Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers — Chapter 18 - Conclusion

CHAPTER XVIII. CONCLUSION.

OF the power of the mind over matter, we have a remarkable example in the numerous well-authenticated instances of the _stigmata_.

As in most cases this phenomenon has been connected with a state of religious exaltation, and has been appropriated by the Roman church as a miracle, the fact has been in this country pretty generally discredited, but without reason.

Ennemoser, Passavent, Schubert, and other eminent German physiologists, assure us that not only is the fact perfectly established, as regards many of the so-called saints, but also that there have been indubitable modern instances, as in the case of the ecstaticas of the Tyrol, Catherine Emmerich (commonly called the Nun of Dulmen), Maria Morl, and Domenica Lazzari, who have all exhibited the stigmata.

Catherine Emmerich, the most remarkable of the three, began very early to have visions, and to display unusual endowments.

She was very pious;

could distinguish the qualities of plants, reveal secrets or distant circumstances, and knew people’s thoughts; but was, however, extremely sickly, and exhibited a variety of extraordinary and distressing symptoms, which terminated in her death.

The wounds of the crown of thorns round her head, and those of the nails in her hands and feet, were as perfect as if painted by an artist, and they bled regularly on Fridays.

There was also a double cross on her breast.

When the blood was wiped away, the marks looked like the puncture of flies.

She seldom took any nourishment but water; and, having been but a poor cow-keeper, she discoursed, when in the ecstatic state, as if inspired.

I am well aware that on reading this, many persons who never saw her, will say it was all imposture.

It is very easy to say this; but it is as absurd as presumptuous to pronounce on what they have had no opportunity of observing.

I never saw these women either; but I find myself much more disposed to accept the evidence of those who did, than of those who only “do not believe, because they do not believe.

” Neither Catherine Emmerich nor the others made their sufferings a source of profit, nor had they any desire to be exhibited—but quite the contrary.

She could see in the dark as well as the light, and frequently worked all night at making clothes for the poor, without lamp or candle.

There have been instances of magnetic patients being stigmatized in this manner.

Madame B. von N—— dreamed one night that a person offered her a red and a white rose, and that she chose the latter.

On awaking she felt a burning pain in her arm, and by degrees there arose there the figure of a rose perfect in form and color.

It was rather raised above the skin.

The mark increased in intensity till the eighth day, after which it faded away, and by the fourteenth was no longer perceptible.

A letter from Moscow, addressed to Dr. Kerner, in consequence of reading the account of the “Nun of Dulmen,” relates a still more extraordinary case.

At the time of the French invasion, a Cossack having pursued a Frenchman into a _cul de sac_—an alley without an outlet—there ensued a terrible conflict between them, in which the latter was severely wounded.

A person who had taken refuge in this close and could not get away, was so dreadfully frightened, that when he reached home, there broke out on his body the very same wounds that the Cossack had inflicted on his enemy!

The signatures of the fœtus are analogous facts; and if the mind of the mother can thus act on another organism, why not the minds of the saints, or of Catherine Emmerich, on their own?

From the influence of the mother on the child, we have but one step to that asserted to be possible between two organisms not visibly connected for the difficulty therein lies, that we do not see the link that connects them, though doubtless it exists.

Dr. Blacklock, who lost his eyesight at an early period, said that, when awake, he distinguished persons by hearing and feeling them; but when asleep, he had a distinct impression of another sense.

He then seemed to himself united to them by a kind of distant contact, which was effected by threads passing from their bodies to his, which seems to be but a metaphorical expression of the fact; for, whether the connection be maintained by an all-pervading ether, or be purely dynamic, that the intertraction exists between both organic and inorganic bodies, is made evident wherever there is sufficient excitability to render the effects sensible.

Till very lately, the powers of the divining-rod were considered a mere fable; yet, that this power exists, though not in the rod, but in the person that holds it, is now perfectly well established.

Count Tristan, who has written a book on the subject, says that about one in forty have it, and that a complete course of experiments has proved the phenomenon to be electric.

The rod seems to serve, in some degree, the same purpose as the magical mirror and conjurations, and it is also serviceable in presenting a result visible to the eye of the spectator.

But numerous cases are met with, in which metals or water are perceived beneath the surface of the earth, without the intervention of the rod.

A man, called Bleton, from Dauphiny, possessed this divining power in a remarkable degree, as did a Swiss girl, called Katherine Beutler.

She was strong and healthy, and of a phlegmatic temperament, yet so susceptible of these influences that, without the rod, she pointed out and traced the course of water, veins of metal, coal-beds, salt-mines, &c. The sensations produced were sometimes on the soles of her feet, sometimes on her tongue, or in her stomach.

She never lost the power wholly, but it varied considerably in intensity at different times, as it did with Bleton.

She was also rendered sensible of the bodily pains of others, by laying her hand on the affected part, or near it; and she performed several magnetic cures.

A person now alive, named Dussange, in the Maçonnés, possesses this power.

He is a simple, honest man, who can give no account of his own faculty.

The Abbés Chatelard and Paramelle can also discover subterraneous springs; but they say it is effected by means of their geological science.

Monsieur D——, of Cluny, however, found the faculty of Dussange much more to be relied on.

The Greeks and Romans made hydroscopy an art; and there are works alluded to as having existed on this subject, especially one by Marcellus.

The caduceus of Mercury, the wand of Circe, and the wands of the Egyptian sorcerers, show that the wand or rod was always looked upon as a symbol of divination.

One of the most remarkable instances of the use of the divining-rod, is that of Jacques Aymar.

On the 5th of July, 1692, a man and his wife were murdered in a cellar at Lyons, and their house was robbed.

Having no clew whatever to the criminal, this peasant, who had the reputation of being able to discover murderers, thieves, and stolen articles, by means of the divining-rod, was sent for from Dauphiny.

Aymar undertook to follow the footsteps of the assassins, but he said he must first be taken into the cellar where the murder was committed.

The procurator royal conducted him thither;

and they gave him a rod out of the first wood that came to hand.

He walked about the cellar, but the rod did not move till he came to the spot where the man had been killed.

Then Aymar became agitated, and his pulse beat as if he were in a high fever; and all these symptoms were augmented when he approached the spot on which they had found the body of the woman.

From this, he, of his own accord, went into a sort of shop where the robbery had been committed; thence he proceeded into the street, tracing the assassin, step by step, first to the court of the archbishop’s palace, then out of the city, and along the right side of the river.

He was escorted all the way by three persons appointed for the purpose, who all testified that sometimes he detected the traces of three accomplices, sometimes only of two.

He led the way to the house of a gardener, where he insisted that they had touched a table and one of three bottles that were yet standing upon it.

It was at first denied;

but two children, of nine or ten years old, said that three men had been there, and had been served with wine in that bottle.

Aymar then traced them to the river where they had embarked in a boat; and, what is very extraordinary, he tracked them as surely on the water as on the land.

He followed them wherever they had gone ashore, went straight to the places they had lodged at, pointed out their beds, and the very utensils of every description that they had used.

On arriving at Sablon, where some troops were encamped, the rod and his own sensations satisfied him that the assassins were there; but fearing the soldiers would ill treat him, he refused to pursue the enterprise further, and returned to Lyons.

He was, however, promised protection, and sent back by water, with letters of recommendation.

On reaching Sablon, he said they were no longer there; but he tracked them into Languedoc, entering every house they had stopped at, till he at length reached the gate of the prison, in the town of Beaucaire, where he said one of them would be found.

They brought all the prisoners before him, amounting to fifteen; and the only one his rod turned on was a little _Bossu_, or deformed man, who had just been brought in for a petty theft.

He then ascertained that the two others had taken the road to Nimes, and offered to follow them; but as the man denied all knowledge of the murder, and declared he had never been at Lyons, it was thought best that they should return there; and as they went the way they had come, and stopped at the same houses, where he was recognised, he at length confessed that he had travelled with two men who had engaged him to assist in the crime.

What is very remarkable, it was found necessary that Jacques Aymar should walk in front of the criminal, for when he followed him he became violently sick.

From Lyons to Beaucaire is forty-five miles.

As the confession of the _Bossu_ confirmed all Aymar had asserted, the affair now created an immense sensation; and a great variety of experiments were instituted, every one of which proved perfectly satisfactory.

Moreover, two gentlemen, one of them the controller of the customs, were discovered to possess this faculty, though in a minor degree.

They now took Aymar back to Beaucaire, that he might trace the other two criminals; and he went straight again to the prison-gate, where he said that now another would be found.

On inquiry, however, it was discovered that a man had been there to inquire for the _Bossu_, but was gone again.

He then followed them to Toulon, and finally to the frontier of Spain, which set a limit to further researches.

He was often so faint and overcome with the effluvia, or whatever it was that guided him, that the perspiration streamed from his brow, and they were obliged to sprinkle him with water to prevent his fainting.

He detected many robberies in the same way.

His rod moved whenever he passed over metals or water, or stolen goods; but he found that he could distinguish the track of a murderer from all the rest, by the horror and pain he felt.

He made this discovery accidentally, as he was searching for water.

They dug up the ground, and found the body of a woman that had been strangled.

I have myself met with three or four persons in whose hands the rod turned visibly; and there are numerous very remarkable cases recorded in different works.

In the Hartz, there is a race of people who support themselves entirely by this sort of divination; and as they are paid very highly, and do nothing else, they are generally extremely worthless and dissipated.

The extraordinary susceptibility to atmospheric changes in certain organisms, and the faculty by which a dog tracks the foot of his master, are analogous facts to those of the divining-rod.

Mr. Boyle mentions a lady who always perceived if a person that visited her came from a place where snow had lately fallen.

I have seen one who, if a quantity of gloves are given her, can tell to a certainty to whom each belongs; and a particular friend of my own, on entering a room, can distinguish perfectly who has been sitting in it, provided these be persons he is familiarly acquainted with.

Numerous extraordinary stories are extant respecting this kind of faculty in dogs.

Doubtless not only our bodies, but all matter, sheds its atmosphere around it; the sterility of the ground where metals are found is notorious; and it is asserted that, to some persons, the vapors that emanate from below are visible, and that, as the height of the mountains round a lake furnishes a measure of its depth, so does the height to which these vapors ascend show how far below the surface the mineral treasures or the waters lie.

The effect of metals on somnambulic persons is well known to all who have paid any attention to these subjects; and surely may be admitted, when it is remembered that Humboldt has discovered the same sensibility in zoophytes, where no traces of nerves could be detected; and, many years ago, Frascatorius asserted that symptoms resembling apoplexy were sometimes induced by the proximity of a large quantity of metal.

A gentleman is mentioned who could not enter the mint at Paris without fainting.

In short, so many well-attested cases of idiosyncratic sensibilities exist, that we have no right to reject others because they appear incomprehensible.

Now, we may not only easily conceive, but we know it to be a fact, that fear, grief, and other detrimental passions, vitiate the secretions,[9] and augment transpiration; and it is quite natural to suppose that, where a crime has been committed which necessarily aroused a number of turbulent emotions, exhalations perceptible to a very acute sense may for some time hover over the spot; while the anxiety, the terror, the haste, in short, the general commotion of system, that must accompany a murderer in his flight, is quite sufficient to account for his path being recognisable by such an abnormal faculty, “for the wicked flee when no man pursueth.

” We also know that a person perspiring with open pores is more susceptible than another to contagion; and we have only to suppose the pores of Jacques Aymar so constituted as easily to imbibe the emanations shed by the fugitive, and we see why he should be affected by the disagreeable sensations he describes.

The disturbing effect of odors on some persons, which are quite innoxious to others, must have been observed by everybody.

Some people do actually almost “die of a rose in aromatic pain.

” Boyle says that, in his time, many physicians avoided giving drugs to children, having found that external applications, to be imbibed by the skin, or by respiration, were sufficient; and the homeopaths occasionally use the same means now.

Sir Charles Bell told me that Mr. F——, a gentleman well known in public life, had only to hold an old book to his nose to produce all the effects of a cathartic.

Elizabeth Okey was oppressed with most painful sensations when near a person whose frame was sinking.

Whenever this effect was of a certain intensity, Dr. Elliotson observed that the patient invariably died.

Herein lies the secret of amulets and talismans, which grew to be a vain superstition, but in which, as in all popular beliefs, there was a germ of truth.

Somnambulic persons frequently prescribe them; and absurd as it may seem to many, there are instances in which their efficacy has been perfectly established, be the interpretation of the mystery what it may.

In a great plague which occurred in Moravia, a physician, who was constantly among the sufferers, attributed the complete immunity of himself and his family to their wearing amulets composed of the powder of toads, “which,” says Boyle, “caused an emanation adverse to the contagion.

” A Dutch physician mentions, that in the plague at Nimeguen, the pest seldom attacked any house till they had used soap in washing their linen.

Wherever this was done it appeared immediately.

In short, we are the subjects, and so is everything around us, of all manner of subtle and inexplicable influences: and if our ancestors attached too much importance to these ill-understood arcana of the night-side of nature, we have attached too little.

The sympathetic effects of multitudes upon each other, of the young sleeping with the old, of magnetism on plants and animals, are now acknowledged facts: may not many other asserted phenomena that we yet laugh at be facts also, though probably too capricious in their nature—by which I mean, depending on laws beyond our apprehension—to be very available?

For I take it, that as there is no such thing as chance, but all would be certainty if we knew the whole of the conditions, so no phenomena are really capricious and uncertain: they only appear so to our ignorance and shortsightedness.

The strong belief that formerly prevailed in the efficacy of sympathetic cures, can scarcely have existed, I think, without some foundation: nor are they a whit more extraordinary than the sympathetic falling of pictures and stopping of clocks and watches, of which such numerous well-attested cases are extant that several learned German physiologists of the present day pronounce the thing indisputable.

I have myself heard of some very perplexing instances.

Gaffarillus alludes to a certain sort of magnet, not resembling iron, but of a black-and-white color, with which if a needle or knife were rubbed, the body might be punctured or cut without pain.

How can we know that this is not true?

Jugglers who slashed and cauterized their bodies for the amusement of the public were supposed to avail themselves of such secrets.

How is it possible for us, either, to imagine that the numerous recorded cases of the _Blood Ordeal_, which consisted in the suspected assassin touching the body of his victim, can have been either pure fictions or coincidences?

Not very long ago, an experiment of a frightful nature is said to have been tried in France on a somnambulic person, by placing on the epigastric region a vial filled with the arterial blood of a criminal just guillotined.

The effect asserted to have been produced was the establishment of a rapport between the somnambule and the deceased which endangered the life of the former.

Franz von Baader suggests the hypothesis of a _vis sanguinis ultra mortem_, and supposes that a rapport or _communio vitæ_ may be established between the murderer and his victim; and he conceives the idea of this mutual relation to be the true interpretation of the sacrificial rites common to all countries, as also of the _Blutschuld_, or the requiring blood for blood.

With regard to the blood ordeal, the following are the two latest instances of it recorded to have taken place in this country; they are extracted from “Hargrave’s State Trials:”— “Evidence having been given with respect to the death of Jane Norkott, an ancient and grave person, minister of the parish in Hertfordshire where the murder took place, being sworn, deposed, that the body being taken up out of the grave, and the four defendants being present, were required each of them, to touch the dead body.

Okeman’s wife fell upon her knees, and prayed God to show token of her innocency.

The appellant did touch the body, whereupon the brow of the deceased, which was before of a livid and carrion color, began to have a dew, or gentle sweat on it, which increased by degrees till the sweat ran down in drops on the face, the brow turned to a lively and fresh color, and the deceased opened one of her eyes and shut it again, and this opening the eye was done three several times; she likewise thrust out the ring, or marriage finger, three times, and pulled it in again, and blood dropped from the finger on the grass.

“Sir Nicholas Hyde, the chief justice, seeming to doubt this evidence, he asked the witness who saw these things besides him, to which he, the witness, answered, ‘My lord, I can not swear what others saw, but I do believe the whole company saw it; and if it had been thought a doubt, proof would have been made, and many would have attested with me.

My lord,’ added the witness, observing the surprise his evidence awakened, ‘I am minister of the parish, and have long known all the parties, but never had displeasure against any of them, nor they with me, but as I was minister.

The thing was wonderful to me, but I have not interest in the matter, except as called on to testify to the truth.

My lord, my brother, who is minister of the next parish, is here present, and, I am sure, saw all that I have affirmed.

’” Hereupon, the brother, being sworn, he confirmed the above evidence in every particular, and the first witness added, that having dipped his finger into what appeared to be blood, he felt satisfied that it was really so.

It is to be observed, that this extraordinary circumstance must have occurred, if it occurred at all, when the body had been upward of a month dead; for it was taken up in consequence of various rumors implicating the prisoners, after the coroner’s jury had given in a verdict of _felo de se_.

On their first trial, they were acquitted, but an appeal being brought, they were found guilty and executed.

It was on this latter occasion that the above strange evidence was given, which, being taken down at the time by Sir John Maynard, then sergeant-at-law, stands recorded, as I have observed, in Hargrave’s edition of “State Trials.

” The above circumstances occurred in the year 1628, and in 1688 the blood ordeal was again had recourse to in the trial of Sir Philip Stansfield for parricide, on which occasion the body had also been buried, but for a short time.

Certain suspicions arising, it was disinterred and examined by the surgeons, and, from a variety of indications, no doubt remained that the old man had been murdered, nor that his son was guilty of his death.

When the body had been washed and arrayed in clean linen, the nearest relations and friends were desired to lift it and replace it in the coffin; and when Sir Philip placed his hand under it, he suddenly drew it back, stained with blood, exclaiming, “Oh, God!

” and letting the body fall, he cried, “Lord, have mercy upon me!

” and went and bowed himself over a seat in the church, in which the corpse had been inspected.

Repeated testimonies are given to this circumstance in the course of the trial; and it is very remarkable that Sir John Dalrymple, a man of strong intellect, and wholly free from superstition, admits it as an established fact in his charge to the jury.

In short, we are all, though in different degrees, the subjects of a variety of subtle influences, which, more or less, neutralize each other, and many of which, therefore, we never observe; and frequently when we do observe the effects, we have neither time nor capacity for tracing the cause; and when in more susceptible organisms such effects are manifested, we content ourselves with referring the phenomena to disease or imposture.

The exemption, or the power, whichever it may be, by which certain persons or races are enabled to handle venomous animals with impunity, is a subject that deserves much more attention than it has met with; but nobody thinks of investigating secrets that seem rather curious than profitable; besides which, to believe these things implies a reflection on one’s sagacity.

Yet, every now and then, I hear of facts so extraordinary, which come to me from undoubted authority, that I can see no reason in the world for rejecting others that are not much more so.

For example, only the other day, Mr. B.

C——, a gentleman well known in Scotland, who has lived a great deal abroad, informed me, that having frequently heard of the singular phenomenon to be observed by placing a scorpion and a mouse together under a glass, he at length tried the experiment; and the result perfectly established what he had been previously unable to believe.

Both animals were evidently frightened, but the scorpion made the first attack, and stung the mouse, which defended itself bravely, and killed the scorpion.

The victory, however, was not without its penalties, for the mouse swelled to an unnatural size, and seemed in danger of dying from the poison of its defeated antagonist, when it relieved itself and was cured by eating the scorpion, which was thus proved to be an antidote to its own venom;

furnishing a most interesting and remarkable instance of isopathy.

There is a religious sect in Africa, not far from Algiers, who eat the most venomous serpents alive, and certainly, it is said, without extracting their fangs.

They declare they enjoy the privilege from their founder.

The creatures writhe and struggle between their teeth; but possibly, if they do bite them, the bite is innocuous.

Then, not to mention the common expedients of extracting the poisonous fangs, or forcing the animal by repeated bitings to exhaust their venom, the fact seems too well established to be longer doubted, that there are persons in whom the faculty of charming, or, in other words, disarming serpents, is inherent, as the psylli and marsi of old, and the people mentioned by Bruce, Hassequist, and Lempriere, who were themselves eye-witnesses of the facts they relate.

With respect to the marsi, it must be remembered, that Heliogabalus made their priests fling venomous serpents into the circus when it was full of people, and that many perished by the bites of these animals, which the marsi had handled with impunity.

The modern charmers told Bruce that their immunity was born with them; and it was established beyond a doubt, during the French expedition into Egypt, that these people go from house to house to destroy serpents, as men do rats in this country.

They declare that some mysterious instinct guides them to the animals, which they immediately seize with fury and tear to pieces with their hands and teeth.

The negroes of the Antilles can smell a serpent which they do not see, and of whose presence a European is quite insensible; and Madame Calderon de la Barca mentions, in her letters from Mexico, some singular cases of exemption from the pernicious effects of venomous bites; and further relates, that in some parts of America, where rattlesnakes are extremely abundant, they have a custom of innoculating children with the poison, and that this is a preservative from future injury.

This may or may not be true; but it is so much the fashion in these days to set down to the account of fable everything deviating from our daily experience, that travellers may repeat these stories for ages before any competent person will take the trouble of verifying the report.

However, taking the evidence altogether, it appears clear that there does exist in some persons a faculty of producing in these animals a sort of numbness, or _engourdissement_, which renders them for the time incapable of mischief; though of the nature of the power we are utterly ignorant, unless it be magnetic.

The senses of animals, although generally resembling ours, are yet extremely different in various instances; and we know that many of them have one faculty or another exalted to an intensity of which we have no precise conception.

Galen asserted, on the authority of the marsi and psylli themselves, that they obtained their immunity by feeding on the flesh of venomous animals: but Pliny, Elian, Silius Italicus, and others, account for the privilege by attributing it to the use of some substance of a powerful nature, with which they rubbed their bodies; and most modern travellers incline to the same explanation.

But if this were the elucidation of the mystery, I suspect it would be easily detected.

It is observable that in all countries where a secret of this sort exists, there is always found some custom which may be looked upon as either the cause or the consequence of the discovery.

In Hindostan, for example, in order to test the truth of an accusation, the cobra capello is flung into a deep pot of earth with a ring; and if the supposed criminal succeeds in extracting the ring without being bitten by the serpent, he is accounted innocent.

So the sacred asps in Egypt inflicted death upon the wicked, but spared the good.

Dr. Allnut mentions that he saw a negro in Africa touch the protruded tongue of a snake with the black matter from the end of his pipe, which he said was tobacco-oil.

The effects were as rapid as a shock of electricity.

The animal never stirred again, but stiffened, and was as rigid and hard as if it had been dried in the sun.

It is related of Machamut, a Moorish king, that he fed on poisons till his bite became fatal and his saliva venomous.

Cœlius Rhodiginus mentions the same thing of a woman who was thus mortal to all her lovers; and Avicenna mentions a man whose bite was fatal in the same way.

The boy that was found in the forest of Arden, in 1563, and who had been nourished by a she-wolf, made a great deal of money for a short time, after he was introduced to civilized life, by exempting the flocks and herds of the shepherds from the peril they nightly ran of being devoured by wolves.

This he did by stroking them with his hands, or wetting them with his saliva, after which they for some time enjoyed an immunity.

His faculty was discovered from the circumstance of the beasts he kept never being attacked.

It left him, however, when he was about fourteen, and the wolves ceased to distinguish him from other human beings.

However, my readers will, I think, ere now have supped full with _wonders_, if not with _horrors_—and it is time I should bring this book to a conclusion.

If I have done no more, I trust I shall at least have afforded some amusement; but I shall be better pleased to learn that I have induced any one, if it be _but_ one, to look upon life and death, and the mysteries that attach to both, with a more curious and inquiring eye than they have hitherto done.

I can not but think that it would be a great step if mankind could familiarize themselves with the idea that they are spirits incorporated for a time in the flesh; but that the dissolution of the connection between soul and body, though it changes the external conditions of the former, leaves its moral state unaltered.

What a man has made himself, he will be; his state is the result of his past life, and his heaven or hell is in himself.

At death we enter upon a new course of life, and what that life shall be depends upon ourselves.

If we have provided oil for our lamps, and fitted ourselves for a noble destiny and the fellowship of the great and good spirits that have passed away, such will be our portion; and if we have misused our talent, and sunk our souls in the sensual pleasures or base passions of this world, we shall carry our desires and passions with us, to make our torment in the other—or perhaps be tethered to the earth by some inextinguishable remorse or disappointed scheme, like those unhappy spirits I have been writing about—and that perhaps for hundreds of years; for, although they be evidently freed from many of the laws of space and matter, while unable to leave the earth, they are still the children of time and have not entered into eternity.

It is surely absurd to expect that because our bodies have decayed and fallen away, or been destroyed by an accident, that a miracle is to be wrought in our favor, and that the miser’s love of gold, or the profligate’s love of vice, is to be immediately extinguished, and be superseded by inclinations and tastes better suited to his new condition!

New circumstances do not so rapidly engender a new mind here, that we should hope they will do so there: more especially as, in the first place, we do not know what facilities of improvement may remain in us; and in the second, since the law that like seeks like must be undeviating, the blind will seek the blind, and not those who could help them to light.

I think, too, that if people would learn to remember that they are spirits, and acquire the habit of conceiving of themselves as individuals, apart from the body, that they would not only be better able to realize this view of a future life, but they would also find it much less difficult to imagine, that, since they belong to the spiritual world on the one hand, quite as much as they belong to the material world on the other, that these extraordinary faculties, which they occasionally see manifested by certain individuals, or in certain states, may possibly be but faint rays of those properties which are inherent in spirit, though temporarily obscured by its connection with the flesh—and designed to be so, for the purposes of this earthly existence.

The most ancient nations of the world knew this, although we have lost sight of it, as we learn by the sacred books of the Hebrews.

According to the _Cabbalah_, “Mankind are endowed by nature, not only with the faculty of penetrating into the regions of the supersensuous and invisible, but also of working magically above and below, or in the worlds of light and darkness.

As the Eternal fills the world, sees, and is not seen, so does the soul (_N’schamach_) fill the body, and sees without being seen.

The soul perceives that which the bodily eye can not.

Sometimes a man is seized suddenly with a fear, for which he can not account, which is because the soul descries an impending misfortune.

The soul possesses also the power of working with the elementary matter of the earth, so as to annihilate one form and produce another.

Even by the force of imagination, human beings can injure other things; yea, even to the slaying of a man!

” (The new platonist, Paracelsus, says the same thing.

) The “Cabbalah” teaches that there have in all times existed men endowed with powers, in a greater or less degree, to work good or evil; for, to be a virtuoso in either, requires a peculiar spiritual vigor: thence, such men as heroes and priests in the kingdom of Tumah (the kingdom of the clean and unclean).

“If a man therefore sets his desires on what is godly, in proportion as his efforts are not selfish, but purely a seeking of holiness, he will be endowed, by the free grace of God, with supernatural faculties; and it is the highest aim of existence, that man should regain his connection with his inward, original source, and exalt the material and earthly into the spiritual.

” The highest degree of this condition of light and spirit is commonly called “the holy ecstasy,” which is apparently the degree attained by the ecstatics of the Tyrol.

I am very far from meaning to imply that it is our duty, or in any way desirable, that we should seek to bring ourselves into this state of holy ecstasy, which seems to involve some derangement of the normal relations between the soul and body; but it is at least equally unwise in us to laugh at, or deny it or its proximate conditions, where they really exist.

It appears perfectly clear that, as by giving ourselves up wholly to our external and sensuous life, we dim and obscure the spirit of God that is in us—so, by annihilating, as far as in us lies, the necessities of the body, we may so far subdue the flesh as to loosen the bonds of the spirit, and enable it to manifest some of its inherent endowments.

Ascetics and saints have frequently done this voluntarily;

and disease, or a peculiar constitution, sometimes does this for us involuntarily: and it is far from desirable that we should seek to produce such a state by either means, but it _is_ extremely desirable that we should avail ourselves of the instruction to be gained by the simple knowledge that such phenomena have existed and been observed in all ages; and that thereby our connection with the spiritual world may become a demonstrated fact to all who choose to open their eyes to it.

With regard to the cases of apparitions I have adduced, they are not, as I said before, one hundredth part of those I could have brought forward, had I resorted to a few of the numerous printed collections that exist in all languages.

Whether the view I acknowledge myself to take of the facts be or not the correct one—whether we are to look to the region of the psychical or the hyperphysical for the explanation—the facts themselves are certainly well worthy of observation; the more so, as it will be seen that, although ghosts are often said to be out of fashion, such occurrences are, in reality, as rife as ever: while, if these shadowy forms be actually visiters from the dead, I think we can not too soon lend an attentive ear to the tale their reappearance tells us.

That we do not all see them, or that those who promise to come do not all keep tryst, amounts to nothing.

We do not know why they can come, nor why they can not; and as for not seeing them, I repeat, we must not forget how many other things there are that we do not see: and since, in science, we know that there are delicate manifestations which can only be rendered perceptible to our organs by the application of the most delicate electrometers, is it not reasonable to suppose that there may exist certain susceptible or diseased organisms, which, judiciously handled, may serve as electrometers to the healthy ones?

As my book is designed as an inquiry, with a note of interrogation I characteristically bid adieu to my readers.

C. C.

----- [9] In the “Medical Annals,” a case is recorded of a young lady whose axillary excretions were rendered so offensive, by the fright and horror she had experienced in seeing some of her relations assassinated in India, that she was unable to go into society.

* * * * * * Transcriber's note: Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected.

Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NIGHT-SIDE OF NATURE; OR, GHOSTS AND GHOST-SEERS *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U. S.

copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!

) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties.

Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark.

Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the Project Gutenberg trademark.

If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very easy.

You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research.

Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected by U. S.

copyright law.

Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg License available with this file or online at www.

gutenberg.

org/license.

Section 1.

General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg electronic works 1. A.

By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property (trademark/copyright) agreement.

If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg electronic works in your possession.

If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1. E.

8. 1. B.

“Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark.

It may only be used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.

There are a few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg electronic works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.

See paragraph 1. C below.

There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg electronic works.

See paragraph 1. E below.

1. C.

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project Gutenberg electronic works.

Nearly all the individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the United States.

If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the United States and you are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed.

Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg mission of promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg name associated with the work.

You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg License when you share it without charge with others.

1. D.

The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what you can do with this work.

Copyright laws in most countries are in a constant state of change.

If you are outside the United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg work.

The Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any country other than the United States.

1. E.

Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: 1. E.

1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg License must appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg work (any work on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or distributed: This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.

You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg™ License included with this eBook or online at www.

gutenberg.

org.

If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

1. E.

2. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is derived from texts not protected by U. S.

copyright law (does not contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees or charges.

If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1. E.

1 through 1. E.

7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1. E.

8 or 1. E.

9. 1. E.

3. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is posted with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution must comply with both paragraphs 1. E.

1 through 1. E.

7 and any additional terms imposed by the copyright holder.

Additional terms will be linked to the Project Gutenberg License for all works posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.

1. E.

4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg.

1. E.

5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1. E.

1 with active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project Gutenberg License.

1. E.

6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any word processing or hypertext form.

However, if you provide access to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg work in a format other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version posted on the official Project Gutenberg website (www.

gutenberg.

org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other form.

Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg License as specified in paragraph 1. E.

1. 1. E.

7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg works unless you comply with paragraph 1. E.

8 or 1. E.

9. 1. E.

8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access to or distributing Project Gutenberg electronic works provided that: • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the use of Project Gutenberg works calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.

The fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg trademark, but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.

Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns.

Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.

” • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License.

You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works.

• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1. F.

3, a full refund of any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of receipt of the work.

• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.

1. E.

9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark.

Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.

1. F.

1. F.

1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread works not protected by U. S.

copyright law in creating the Project Gutenberg™ collection.

Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

1. F.

2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1. F.

3, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees.

YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT

LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.

F.

3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE

TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

1. F.

3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to the person you received the work from.

If you received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation.

The person or entity that provided you with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a refund.

If you received the work electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.

If the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the problem.

1. F.

4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in paragraph 1. F.