272 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



object of uncer'aiu form, either in a room or out 

 of doors. It often happens, as I and others have 

 experienced from childhood, that a dress or other 

 object lying by chance on a chair, or on the ground, 

 or hanging on a piece of furniture or a peg, seen in 

 connection with the other things near it, is trans- 

 formed into a person or animal, in a sitting or stand- 

 ing posture or lying at full length, as if it had been a 

 spectre or phantasm ; somewhat like the figures which 

 we all take pleasure in tracing in the strange and 

 mobile forms of clouds. The fantastic figure some- 

 times appears instantaneously and at the first glance, 

 sometimes it is only gradually made out ; but in both 

 cases, as we shall see, its genesis is the same. 

 Although in the former case that which in the latter 

 is gradually developed appears to be developed all at 

 once, yet in reality it passes through the same stages. 

 Let us now consider the second mode ; and in 

 order to be perfectly accurate, I will describe one out 

 of many apparitions wilich I saw so recently that its 

 gradual formation is retained distinctly in my memory. 

 On a small three-legged table beside my bed there was 

 a little oval mirror, on which hung a woman's cap, 

 which fell partly over the glass : there w r as also an 

 easy chair, on which I had thrown my shirt before 

 going to bed, while my shoes were as usual on the 

 floor. I awoke towards morning, and as I chanced to 

 look round the large room, in the uncertain light of a 

 night-light which was almost burnt out, my eyes fell 



