GENERAL VIEWS. 55 



be distinctly seen along with the brightest parts 

 of an object immediately behind it, but then the 

 bright parts of each object will fall upon different 

 parts of the retina. 



These views are illustrated by a case mentioned 

 by Dr. Abercrombie. A gentleman, who was a 

 patient of his, of an irritable habit, and liable to 

 a variety of uneasy sensations in his head, was 

 sitting alone in his dining-room in the twilight, 

 when the door of the room was a little open. He 

 saw distinctly a female figure enter, wrapped in a 

 mantle, with the face concealed by a large black 

 bonnet. She seemed to advance a few steps to- 

 wards him, and then stop. He had a full convic- 

 tion that the figure was an illusion of vision, and 

 he amused himself for some time by watching it ; 

 at the ;same time observing that he could see 

 through the figure so as to perceive the lock of 

 the door, and other objects behind it.* 



If these views be correct, the phenomena of 

 spectral apparitions are stripped of all their terror, 

 whether we view them in their supernatural cha- 

 racter, or as indications of bodily indisposition. 

 Nicolai, even, in whose case they were accom- 

 panied with alarming symptoms, derived pleasure 

 from the contemplation of them, and he not only 

 recovered from the complaint in which they origi- 

 nated, but survived them for many years. Mrs. 

 A., too, who sees them only at distant intervals, 

 and with whom they have but a fleeting existence, 

 will, we trust, soon lose her exclusive privilege, 

 when the slight indisposition which gives them 

 birth has subsided. 



* Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers, and the 

 Investigation of Truth. Edinburgh, 1830. 



