but upon 

 his disappearance behind a wood, was surprised to observe 

 the spectre of the mounted stranger in the form of a white 

 rider upon a black steed, and this spectre was seen for 

 some time in the sky, or upon any pale ground to which 

 the eye was directed. Such an occurrence, especially if 



* See the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Art. ACCIDENTAL COLOURS. 



