166 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



and he is again disappointed. If this incident 

 should recur night after night with the same 

 result if the sound should appear to depend 

 upon his own motions, or be any how associated 

 with himself, with his present feelings, or with 

 his past history, his personal courage will give 

 way ; a superstitious dread, at which he himself 

 perhaps laughs, will seize his mind ; and he will 

 rather believe that the sounds have a supernatural 

 origin, than that they could continue to issue from 

 a spot where he knows there is no natural cause 

 for their production. 



I have had occasion to have personal know- 

 ledge of a case much stronger than that which 

 has now been put. A gentleman, devoid of all 

 superstitious feelings, and living in a house free 

 from any gloomy associations, heard night after 

 night in his bed-room a singular noise, unlike 

 any ordinary sound to which he was accustomed. 

 He had slept in the same room for years without 

 hearing it, and he attributed it at first to some 

 change of circumstances in the roof or in the 

 walls of the room, but after the strictest exami- 

 nation no cause could be found for it. It occurred 

 only once in the night ; it was heard almost every 

 night, with few interruptions. It was over in an 

 instant, and it never took place till after the 

 gentleman had gone to bed. It was always dis- 

 tinctly heard by his companion, to whose time of 

 going to bed it had no relation. It depended on 

 the gentleman alone, and it followed him into 

 another apartment with another bed, on the 

 opposite side of the house. Accustomed to such 

 investigations, he made the most diligent but 

 fruitless search into its cause. The consideration 



