CAUSES OF APPARITIONS. 



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ppsssion, that he may be firmly convinced he has 

 actually seen with his eyes, what has only pass 

 ed before his imagination ; especially when we 

 consider, that there are times of slumber when we 

 are not sensible of being asleep. On this prin 

 ciple, some have endeavoured to account for the 

 spectre which is said to have appeared to Brutus. 

 It is related, that at Philippi, the night before he 

 gave battle to Augustus Caesar, he saw a fearful 

 apparition ; it was in the dead of night, when 

 the whole camp was perfectly quiet, that 

 Brutus was employed in his tent, in reading by 

 a lamp that was just expiring; on a sudden he 

 thought he heard a noise as if somebody entered, 

 and looking towards the door, he perceived it 

 open ; a gigantic figure with a frightful aspect, 

 stood before him, and continued to gaze upon 

 him with silent severity. At last, Brutus had 

 courage to speak to it : &quot; Art thou a demon or a 

 mortal man ? and why comest thou to me ?&quot; 

 The phantom is said to have replied, &quot; Brutus, 

 I am thy evil genius, thou shall see me again at 

 Philippi.&quot; &quot;Well then,&quot; answered Brutus, 

 without being discomposed, &quot; we shall meet 

 again ;&quot; upon which the phantom vanished, and 

 Brutus, calling to his servants, asked them if 

 they had seen any thing ; to which replying in 

 the negative, he again resumed his studies. 

 This circumstance is related by historians as a 

 vision, but considering the circumstances, one 

 may easily judge it to ha&quot;&quot; ^en but a short 

 dream ; for, sitting in his ten.., Ji and trou 

 bled with the horror of his late rash act, it was 

 not hard for him, slumbering in the cold, to dream 

 of that which most affrighted him ; which fear, 

 as by degrees it made him wake, so it must have 

 made the apparition by degrees to vanish ; and 

 having no assurance that he slept, he could have 

 no cause to think it a dream, or any thing else 

 than a vision. Whatever may be said as to 

 this solution of the case, certain it is, that vivid 

 dreams in certain states of mind, have been 

 mistaken for real apparitions, of which various 

 instances could be adduced, did our limits permit. 

 Pear is another fertile source of Spectres. As 

 partial darkness and obscurity are the most com 

 mon circumstances by which the sight is deceiv 

 ed, so night is the season in which apparitions 

 are most frequently said to be seen. The state 

 of the mind at that time, especially when a person 

 is alone, prepares it for the admission of such 

 delusions of the imagination. The fear and cau 

 tion which night naturally inspires, the opportu 

 nity it affords for ambuscades, robberies, and as 

 sassinations, the deprivation of social intercourse, 

 and the interruption of many pleasing trains of 

 ideas which objects in the light never fail to pro 

 duce, are all circumstances of terror, and favour 

 able to the illusions of a timid imagination; and 

 therefore, it is by no means strange, that an igno 

 rant person with a mind uncultivated and unin 

 formed, and with all the prejudices of the nursery 

 12 



about him, should imagine he sees ghosts in those 

 places where he believes they hover, especially 

 at the hour of midnight, when the slightest aid ol 

 the imagination can transform a cow into a mon 

 strous phantom, and the reflection of the beams of 

 the moon from a little water into a ghost with a 

 winding-sheet ; or a sound which is near, such as 

 the rustling of the leaves of a tree, the noise of 

 falling waters, or the screams of animals, when 

 referred to a great distance, may be magnified 

 into horrid and unearthly voices ; for, in such 

 cases, a timid and untutored mind seldom stops to 

 inquire into the cause of its alarms. The cele 

 brated historian De Thou, had a very singular 

 adventure at Saumur, in the year 1598, which 

 shows the happy effects of a calm inquiry into the 

 cause of any alarming or extraordinary appear 

 ance. One night, having retired to rest very 

 much fatigued, while he was enjoying a sound 

 sleep, he felt a very extraordinary weight upon 

 his feet, which, having made him turn suddenly, 

 fell down and awakened him. At first he ima 

 gined that it had been only a dream, but hearing 

 soon after some noise in his chamber, he drew 

 aside the curtains, and saw, by the help of the 

 moon, which at that time shone very bright, a 

 large white figure walking up and down, and at 

 the same time observed upon a chair some rags, 

 which he thought belonged to thieves who had 

 come to rob him. The figure then approaching 

 his bed, he had the courage to ask it what it was. 

 &quot; I am (said the figure)the Queen of Heaven.&quot; 

 Had such a figure appeared to any credulous ig 

 norant man, he would, doubtless, have trembled 

 with fear, and frightened the whole neighbour 

 hood with a marvellous description of it. But De 

 Thou had too much understanding to be so im 

 posed upon. On hearing the words which drop 

 ped from the figure, he immediately concluded 

 that it was some mad woman, got up, called his 

 servants, anti ordered them to turn her out of 

 doors ; after which he returned to bed and fell 

 asleep. Next morning, he found that he had not 

 been deceived in his conjecture, and that having 

 forgot to shut his door, this female figure had es 

 caped from her keepers, and entered his apart 

 ment. The brave Schomberg, to whom De Thou 

 related his adventure some days after, confessed 

 that in such a case he would not have shown so 

 much courage. The King likewise, who was 

 informed of it by Schomberg, made the same ac 

 knowledgment. See Ency. Brit., Art. Spectre. 

 The following relation contains a description 

 of an apparition of a different kind, no less appal 

 ling. Mr. Schmidt, mathematical teacher at 

 the school of Pforte, near Naumburg, which had 

 formerly been a cloister, once happened to awake 

 suddenly as the morning began to dawn. On 

 opening his eyes, he beheld with astonishment a 

 monk standing at the foot of his bed. Looking 

 at him steadfastly, he appeared to be well-fed; 

 and his head, far from small, was sunk a little 



