262 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



are strictly organic, and belong to the centres in 

 which the image is formed, as we have already 

 observed ; this image sometimes stands out in such 

 vivid relief on the psychical space that it seems to 

 be an external, not, as it usually appears in less vivid 

 form, an internal intuition. The hallucinations which 

 Nicolai describes himself to have experienced may 

 be taken as a classical example. When Andral was 

 returning from an autopsy, he clearly saw the corpse 

 stretched before him as he entered his room. Goethe, 

 Byron, and many others, have been affected in the 

 same way. I myself have occasionally had hallucina- 

 tions of the kind when in a perfectly healthy condition 

 of mind and body ; one, in particular, of a very vivid 

 character, occurred when I awoke one morning and 

 seemed to see a tall and venerable priest entering 

 my chamber. It is needless to multiply examples ; 

 similar facts abound in classic books in English, 

 French, German, and other languages. Let us rather 

 study the phenomenon and trace its origin. 



It is clear on the one side that the images of the 

 hallucinations of sight or hearing appear to have a 

 real existence, so that they may be observed and 

 studied with ease ; and it is also certain that this 

 image has no external existence, and is simply a 

 cerebral fact, due to the organs adapted for per- 

 ception. Without considering the cause of the ex- 

 ternal projection, to which I have already alluded, 

 since perhaps its physiological and psychical genesis 



