SPECTRES OCCASIONED BY DISEASE. J'TQ 



Hamadryads. Indeed, every thing properly confidered, the Narrative and 



opinion of my cabalift is not quite fo very abfurd as you may ^^marks sn 



fuppofe ; for in reality, the word poiver is with the philofopher duced by nervout 



only that which the x is to the matliemalician ; and, if I be indifpafuion. 



not altogether miftaken, the mathematician can with his x, 



bring more clear truths to light, than the philofopher by the 



word power. If a given power cannot be rendered fubfervient 



to dedu6tion, fo that, like Newton's calculus, it fliall perfedly 



accord with experience; nothing more will be determined or 



explained by the mere word power, than by the word fpirit; and 



I doubt much whether the new judicious Kantian fyftem of 



Dynamic natural philofophy, which coniiders all bodies as 



mere aggregates of powers, would not ratiier cut the gor- 



dian knot than unravel it. 



It is not very uncommon that by a derangement of the 

 corporeal powers, even without infenity and inflammatory 

 fevers, apparitions do flrike the eye externally, which are 

 only internally the produdion of tiie imagination. The expe- 

 rience of this may teach us a lelTon of forbearance, not raflily to 

 confider as impotlors thofe well difpofed perfons who believe 

 they have feen apparitions. But as manifold experience fhews 

 us how far the human imagination can go in the external 

 reprefentation of piftures ; it may alfo admonifh thofe well- 

 difpofed perfons not to afcribe to their vifions any degree of 

 reality, and ftill lefs to confider the efTec^ts of a difordered 

 fyflem, as proofs that they are haunted by fpirits. 



The celebrated Juftus Mofer frequently believed that he 

 faw flowers. Another of my acquaintance fees in like man- 

 ner, at times, mathematical figures, circles, fquares, &c. 

 in different colours. More examples of this kind may per- 

 haps be found in JVIoretz's Magazine, in Krueger's Expe- 

 rimental Pfychology, and in Bonnet's Pfychological writings. 

 The hearing of founds is a cafe which feldomer occurs. My 

 much-lamented friend Mofes Meudeljohn had, in the year 

 1792, by too intenfe an application to fludy, confraded a 

 malady, which alfo abounded with particular pfychological 

 apparitions. For upwards of two years he was incapacitated 

 from doing any thing ; he could neither read nor think, and 

 was rendered utterly incapable of fupporting any loud noife. 

 If any one talked to him rather in a lively manner, or if he 

 himfelf happened to be difpofed to lively converfation, he 



fell 



