EV. There is no doubt of this, lady; yet while it has fanned the flame of superstition in minds of lower intellect, with many, the endeavour to _prove too much_ has marred these motives, and weakened faith, even in the credulous; so that we may hope the wild romances of Beaumont, and Burthogge, and Baxter, and Aubrey, and Glanville, and that arch-mystagogue Moreton (whose book is half full of prolix dialogues between ghosts and ghost-seers), will soon be mere objects of interest and curiosity to the black-letter bibliomaniac and the more erudite legend-hunter.
CAST. We will not submit to your anathema, Evelyn. This learned clerk has challenged our faith. What a treasury of secrets might he unfold to us from the mystic tomes of antiquity, the wonders of profane psychology; from the tales of Arabia to Vatheck and the Epicurean—from the classic mythology of Homer to the wild romances of his humble prototype Ossian.
Let it be a match: we will listen, Astrophel, while you “unsphere the spirit of Plato;” and here we sit in judgment, on the velvet throne of this our court of Tintern.
“In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.” HAMLET, 4to. B.
ASTR. It is not from the sources of _mythology_ alone, that I adduce my illustrations of the reality of ghosts, but from the myriads of _incidents_ which ancient and modern _history_ record. Yet may I well crave your courtesy for the scraps of fable, and perchance of imposture, that may unwittingly creep into my discourse. Listen to me.
It was believed by the ancients that each body possessed three ghosts—to be released on its dissolution. The _manes_ at once emigrated to the region of Pluto: the _spiritus_ ascended to the skies: the _umbra_ or shade still wandered on the earth. Or, as the poet has more comprehensively sung,
“Bis duo sunt homini, manes, caro, spiritus, umbra; Quatuor ista loci bis duo suscipiunt: Terra tegit carnem, tumulum circumvolat umbra, Orcus habet manes, spiritus astra petit.”
Meaning that there are four principles in man, and this is their destiny:—the _flesh_ to earth; the _ghost_ to the tomb; the _soul_ to Hades; and the _spirit_ to heaven.