SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING THE MOOlsr. 683 
mere delusions of the senses ; many others are fictitious, contrived 
merely to amuse, or answer some deceptive purpose. Partial darkness, 
and obscurity, are the most powerful means by which the sight is 
deceived ; night is therefore the proper season for apparitions. Indeed, 
the state of the mind, at that time, prepares it for the admission of 
these delusions of the imagination. The fear and caution which must 
be observed in the night ; the opportunity it affords for ambuscades 
and assassinations ; depriving us of society, and cutting off many 
p easing trains of ideas, which objects in the light never fail to intro- 
duce, — are all circumstances of terror ; and perhaps, on the whole, so 
much of our happiness depends upon our senses, that the depriva- 
tion of any one may be attended with proportionable horror and 
uneasiness. 
The notions entertained by the ancients respecting the soul, may 
receive some illustration from these principles. In darkness or twilight, 
the imagination frequently transforms an animated body into a human 
figure, but, on approaching, the same appearance is not to be found ; 
hence they sometimes fancied they saw their ancestors, but, not 
finding the reality, they distinguished these illusions by the name of 
shades. Many of these fabulous narrations might originate from 
dreams. There are times of slumber, when w'e are not sensible of 
being asleep. On this principle, Hobbes has ingeniously accounted 
for the spectre which appeared to Brutus. 
We read,” says he, “ of M. Brutus, that at Philippi, the night 
before he gave battle to Augustus Ceesar, he saw a fearful apparition, 
which is commonly related by historians as a vision ; but, considering 
the circurnstances, one may easily judge it to have been but a short 
dream : for, sitting in his tent, pensive and troubled with the horror 
of his rash act, it was not hard for him, slumbering in the cold, to 
dream of that which most affrighted him ; which fear, as by degrees 
it made him awake, so it must needs by degrees make the apparition 
to vanish ; and having no assurance that he slept, he could have no 
cause to think it a dream, or any thing but a vision.” 
The well-known story told by Clarendon of the apparition of the 
duke of Buckingham’s father, w'ill admit of a similar solution. There 
was no man in the kingdom so much the subject of conversation as 
the duke, and, for the corruptness of his character, he was very likely 
to fall a victim to the enthusiasm of the times. Sir George Villiers 
is said to have appeared to a man at midnight, therefore there is the 
greatest probability that the man was asleep; and the dream affrighting 
liim, made a strong impression, and was likely to be repeated. 
It must, how'ever, be acknowledged, that these reasons against appa- 
ritions are far from being conclusive. In favour of them, many power- 
ful arguments may be advanced ; but we must wait for stronger 
evidence than we have yet seen, before we can decide either for or 
against apparitions. 
Superstitions respecting the Moon. 
The following observations on this subject,. with some alterations, 
are extracted from Forster’s Researches concerning Atmospheric Phe- 
nomena. — 
