42 MAMMALIA—MAN. 
reflected on my previous thoughts, with a view to discover some law in the 
association of ideas, by which exactly these or other figures might present 
themselves to the imagination. Sometimes I thought I had made a dis- 
covery, especially in the latter period of my visions; but, on the whole, J 
could trace no connection which the various figures that thus appeared and 
disappeared to my sight had, either with my state of mind, or with my 
employment, and the other thoughts which engaged my attention. After 
frequent accurate observations on the subject, having fairly proved and 
maturely considered it, I could form no other conclusion on the cause and 
consequence of such apparitions, than that, when the nervous system is 
weak, and at the same time too much excited, or rather deranged, similar 
figures may appear, in such a manner as if they were actually seen and 
heard; for these visions, in my case, were not the consequence of any known 
law of reason, of the imagination, or of the otherwise usual association of 
ideas ; and such also is the case with other men, as far as we can reason 
from the few examples we know. 
“The origin of the individual pictures which present themselves to us, 
must undoubtedly be sought for in the structure of that organization by 
which we think; but this will always remain no less inexplicable to us, 
than the origin of those powers by which consciousness and fancy are made 
to exist. 
“The figure of the deceased person never appeared to me after the first 
dreadful day; but several other figures showed themselves afterwards very 
distinctly ; sometimes such as I knew; mostly, however, of persons I did 
not know; and amongst those known to me, were the semblances of both 
living and deceased persons, but mostly the former; and I made the obser- 
vation, that acquaintances with whom I daily conversed never appeared to 
me as phantasms; it was always such as were at a distance. 
“When these apparitions had continued some weeks, and I could regard 
them with the greatest composure, I afterwards endeavored, at my own 
pleasure, to call forth phantoms of several acquaintance, whom I for that 
reason represented to my imagination in the most lively manner, but in 
vain. For however accurately I pictured to my mind the figures of such 
persons, I never once could succeed in my desire of seeing them eternally ; 
though I had some short time before seen them as phantoms, and they had 
perhaps afterwards unexpectedly presented themselves to me in the same 
manner. The phantasms appeared to me in every case involuntarily, as 
if they had been presented externally, like the phenomena in nature, thoush 
they certainly had their origin internally; and, at the same time, I was 
always able to distinguish with the greatest precision phantasms from 
phenomena. Indeed, I never once erred in this, as I was in general pei- 
fectly calm and self-collected on the occasion. I knew extremely well, 
when it only appeared to me that the door was opened, and a phantom 
entered, and when the door really was opened, and any person came in. 
