SPECTRES OCCASIONED BY DISEASE. 275 



and by that means perhaps to contribute in fome degree to the Narrative and 



illuftration of fo ftrange an incident. '/"^^'^^ °" 



o fpettres pro- 



I rnuft obferve that my imagination pofTeflles in general a duced by nervous 

 great facility in pifturing. I have for example (ketched in mdifpofition. 

 my mind a number of plans for novels and plays; though I 

 have committed very few of them to paper, becaufe I was 

 lefs folicitous to execute than to invent. I have generally 

 arranged thefe outlines when, in a chearful flate of mind. 

 I have taken a folitary walk, or when travelling I have fat in 

 my carriage, and could only find employment in myfelf and 

 ray imagination. Conftantly and even now do the different 

 perfons whom I imagine in the formation of fuch a plot, pre- 

 fent themfelves to me in the moft lively and diftind manner : 

 their figure, their features, their manner, their drefs, and 

 their complexion, are all vifible to my fancy. As long as I 

 meditate on a fixed plan, and afterwards carry it into effef},— 

 even when I am often interrupted, and muft begin it again 

 at difl^erent times, all the a6ling perfons continue prefent in 

 the very fame form in which my imagination at firfl produced 

 them. I find myfelf frequently in a ftate betwixt fleep- 

 ing and waking, in which a number of pidures of every 

 defcription, often the ftrangeft forms, (hew themfelves, change 

 and vanilh. In the year 1778, I was afflided with a bilious 

 fever, which, at times, though feldom, became fo high as 

 to produce delirium. Every day towards evening, the fever 

 came on, and if I happened to (hut my eyes at that time, I 

 could perceive that the cold fit of the fever was beginning 

 even before the fenfation of cold was obfervable. This I 

 knew by the diftin6l appearance of coloured pidures of lefs 

 than half their natural fize, which looked as if in frames. 

 They were a fet of landfcapes compofed of trees, rocks, and 

 other objedts. If I kept my eyes (Imt, every minute fome al- 

 teration took place in the reprefentation. Some figures va- 

 ni(hed, and others appeared. But if I opened my eyes all 

 was gone; if I (hut them again I had quite a different land- 

 fcape. This cafe was therefore entirely different from what 

 afterwards in the year 1791, when the figure remained un- 

 changed during the opening and (hutting of the eyes. In 

 , the ctld fit of the fever I foraetimes opened and (liut ray 

 eyes every fecond for the purpofe of obfervation, and every 

 time a different pidure appeared replete with various ob- 



jefls 



