155 SPECTKES OCCASIONED BY DISEASE. 



Narrative and festive, and this remedy I had from that time regularly ap- 

 remarks on jj^j j^vicc or thrice a year, whenever I felt coneeftion in the 



fpeftres pro '^ •' ' , i , i ■ 



duced by nervous head. It was on the Ift of March 1790 that the leeches had 

 indifpoficion. been laft applied; the bleeding therefore and the clearing of 

 the minuter blood-velTels by leeches had, in 1790 been lefs fre- 

 quently obferved than ufual. A circumftance too that could 

 not tend to benefit my deplorable lituation was, that from Sep- 

 tember I had been continually engaged in bufinefs which re- 

 quired (he feverefl exertion, and which, from frequent inter- 

 ruptions, was rendered ftill njore burthenfbme and diftreffing. 



In the firft two months of the year 1791, I was much af- 

 fected in my mind by feveral incidents of a very difagreeable 

 nature; and on tiie 24-th of February a circumftance occurred 

 which irritated me extremely. At ten o'clock in the forenoon 

 my wife and another perfon came toconfole me; I was in a 

 violent perturbation of mind, owing to a feries of incidents 

 which had altogether wounded my moral feelings^ and from 

 which I faw no poffibility of relief; when fuddenly I ob- 

 ferved at the diftance of ten paces from me a figure,— the fi- 

 gure of a deceafed perfon. I pointed at it, and alked my wife 

 whether (he did not fee it. She faw nothing, but being much 

 alarmed, endeavoured to compofe me, and fent for the phyfi- 

 cian. The figure remained forae feven or eight minutes, and 

 at length I became a little more calm ; and as I was extremely 

 eshaufted, I foon afterwards fell into a troubled kind of flum- 

 ber, which lafted for half an hour. The vifion was afcribed 

 to the great agitation of mind in which I had been, and it was 

 fuppofed I Ihould have nothing more to apprehend from that 

 caufe; but the violent aflection had put my nerves into fome 

 unnatural ftate, from this arofe further confequences, which 

 require a more detailed defcn'ption. 



In the afternoon, a little after four o'clock, the figure which 

 I had feen in the morning again appeared. I was alone when 

 this happened; a circumftance which, as may be eafiiy conceived, 

 could not be very agreeable. I went therefore to the apart- 

 ment of my wife, to whom I related it. But thither alfo the 

 figure purfued me. Sometimes it was prefent, fometiraes it 

 vaniflied, but it was always the fame ftanding figure. A little 

 after fix o'clock feveral ftalking figures alfo appeared; but they 

 had no conne61ion with the ftanding figure. I can affign no 

 other reafon for this apparition than that, though much more 



compofed 



