46 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



few yards of the window, she saw the figures of 

 the postilions and the persons inside take the 

 ghastly appearance of skeletons and other hideous 

 figures. The whole then vanished entirely, when 

 she uttered the above-mentioned exclamation. 



11. On the morning of the 30th October, 

 when Mrs. A. was sitting in her own room with 

 a favourite dog in her lap, she distinctly saw the 

 same dog moving about the room during the 

 space of about a minute or rather more. 



12. On the 3rd December, about nine P.M., 

 when Mr. and Mrs. A. were sitting near each 

 other in the drawing-room occupied in reading, 

 Mr. A. felt a pressure on his foot. On looking 

 up he observed Mrs. A.'s eyes fixed with a strong 

 and unnatural stare on a chair about nine or ten 

 feet distant. Upon asking her what she saw, the 

 expression of her countenance changed, and upon 

 recovering herself, she told Mr. A. that she had 

 seen his brother, who was alive and well at the 

 moment in London, seated in the opposite chair, 

 but dressed in grave-clothes, and with a ghastly 

 countenance, as if scarcely alive. 



Such is a brief account of the various spectral 

 illusions observed by Mrs. A. In describing them 

 I have used the very words employed by her 

 husband in his communications to me on the 

 subject ; * and the reader may be assured that 

 the descriptions are neither heightened by fancy, 

 nor amplified by invention. The high character 

 and intelligence of the lady, and the station of 

 her husband in society, and as a man of learning 

 and science, would authenticate the most marvel- 

 lous narrative, and satisfy the most scrupulous 



* Edinburgh Journal of Science, New Series, No. iv. 

 pp. 218, 219, No. vi., p. 244, and No.viii., p. 261. 



