CHAP. 10. 2. SUPERSTITIONS, &c. 317 



the country ; hence the fiery apparition, known 

 in Wales by the name of Tanwee, which it is 

 said " shoots and mours not unlike a Glavie ;" 

 hence the stories of Friar's Lantern, and others, 

 all which appearances are forms of the Ignis 

 Fatuus.* In like manner, the more lofty 

 Meteors have been fancied flying Dragons, 

 Griffins, and other hideous and imaginary 

 forms of terror, which Shakspeare has called 



" Meteors Avhich fright the fixed Stars of Heaven." 



Numerous were the omens attached by credu- 

 lous persons, in former days, to the manner in 

 which candles burnt, and particularly to the 

 colour of their flames. When they burned 

 blue, it was accounted ill luck, or else that some 

 ghostly apparition were announced. Now when 

 the brain and nervous system are in a certain 

 state peculiarly favourable to spectral illusions, 

 the imagination may easily colour the flame of a 

 candle without its really changing its tint, just as 



* The sudden and unexpected appearance of any remarkable 

 phaenomenon seen in the still hours of night, and particularly 

 when we ate alone, occasions a peculiarity of feeling quite 

 different from fear, and which phrenology refers to the activity 

 of the organ of supernaturality. I remember well experiencing 

 this sentiment, when, in 1809, I suddenly made the first 

 discovery of the Comet of that year. 



