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“We so intreateth this serious and terrible matter of Spirites, that now and then insertyng some strange stories of counterfeyts, doth both very lybely display their falsehood, and also not a little recreate his reader: and yet in the ende he so aptly concludeth to the purpose, that his hystories seeme not idle tales, or impertinent vagaries, but very truethes, naturally falling under the compasse of his matter.”
WALTER COOPER DENDY, FELLOW AND HONORARY LIBRARIAN OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; SENIOR SURGEON TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN, &c. &c.
LONDON: LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER ROW. ——— 1841.
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, St. John’s Square, London.
PAGE THE CHALLENGE. Scenery on the Wye—A Ghost Seer—Tintern 1-5 Abbey—Faith and Scepticism in the reality of Phantoms
NATURE AND MOTIVES OF GHOSTS. Notions of the Ancients regarding the nature of 6-17 Ghosts—Confidence of the Ancients in their appearance—Modern Incidents in illustration of real appearance—Qualities of Ghosts—Motives of Apparitions—Ancient and modern Stories
PROPHECY OF SPECTRES. Ancient spectral Prophecy—Modern Stories in 18-33 illustration of prophetic Spectres—Philosophy and Poesy of Shakspere—Holy influence of Spectral Visitations—Stories of apparently special influence of the Deity
ILLUSION OF SPECTRES. Reasons for early faith in Phantoms—Modern errors 34-51 regarding classic Superstitions—Shallowness and Fallacy of modern Incidents—Explanation of Ghost Stories by Coincidence—Incidents in proof of Coincidence—Proneness of intellectual Minds to credulity and exaggeration—Innocent invention of an incident at Bowood
PHANTASY FROM MENTAL ASSOCIATION. Influence of interesting localities—Definition of 52-66 a Phantom—An intense idea—Demonomania—Stings of Conscience—Curious effect of peculiar study or intense thought—Darkness and Obscurity—Romance of reality—A mysterious incident
PHANTASY FROM CEREBRAL EXCITEMENT. Second Sight—National propensity to the 67-79 Sight—Romance and Poetry of the Mountains—_Morbid_ predisposition to Second Sight—Unearthly Visions on the eve of Dissolution—Glimpses of Reason in dying Maniacs