Sketches of the Philosophy of Apparitions: Or, An Attempt to Trace Such Illusions to Their Physical Causes |
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Page vii
... nature cannot be attempted but in connexion with almost all the phenomena of the human mind . To pursue the inquiry , there- fore , any farther , would be to make a dissertation on apparitions the absurd vehicle of a regular sys- tem of ...
... nature cannot be attempted but in connexion with almost all the phenomena of the human mind . To pursue the inquiry , there- fore , any farther , would be to make a dissertation on apparitions the absurd vehicle of a regular sys- tem of ...
Page 7
... nature . An appeal is also made to self - deception , be- cause many persons believe they actually see and hear where nothing is either to be seen or heard . No rea- sonable man , I think , will ever deny the possibility of our being ...
... nature . An appeal is also made to self - deception , be- cause many persons believe they actually see and hear where nothing is either to be seen or heard . No rea- sonable man , I think , will ever deny the possibility of our being ...
Page 8
... nature ; and on the 24th of Fe- bruary a circumstance occurred which irritated me extremely . At ten o'clock in the forenoon my wife and another person came to console me ; I was in a violent perturbation of mind , owing to a series of ...
... nature ; and on the 24th of Fe- bruary a circumstance occurred which irritated me extremely . At ten o'clock in the forenoon my wife and another person came to console me ; I was in a violent perturbation of mind , owing to a series of ...
Page 11
... natural size , as distinctly as if they had existed in real life , with the several tints on the un- covered parts of the ... nature . " None of the figures had any distinguishing cha- racteristic , they were neither terrible , ludicrous ...
... natural size , as distinctly as if they had existed in real life , with the several tints on the un- covered parts of the ... nature . " None of the figures had any distinguishing cha- racteristic , they were neither terrible , ludicrous ...
Page 16
... nature of external objects . The phenomena connected with the Giant of the Broken * are known to every one . To the same class of pseudo- apparitions belong the Fata Morgana , and the Mirage or Water of the Desert . Sometimes , when the ...
... nature of external objects . The phenomena connected with the Giant of the Broken * are known to every one . To the same class of pseudo- apparitions belong the Fata Morgana , and the Mirage or Water of the Desert . Sometimes , when the ...
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Common terms and phrases
2d Stage actual impressions afterwards angels apparitions appeared arise astral spirits blood body brain catalepsy CHAPTER degree of vividness demonology demons devil divels dreams duergar ecstacy effect entertained explain external eyes faint Fancy fear figure frequently ghosts heard hierarchy of angels human imagination imparted induced ject kind Laplanders less vivid manner ment mental excitement mental feelings metaphysicians mind morbific causes narrative nature nerves ness night nitrous oxide notion object observed occasion opinion organs of sense painful feelings particular past feelings perfect sleep person phantasms phenomena philosophers pleasurable feelings present principle Rabbi Akkiva recollected images Reginald Scot remarks rendered renovated feelings retina says second sight seen sensations and ideas shew shewn sions somnambulism Soul spectral illusions spectral impressions spirits stage of excitement subsist superstition supposed TABULAR VIEW thing thou thought tion unconsciousness vanished various vision vivifying influence waking writer
Popular passages
Page 49 - I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil : and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, — As he is very potent with such spirits, — Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds More relative than this: — the play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Page 143 - How oft do they their silver bowers leave, To come to succour us that succour want ! How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting...
Page 194 - It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature ; or that there is no further state to come, unto which this seems progressional, and otherwise made in vain.
Page 272 - True, I talk of dreams ; Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air, And more inconstant than the wind...
Page 393 - A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer sky...
Page 225 - ... imagined might happen by some accident in the candle. But lifting up his eyes, he apprehended, to his extreme amazement, that there was before him, as it were suspended in the air, a visible representation of the Lord JESUS CHRIST upon the cross, surrounded on all sides with a glory; and was impressed, as if a voice, or something equivalent to a voice, had come to him, to this ef*fect, (for he was not confident as to the very words;) " Oh sinner, did I suffer this for thee,
Page 138 - Spirits, when they please, Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh ; but, in what shape they choose, Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Can execute their aery purposes, 430 And works of love or enmity fulfil.
Page 213 - Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions, as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it : and I willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent compliment, which so many that believe the Bible pay to those who do not believe it.
Page 228 - Being thus doubtful in my chamber, one fair day in the summer, my casement being opened towards the south, the sun shining clear, and no wind stirring, I took my book, De Veritate...
Page 190 - And shake us with the vision that's gone by, The dread of vanish'd shadows — Are they so ? Is not the past all shadow ? What are they ? Creations of the mind ? — The mind can make Substance, and people planets of its own With beings brighter than have been, and give A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh.