136 



LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



If these views be correct the phenomena of spectral 

 apparitions are stripped of all their terror, whether we 

 view them in their supernatural character or as indications 

 of bodily indisposition. Nicolai, even, in whose case 

 they were accompanied with alarming symptoms, derived 

 pleasure from the contemplation of them, and he not only 

 recovered from the complaint in which they originated, 

 but survived them for many years. Mrs. A., too, who 

 sees them only at distant intervals, and with whom they 

 have but a fleeting existence, will, we trust, soon lose her 

 exclusive privilege, when the slight indisposition which 

 gives them birth has subsided. 



