BODILY ILLNESS AS A MENTAL STIMULANT. 253 



He seemed to dwell in an enchanted region of limitless 

 light and inconceivable splendour. At last an angel came 

 to him and told him that he must go back. Darkness, like 

 an overawing shadow, shut out the celestial glories ; and, 

 full of sudden horror, he uttered a deep groan. This 

 dismal utterance was heard by those around him, and pre- 

 vented him from being buried alive, after all the preparations 

 had been made for the removal of the body.' 



We must not fall into the mistake of supposing, how- 

 ever, as many seem to do, that the visions seen under such 

 conditions, or by ecstatics, really present truths of which the 

 usual mental faculties could not become cognisant. We 

 have heard such cases as the deathbed visions of Mrs. 

 Hemans, and the trance visions of Tennent, urged as 

 evidence in favour of special forms of doctrine. We 

 have no thought of attacking these, but assuredly they 

 derive no support from evidence of this sort. The dying 

 Hindoo has visions which the Christian would certainly not 

 regard as heaven-born. The Mahomedan sees the plains 

 of Paradise, peopled by the houris of his heaven, but we do 

 not on that account accept the Koran as the sole guide to 

 religious truth. The fact is, that the visions pictured by the 

 mind during the disease of the body, or in the ecstatic 

 condition, have their birth in the mind itself, and take their 

 form from the teachings with which that mind has been 

 imbued. They may, indeed, seem utterly unlike those we 

 should expect from the known character of the visionary, 

 just as the thoughts of a dying man may be, and 

 often are, very far removed from the objects which had 

 occupied all his attention during the later years of his 

 life. But if the history of the childhood and youth of an 

 ecstatic could be fully known, or if (which is exceed- 

 ingly unlikely) we could obtain a strictly truthful account of 

 such matters from himself, we should find nearly every cir- 

 cumstance of his visions explained, or at least an explanation 

 suggested. For, after all, much which would be necessary 

 to exactly show the origin of all he saw, would be lost, since 



