SPIRITS AND APPARITIONS.
THE report of an unexplained phenomena, written by a very well disciplined observer, and published in the Cornhill Magazine, under the title, " Stranger than Fiction," throws a very remark- able light on previous reports of a similar kind. One was quoted a year or two back by the Times, relating a very remarkable séance in Florence, where the officiating " Medium" had been asked to call up Dante. " The presence of the latter was immediately made manifest by the written answers returned to the questions of the inquirer, and Mr. B— then asked the Medium to request the great Italian to make himself risible ! Presently there arose, as if from the ground beneath the table, two long thin yellow hands, unmistakeable as to their Italian origin, undeniable us to their having belonged to a student and a gentleman. While the assembly was yet gazing in breathless awe, and may be something of terror likewise, the hands floated away, or were rather borne, as it were, across the room, and rose to the marble console opposite, upon which stood a vase containing an orange-tree in. blossom. The hands, slowly and softly, without noise, but visibly to all, plucked from the stem a sprig of orange-flower with its leaves and buds, and, returning to the table, passed above the head of Mrs. B—, the poet's wife, herself an exquisite and beautiful poet likewise, and, placing the sprig upon her raven hair, disappeared gradually from sight, seeming once more to sink to the floor.' "
There are, we some errors of fact in this report. The
" Medium," if we are not mistaken, was Mr. Home. It is repre- sented that "Mr. B--" denies having been present at any séance, and that he has so completely disapproved Mr. Home's proceedings as to decline further acquaintance with that gentleman. That the report was inaccurate in one particular of secondary importance does not prove its untruth in other particu- lars; and that Mr. B— disbelieves is no evidence against what may have been witnessed by Mrs. B--. Again, Mr. B--, who was not present at the former séance, is scarcely so valu- able a witness as the writer4of " Stranger than Fiction," who was present at a recent experiment.
Who can dogmatize on any display of the unknown or the half- known, after the marvels accomplished by grasping the lightning's power, by making light do the work of picture, by sending messages as quick as thought across land and sea ? We have detected con- jectural divisions of "electricity " into various forces ; we have separated light into many " rays," visible and invisible ; we doubt the " elements ; " we guess the existence of "od ; " and who shall assert that there is not something odder than. od, although it has been noted chiefly, if not exclusively, by em- piries ?
It is remarkable that mankind has, from the earliest ages, had a sense of some unknown powers or existences, and has almost periodically been seized by spiritual visitations. In some cases the stories have been proved delusions ; in some the fact of phe- nomena has been established, but " explained." " Visions " have appeared to people, and the fact is established on testimony that cannot be denied ; but it is traced, as in the well-known instance of Nicholai, the Berlin bookseller, to an abnormal, phy- sical, or nervous condition of the patient. Nicholai " saw ' figures, but he knew that the delusion attended a particular physical state : it was no doubt a reflex action of the nervous system. Others still living have "seen" figures, in crowds and solitary, and, although the figures looked as solid as living people, have known them to be unreal, probably from their moving without sound. Walter Scott, Mrs. Crowe, Hewitt, and other collectors of marvellous stories, have filled hooks with authenti- cated instances of apparitions. Still these " explained" eases do not explain spiritualism, any more than the detections of fraud in one case prove the negative of statements in other cases. The proof of a forged bank note does not prove that all bank notes are forged.
Whether they are delusions or not, these paroxysms of spiritual- ism are worth more patient investigations, if only as subjects of psychology, pathology, or physiology. What predisposes large masses of mankind to rush into spiritual indulgences ? The in- quiry would at least aid in developing the laws of folly—that extensive and powerful influence. If the manifestations are pro- duced by a simple juggling trick, it is remarkable that so many persons should possess the secret and not disclose it. It is a degree of the confidential that exceeds Freemasonry, without its checks.
It is to be observed that all the new manifestations confessedly require time for their development. The results mostly are of a kind that originate in the person who witnesses the phenomenon— he is visited by something calculated to impress him peculiarly if not exclusively ; and again we note something like a reflex action under cover of this ultra-od. It does appear possible that if persons of rational and well-informed mind could condescend to watch the progress of these phenomena, they might usefully collect notes to serve as the data for the laws, either of delusion, or of some hitherto unobserved agency, and possibly of " apparitions" in past times —of individual apparitions, as well as of spiritualist visitations ; for spiritualism, under various names and in various forma, has appeared before, and in the specially learned parts of Europe.
One of the most impressive scenes of a period fertile in appari- tions is related by Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, in his Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Dresden, Se. It was told him by a person who assisted at the seance. In 1773, or a little before, one Schrepfer resided in Leipzig, where he kept a coffeehouse ; and in that coffeehouse he studied and acquired the art of invoking spirits. By indiscreet expressions he gave offence to Prince Charles of Saxony ; an officer entered Schrepfer's room to inflict chastisement, the magician threw himself on his knees, and in- voked the invisible spirits to his assistance ; and the appeal was perfectly successful, for the officer took fright and decamped. After skulking to avoid the anger of the Prince, Schrepfer ap- peared incognito at Dresden ; but Charles penetrated the man's disguise, and astonished the court by visiting him at the Hotel de Pologne and asking his pardon for the ill treatment. The Prince and the magician became strict friends, and, after much persuasion, Schrepfer manifesting great reluctance, the Prince succeeded in extorting from him a display of his art. It took place in the Prince's palace, in the presence of nineteen persons, with various precautions to prevent trickery. The Prince was nephew to the Chevalier de Saxe, half-brother to the famous Marshal; the Chevalier had left large property to his nephew, but was supposed to have left much more in concealment. Ava- rice combined with curiosity to make the Prince wish an inter- view with his uncle ; and Schrepfer promised to summon the de- parted. The company of nineteen persons waited long while the magician exerted himself, with many bodily contortions and great show of mental agitation, to invoke, first, the good spirits to pro- tect him, and then the evil spirits, whose presence was necessary to complete the power. Horrid sounds of vibration and yelling announced the presence of these beings— "The door suddenly opened with violence, and something that resembled a black ball or globe rolled into the room. It was invested with smoke or cloud, in the midst of which appeared to be a human face like the counte- nance of the Chevalier de Saxe. From this form issued a loud and angry voice, which exclaimed in German : Carl, was willst du mit ruir ? ' Charles what wantest thou with me ?'
"Language is inadequate to describe the consternation produced at so awful a sight. Either firmly persuaded that the appearance which they beheld was spiritual and intangible; or deprived of resolution to approach and at- tempt to seize it, they appear to have made no effort to satisfy themselves of its incorporeal nature. " The Prince, whose imprudent curiosity had summoned his uncle's ghost, and to whom, as the person principally responsible, the spectre addressed itself, far from manifesting self-possession or attempting any reply, betrayed the strongest masks of horror and contrition. Throwing himself on his knees, he called on Heaven for mercy, while others of the terrified party earnestly besought the magician to give the only remaining proof of his art for which they now were anxious, by dismissing the apparition."
Schrepfer laboured for more than an hour to fulfil this second wish ; after he had succeeded, and the company began to grow more tranquil, the door suddenly burst open again, and the same hideous form presented. 'itself to their eyes. A renewal of the exorcisms dismissed it. All of whioh is stated on creditable authority.
Stories equally well authenticated, or better, may be repeated ad infinitum ; and inedited tales quite unconnected with " spiritualism " are still current in society. Here is one. A gentleman, not credulous by nature or training, was returning to his lodging in Edinburgh, to sleep ; and as he neared his home, he took out his latch-key. A. figure before him, walking the same way, did the same ; and in that figure he recognized himself: His double-goer put the latch-key into the door, opened it, and entered. The gentleman found the door closed. Although not credulous or cowardly, he hesitated, as most of us would, to follow that predecessor ; and went to sleep at a friend's house. Before going to his daily business, he required something from his rooms, and he wenthome. His bed lay, as Scotch beds sometimes do, in a recess : he found that the whole masonry of the recess had fallen in ; and if he had returned to sleep, he would then have been a corpse. Why are men prone to tell these stories ? Why do they at times see these visions ? And if they do, believing them to be delusions, why do they, nevertheless, feel fear at heart, and obey it ?
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