172 SPECTRES OCCASIONED BY DISEASE. 



Narrative and ftudied much, and was a great eater. * But in order to 

 fpearespro- appear a prodigy to the world, he embellifhed his vifions 

 duced by nervous on which he wrote voluminous treatifes, by creating new 

 jndi po jtion. images in conformity with his own fyftem. 



Laftly, thofe who are mofl converfant with the marvellous, 

 give but a very indiftind idea of their vifions. This I have 

 found in converfatlo»i with perfons who in other refpedls were 

 very worthy characters, but who were great admirers of the 

 what are termed occult fciences, which they cultivated to 

 fuch a degree, that to give you a notion of it here would 

 feem prepofterous. I have frequently difcourfed on fpirits, 

 and the feeing of fpirits, with a perfon who ranked very high 

 in the fchool of fecret wifdom, but who was otherwife a man 

 of a very limited capacity, and rather ignorant in all thofe 

 fciences which enlighten the mind. This perfon told me 

 amongft other things that he fliould feel very unhappy, were 

 he not continually in company with fpirits. As I have al- 

 ways taken a pleafure in the clear developement of human 

 opinions, however abfurd they may appear, I was defirous to 

 learn in what manner he faw the fpirits, and how he came 

 into company with them ? — But here he would not allow of the 

 appearance of any corporeal forms ; he alTured me that fpirits 

 were only to be feen with the eyes of the fpirit : then he added 

 in a very ferious tone, " Juft as the human foul is Naephaefchf 

 " or a branch taken oft' the tree, fo are all fpirits branched off 

 *' from the fupreme fpirit, as it in the aftringent motion com- 

 " prefled its being." On nearer enquiry I could eafily per- 

 ceive that he entertained a confufed notion of the cabaliflick 

 ontology of Spinoza, and that he imagined all the powers in 

 nature to be fpirits. What he meant to fay therefore, was 

 neither more nor lefs than that he fhould feel unhappy, did he 

 live in a world where nature was perfe6lly inanimate ; if he 

 could not think that every thing around him was in the con- 

 tinual and mutual exercij'e of its powers. In this belief then 

 he peopled all fpace with fpirits, nearly in the fame manner 

 as the antient mythology peopled the woods with Dryads and 



* On this fubjeft, the review of Swedenborg's Works in the Al' 

 gemeine Deutfche Bibliothek, vol. 107, p. 15, is very interefting. 

 In it the refemblance of Swedenborg's fyftem, with the vifions of 

 the German enthufiaft, Johann Tennhart, is clearly accounted for : 

 he alfo was a great cater. 



4 Hama- 



