FORMS OF SPECTKES. 407 



saw," says De Quincey, in his Confessions of an Opium-eater, " as I lay 

 awake in bed, vast processions, that passed along in mournful pomp ; 

 friezes of never-ending stories, that to my feelings were as sad and sol- 

 emn as if they were stories drawn from times before (Edipus or Priam, 

 before Tyre, before Memphis ; and, at the same time, a corresponding 

 change took place in my dreams ; a theatre seemed suddenly opened 

 and lighted up within my brain, which presented nightly spectacles of 

 more than earthly splendor." 



Apparitions are the result of a false interpretation of impressions con- 

 temporaneously made on the retina ; visions are a presentment of the 

 relics of old ones which yet remain in the registering ganglia of the 

 brain. We convince ourselves of the truth of this general assertion not 

 so well from an examination of one or more well-related or authenticated 

 cases as from what may be termed the natural history of ghosts.. The 

 Greeks and Eomans of antiquity were just as much liable to Secular varia- 

 disorders of the nervous system as we are, but to them su- ^ecT^nd^os^" 

 pernatural appearances came under mythologic forms, Venus, tume of spirits. 

 and Mars, and Minerva. The places of these were taken in the dreams 

 of the ascetics of the Middle Ages by phantoms of the Virgin and of the 

 saints. At a still later time, in Northern Europe, and even in England, 

 where the old pagan superstitions are scarcely yet rooted out of the vul- 

 gar mind, even though the Reformation has broken the system of ecclesi- 

 astical thought, fairies, and brownies, and Robin Goodfellow survive. 

 The form of phantoms has changed with change of the creeds of commu- 

 nities, and we may therefore, with good Reginald Scot, inquire, " If the 

 apparitions which have been seen by true men and brave men in all ages 

 of the world were real existences, what has become of the swarms of 

 them in these latter times ?" 



One class of apparitions perhaps it was the first to exist, as it is the 

 last to remain has survived all these changes survived them because 

 it is connected with a thing that never varies the affection of the hu- 

 man heart. To the people of every age the images of their dead have 

 appeared. They are not infrequent even in our own times. It would 

 be an ungracious task to enter on an examination of the best authenti- 

 cated of such anecdotes. Inquiries of this kind can scarcely be freed 

 from the liability to an imputation on personal veracity, perceptive pow- 

 er, or moral courage ; and, after all, it is not necessary to entangle our- 

 selves with these causes of offense. It is enough for us to perceive that 

 even here incongruities may be pointed out. The Roman saw the shade 

 of his friend clothed in the well-known toga ; the European sees his in 

 our own grotesque garb. The spirit of Maupertuis, which stood by the 

 bay window of the library at Berlin, had on knee-breeches, silk stock- 

 ings, and shoes with large silver buckles. To the philosopher it may 



