SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. 47 



mind, that the case has been philosophically as 

 well as faithfully described. In narrating events 

 which we regard as of a supernatural character, 

 the mind has a strong tendency to give more 

 prominence to what appears to itself the most 

 wonderful ; but from the very same cause, when 

 we describe extraordinary and inexplicable phe- 

 nomena which we believe to be the result of 

 natural causes, the mind is prone to strip them 

 of their most marvellous points, and bring them 

 down to the level of ordinary events. From the 

 very commencement of the spectral illusions seen 

 by Mrs. A., both she and her husband were well 

 aware of their nature and origin, and both of 

 them paid the most minute attention to the cir- 

 cumstances which accompanied them, not only 

 with the view of throwing light upon so curious 

 a subject, but for the purpose of ascertaining 

 their connection with the state of health under 

 which they appeared. 



As the spectres seen by Nicolai and others had 

 their origin in bodily indisposition, it becomes 

 interesting to learn the state of Mrs. A.'s health 

 when she was under the influence of these illu- 

 sions. During the six weeks within which the 

 first three illusions took place, she had been con- 

 siderably reduced and weakened by a trouble- 

 some cough, and the weakness which this occa- 

 sioned was increased by her being prevented 

 from taking a daily tonic. Her general health 

 had not been strong, and long experience has 

 put it beyond a doubt, that her indisposition 

 arises from a disordered state of the digestive 

 organs. Mrs. A. has naturally a morbidly sensi- 

 tive imagination, which so painfully affects her 

 corporeal impressions, that the account 'of any 



