NOTES ON GHOSTS AND GOBLINS. 417 



was neither my mother's spirit nor an unreal vision. 

 I felt certain I was not looking at c a phantom of the 

 brain which would show itself without ;' and I felt 

 equally certain that no really existent spirit was there 

 before me. Yet the longer I looked, the more perfect 

 appeared the picture. I racked my memory to recall 

 any objects in my bedroom which could be mistaken 

 for a shrouded ghost ; but my memory was busy re- 

 calling the features of the dead, and my brain (against 

 the action of my will) was tracing these features in the 

 figure which stood before me. The deception grew 

 more and more complete until I could have spoken 

 aloud as to a living person. Meantime, my mind had 

 suggested, and at once rejected, the idea of a trick 

 played me by one of my college friends. I felt a 

 perfect assurance that whatever it was which stood 

 before me, it was not a breathing creature self- 

 restrained into absolute stillness. How long I re- 

 mained gazing at the figure I cannot remember ; but 

 I know that I continued steadfastly looking at it until 

 I had assured myself that (to my mind in its probably 

 unhealthy condition) the picture was perfect in all 

 respects. At last I raised my head from the pillow, 

 intending to draw nearer to the mysterious figure. 

 But it was quite unnecessary. I had not raised my 

 head three inches before the ghost was gone, and in 

 its place, or rather, not in its place, but five or six 

 feet farther away, hung my college surplice. It was 

 quite impossible to restore the illusion by resuming 

 my former position. The mind which a moment 



E E 



