An Essay on Demonology 4

An Essay on Demonology 4

from this arose further consequences which require a more detailed description. In the

afternoon a little after four o'clock, the figure which I had seen in

the morning again appeared. I was alone when this happened, a

circumstance, which, as may easily be conceived, could not be very

agreeable. I went therefore to the apartment of my wife, to whom I

related it. But thither also the figure pursued me. Sometimes it was

present, sometimes it vanished, but it was always the same standing

figure. A little after six o'clock, several stalking figures also

appeared, but they had no connexion with the standing figure. The

figure of the deceased person never appeared to me after the first

dreadful day; but several other figures showed themselves afterwards

very distinctly; sometimes such as I knew, mostly however, of persons

I did not know, and amongst those known to me, were the semblance of

both living and deceased persons, but mostly the former; and I made

the observation, that acquaintance with whom I daily conversed never

appeared to me as phantasms; it was always such as were at a distance.

These figures appeared to me at all times, and under the most

different circumstances, equally distinct and clear. Whether I was

alone or in company, by broad day light equally as in the night time,

in my own house as well as in my neighbor's; yet, when I was at

another person's house, they were less frequent, and when I walked the

public street, they very seldom appeared. When I shut my eyes,

sometimes the figures disappeared, sometimes they remained even after

I closed them. If they vanished in the former case, on opening my eyes

again, nearly the same figures appeared which I had seen before. For

the most part I saw human figures of both sexes; they commonly passed

to and fro, as if they had no connexion with each other, like people

at a fair, where all is bustle; sometimes they appeared to have

business with each other. Once or twice I saw amongst them persons on

horseback, and dogs and birds; these figures all appeared to me in

their natural size, as distinctly as if they had existed in real life,

with the several tints on the uncovered parts of the body, and with

all the different kinds and colors of clothes. On the whole, the

longer I continued in this state, the more did the phantasms increase,

and the apparitions became more frequent. About four weeks afterwards,

I began to hear them speak, sometimes the phantasms spoke with one

another; but for the most part they addressed themselves to me; these

speeches were in general short, and never contained anything

disagreeable. Intelligent and respected friends often appeared to me,

who endeavored to console me in my grief, which still left deep traces

on my mind. This speaking I heard most frequently when I was alone;

though I sometimes heard it in company, intermingled with the

conversation of real persons, frequently in single phrases only, but

sometimes even in connected discourse. Though at this time I enjoyed

rather a good state of health both in body and mind, and had become so

familiar with these phantasms, that at last they did not excite the

least disagreeable emotion, but on the contrary afforded me frequent

subjects for amusement and mirth; yet as the disorder sensibly

increased, and the figures appeared to me the whole day together, and

even during the night, if I happened to awake, I had recourse to

several medicines. Had I not been able to distinguish phantasms from

phenomena, I must have been insane. Had I been fanatic or

superstitious, I should have been terrified at my own phantasms, and

probably might have been seized with some alarming disorder. Had I

been attached to the marvellous, I should have sought to magnify my

own importance, by asserting that I had seen spirits; and who could

have disputed the facts with me? In this case, however, the advantage

of sound philosophy and deliberate observation may be seen. Both

prevented me from becoming either a lunatic or an enthusiast; for with

nerves so strongly excited, and blood so quick in circulation, either

misfortune might have easily befallen me. But I considered the

phantasms that hovered around me as what they really were, namely, the

effects of disease, and made them subservient to my observations,

because I consider observation and reflection as the basis of all

rational philosophy.' This gentleman had been accustomed to lose blood

twice a year, but it was omitted at this time, and having suffered so

much by the neglect, he again had recourse to blood letting and was

soon relieved of all his phantasms.

 

The following article is contained in the Edinburgh Journal of

Science, conducted by Dr Brewster, who says of the narrator of the

case, that, 'his station in society and as a man of science, would

authenticate the minutest particulars in his narrative, and satisfy

the most scrupulous reader that the case has been philosophically as

well as faithfully described.' The narrator is in fact the husband of

the lady who was the subject of the disease.

 

'On the twentysixth of December, 1829, about half past four o'clock in

the afternoon, Mrs B. was standing near the fire in the hall, and on

the point of going up stairs to dress, when she heard, as she

supposed, my voice calling her by name,--Come here, come to me! She

imagined that I was calling at the door to have it opened, went to it,

and was surprised on opening it to find no one. She returned toward

the fire, and again heard the same voice, calling very distinctly and

loud,--Come, come here. She then opened two other doors of the same

room, but seeing no one, she returned to the fire-place. After a few

minutes, she heard the same voice, still calling--'Come to me, come,

come away;' this time in a loud, plaintive, and somewhat impatient

tone. She answered as loudly--'Where are you? I don't know where you

are'--still imagining that I was somewhere in search of her; but

receiving no answer, she shortly went up stairs. On my return to the

house about half an hour afterwards, she inquired why I had called to

her so often, and where I was; and was of course surprised to hear I

had not been near the house at the time.

 

'On the 30th of the same month, at about four o'clock, P. M., Mrs B.

came down stairs into the drawing room, which she had quitted a few

minutes before, and on entering the room, saw me, as she supposed,

standing with my back to the fire. She addressed me, asking how it was

I had returned so soon. (I had left the house for a walk half an hour

before.) She said I looked fixedly at her with a serious and

thoughtful __EXPRESSION__ of countenance, but did not speak. She supposed

I was busied in thought, and sat down in an arm-chair near the fire,

and within a couple of feet at most of the figure she still saw

standing before her. As, however, the eyes still continued to be fixed

upon her, after a few moments she said--'Why don't you speak--?' The

figure upon this moved off towards the window at the farther end of

the room, the eyes still gazing on her, and passed so very close to

her in doing so, that she was struck by the circumstance of hearing no

step nor sound, nor feeling her clothes brushed against, nor even any

agitation of the air. The idea then arose for the first time into her

mind, that it was no reality, but a spectral illusion, (being a person

of sense and habituated to account rationally for most things, the

notion of anything supernatural was out of the question.) She

recollected, however, your having mentioned that there was a sort of

experimentum crucis, applicable to these cases, by which a genuine

ghost may be distinguished from one conjured up by merely natural

causes; namely, the pressing the eye in order to produce the effect of

seeing double, when, according to your assertion, a true Tartarean

ghost may be duplicated as well as everything else; while the morbid

idea being, I suppose, an impression on the retina, would or ought to

remain single. I am sorry, however, to say, that the opportunity for

verifying your theory was unfavorable. Before Mrs B. was able

distinctly to double her vision, my figure had retreated to the window

and disappeared there. The lady followed, shook the curtains, and

tried the windows, being still loth to believe it was not a reality,

so distinct and forcible was the impression. Finding, however, that

there was no natural means of egress, she became convinced of having

seen a spectral apparition, such as are recorded in Dr Hibbert's work,

and consequently felt no alarm or agitation. The appearance lasted

four or five minutes. It was bright daylight, and Mrs B. is confident

that the apparition was fully as vivid as the reality; and when

standing close to her, it concealed, of course, the real objects

behind it. Upon being told of this my visible appearance in the

spirit, having been only _audible_ a few days before, I was, as you

may imagine, more alarmed for the health of the lady than for my own

approaching death, or any other fatality the vision might be supposed

to forebode. Still both the stories were so very much _en regle_ as

ghost stories, the three calls of the plaintive voice, each one louder

than the preceding, the fixed eye and mournful __EXPRESSION__ of the

phantom, its noiseless step and spirit-like vanishing, were all so

characteristic of the wraith, that I might have been unable to shake

off some disagreeable fancies, such as a mind once deeply saturated

with the poison of nursery-tales cannot altogether banish, had it not

been for a third apparition, at whose visit I myself assisted, a few

days afterwards, and which I think is the key-stone of the case,

rendering it as complete as could be wished.

 

'On the 4th of this month, January, 1830, five days after the last

apparition, at about ten o'clock at night, I was sitting in the

drawing-room with Mrs B. and in the act of stirring the fire, when she

exclaimed, 'Why, there's the cat in the room!' I asked 'Where?' She

replied, 'There, close to you.' 'Where?' I repeated. 'Why, on the rug,

to be sure, between yourself and the coal-scuttle.' I had the poker in

my hand, and I pushed in the direction mentioned. 'Take care,' she

cried out, 'take care, you are hitting her with the poker.' I again

asked her to point out exactly where she saw the cat. She replied,

'Why, sitting up there close to your feet, on the rug:--she is looking

at me. It is Kitty, come here Kitty.' There are two cats in the house,

one of which went by this name. They are rarely, if ever in the

drawing-room. At this time Mrs B. had certainly no idea that the sight

of the cat was an illusion. I asked her to touch it. She got up for

the purpose, and seemed, too, as if she was pursuing something which

moved away. She followed a few steps, and then said,--'It has gone

under that chair.' I told her it was an illusion. She would not

believe it. I lifted up the chair; there was nothing there, nor did

Mrs B. see anything more of it. I searched the room all over, and

found nothing. There was a dog lying on the hearth, who would have

betrayed great uneasiness had a cat been in the room. He was perfectly

quiet. In order to be quite certain, I rung the bell and sent for the

cats. They were both found in the housekeeper's room. The most

superstitious person could now doubt no longer as to the real

character of all these illusory appearances, and the case is so

complete, that I hope there will be no renewal of them, symptomatic

as they of course are of a disordered state of the body. I am sorry to

say Mrs B. as well as myself, forgot to try in time the experimentum

crucis on the cat. Mrs B. has naturally a morbidly sensitive

imagination, so strongly affecting her corporeal impressions, that the

story of any person having severe pain by accident, or otherwise, will

occasionally produce acute twinges of pain in the correspondent part

in her own person. An account, for instance, of the amputation of an

arm, will produce an instantaneous and severe sense of pain in her own

arm; and so of other relations. She is subject to talk in her sleep,

with great fluency; to repeat poetry very much at length, particularly

when unwell, and even _cap verses_ for half an hour together, never

failing to quote lines beginning with the final letter of the

preceding till her memory is exhausted.

 

'She has, during the last six weeks, been considerably reduced and

weakened, by a tiresome cough, which has also added to her weakness by

preventing the taking a daily tonic, to which she had been for some

time accustomed. She had also confined herself from this cause to the

house for some weeks, which is not usual with her, being accustomed to

take a great deal of air and exercise. Her general health for some

time past has not been strong, and a long experience has proved beyond

a doubt, that her ill health is attributable to a disordered state of

the digestive organs. These details are necessary for a complete

understanding of this case, which strikes me as one of remarkable

interest, from combining the character of an ordinary ghost story with

those of an indubitable illusion, as well as from the circumstance

occurring to a person of strong mind, devoid of any superstitious

fancies, and to be implicitly relied on for the truth of the minutest

details of the appearances. Indeed, I do not recollect any well

authenticated and recent instances of auricular delusion like the

first of those I have related, though of course the warning voices and

sounds which have frightened too many weak persons into their graves,

must have been of this nature. Mrs B. tells me that about ten years

ago a similar circumstance happened to her when residing in Florence,

and in perfect health. While undressing after a ball, she heard a

voice call her repeatedly by name, and was at that time unable to

account for the fact.

 

'It was nearly a month after the last occurrence, that Mrs B. was

preparing for bed at about eleven o'clock at night, and after somewhat

a fatiguing day, and sitting before the dressing glass occupied in

arranging her hair. She describes her state of mind at the time as

listless and drowsy, but fully awake; indeed her fingers were in

active motion among the papillotes, when she was suddenly startled by

seeing in the mirror the figure of a near relative (at the time in

Scotland) over her left shoulder; her eyes meeting his in the glass.

The figure was enveloped in grave clothes, closely pinned as is usual with corpses round the head and under the chin. Though the eyes were open, the features were solemn and rigid.