Preface

THE
PHILOSOPHY
MYSTERY.
WALTER COOPER DENDY,
FELLOW AND UONORART LIBRARIAN- OF THZ MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON i SENIOR SURGEON TO TUP. ROTAL INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN, &C. tie.
LONDON: LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN^
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1841.
GlLKKKT AND RlVlNOTON, PRINTP.RS,
St. John's Square, London.
TO HIS COUSINS,
STEPHEN DENDY, ESQ.
OF PARIS,
AND
CHARLES COOK DENDY, ESQ.
OF SOUTHGATE HOUSE, CHICHESTER;
AND TO HIS BROTHER,
EDWARD STEPHEN DENDY,
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED,
IN TOKEN OF THE AFFECTIONATE REGARD
OF THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
THE CHALLENGE.
PAGE
Scenery on the Wye — A Ghost Seer — Tintern Abbey — Faith and Scepticism in the reality of Phantoms 1 — 5
NATURE AND MOTIVES OF GHOSTS.
Notions of the Ancients regarding the nature of 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 6 — 17
PROPHECY OF SPECTRES.
Ancient spectral Prophecy — Modern Stories in illustration of prophetic Spectres— Philosophy and Poesy of Shakspere — Holy influence of Spectral Visitations — Stories of apparently special influence of the Deity 18 — 33
ILLUSION OF SPECTRES.
Reasons for early faith in Phantoms— Modern errors regarding classic Super- stitions— 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 34 — 51
PHANTASY FROM MENTAL ASSOCIATION.
Influence of interesting localities — Definition of a Phantom — An intense idea — Demonomania— Stings of Conscience — Curious effect of peculiar study or intense thought — Darkness and Obscurity — Romance of reality — A mys- terious incident 52—66
PHANTASY FROM CEREBRAL EXCITEMENT.
Second Sight — National propensity to the 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 67—79
a
CONTEXTS.
PHANTASY FROM CEREBRAL CONGESTION.
PAGE
Phantoms of intellectual Minds — Illusion of Opium — Illustrations of Nar- cotic Influence ^ 80 — 88
POETIC PHANTASY, OR FRENZY.
Inspiration of Poesy and Painting — Shakspere — Fuseli — Blake — Philosophy and Madness — Illusion of Tasso — Truth of Poesy — Splendid illusions at the onset of Mania — Melancholy constitution and decay of Poetic Minds — Letter of a Cheromaniac — Sensibility — Unhappy consequences of cherishing Romance — Fragment of John Keats 89 — 100
PHANTASY FROM SYMPATHY WITH THE BRAIN.
Philosophy of Moral Causes — Effect of thought and of the function of the Stomach in producing physical changes in the Brain — Stories in proof of this influence— Illusions from Derangements of Vision — Curious cases of ocular Spectra from peculiar conditions of the Eye 101 — 112
MYSTERIOUS FORMS AND SIGNS. Stories of Supernatural Appearances 113 — 122
ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSION.
Credulity — Arrangement of Causes of Spectral Illusion — Illustration of Atmo- spheric Illusions — Natural Phenomena — Fata' Morgana — Schattenman of the Brocken — Romance of unlettered minds • 123 — 140
ILLUSIONS OF ART. Monkish Impostures — Optical Toys — Spontaneous Combustion 141— H6
ILLUSTRATION OF MYSTERIOUS SOUNDS.
Elemental Causes — Impositions at Woodstock — Tedworth — Cock Lane — Subterranean Sounds — Currents of Air — Memnon — Phonic Instruments — Vocal curiosity in young Richmond 147 — 154
FAIRY MYTHOLOGY.
Origin of Faery — Legends of the Mythology of various Climes — Cauld Lad of Hilton 155—165
DEMONOLOGY.
Classic and Indian Mythology— Embodying of a Demon — Stories illustrative of the Superstitions of Ireland and Cornwall — Legend of the Changelings — Poetry of Nature— Preadamite Beings 166 — 177
NATURE OF SOUL AND MIND.
Psychology of the Greeks and of the Moderns — Essence of Phrenology— Lord Brougham — Priestley — Paley — Johnson — Modes of Sepulture — Paradise — Atheism— Deity— Hindu Mythology— Senile Intellect 178—192
CONTENTS. XI
NATURE OF SLEEP.
PAGK
Unconsciousness of Sleep — Necessity of Slumber — Malady of Collins — Somno- lency of the Brute and of Savages — Periods of Sleep — Sleeplessness and its Antidotes 1U3— 204
SUBLIMITY AND IMPERFECTION OF DREAMING.
Unconsciousness of the Dream — Arguments on this question— Episode of a dreaming Life 205—213
PROPHECY OF DREAMS. Ancient Prophetic Dreams — Stories of modern Prophecies in Dreaming 214—222
MORAL CAUSES OF DREAMING.
Associations of Dreaming — Incongruous Combinations — Source of Ideas in Dreams — Innate Idea — Undreaming Minds — Flitting of the Spirit — Fallacy of Mental Energy in the Dream — Illusion of Dreams — Manuontel 223 — 235
ANACHRONISM AND COINCIDENCE OF DREAMS.
Celerity of Ideas in the Dream — Sacred Records of Dreams— Danger of profane Discussion of Scripture — Fallacy of Dreams — Consequences of Credulity in Dreams 236—256
MATERIAL CAUSES OF DREAMS.
Blending of Metaphysics and Philosophy — Confusion of ancient and modern Classifications of Dreams — Curious Cases of suspended Memory — Anecdotes of Tenacity of Memory — Physiology of Memory — Ghost of an amputated Limb 257—269
INTENSE IMPRESSION.— MEMORY.
Curious Cases of Associations— Deranged Memory — Dreams of Animals — Poetic Illustrations ,....270—280
INFLUENCE OF DARK BLOOD IN THE BRAIN.
Conditions of the Brain — Analogy of Dreaming and Mania — Sympathetic Causes of Dreaming — Repletion — Effects of Posture in inducing Dreams — Phrenological Illustrations 281—294
INCUBUS OR NIGHT-MARE. Illustrative Incidents — Night-mare of the Mind 295 — 303
SOMNILOQUENCE.— SOMNAMBULISM.
Stories of Sleep-talking— Stories of Sleep-walking — Changes of disposition in Somnambulism — Abeyance of Memory during the Interval — Exactness and Energy during Somnambulism — Concentration of Power — Unconsciousness — Analysis of Sleep-walking — Theory of Reflex Action of the Nervous System— Irresistibility— Disease of the Brain in Somnambulists 304—328
Xll CONTENTS.
IMITATIVE MONOMANIA.
PAGE
Dance of the Middle Ages — Tarantulism — Saint Vitus' Dance — Tigretier — Lycanthropy — Fanaticism during the Commonwealth — Moravians — The Kent Tragedy — Stories of Imitative Suicide — Effects of Stramonium, and of Gaseous Inhalation ~ 329—340
REVERIE.
Abstraction of Idiocy — Cretinism — Wandering of the Mind — Concentrative- ness — Anecdotes illustrative of Illusive Abstraction 341—352
ABSTRACTION OF INTELLECT.
Anecdotes in illustration — Brown Study — Apathy — Heroism— Reverie of Philosophy — Sonata di Diavolo— Reverie at Caerphilly— Intense Impres- sion—Abstraction of Deep Study — Reverie of the Dying 353 — 366
SOMNOLENCE.— TRANCE.— CATALEPSY.
Description of Trance— Legends of Deep Sleepers— Stories of Modern Trances — Analogies from Intense Impression — Periodical Catalepsy 367 — 377
PREMATURE INTERMENT.— RESUSCITATION.
Stories in Illustration — Romance, Life in Death — Causes of Resuscitation — Disunion of Mind and Body — Insensibility of the Decollated Head — Sensa- tions during Hanging and Drowning— Case of, Dr. Adam Clarke 378 — 392
TRANSMIGRATION.— ANALYSIS OF TRANCE.
State of the Spirit after Death — Fables of Transmigration — Superstition in India and England— Tenacity of Life — Hybernation— Sleep of Plants — Physiology of Trance 393 — 404
MESMERISM.
Its origin — Commissions for its investigation — Caspar Hauser — Sensations of Magnetism — Magnetized Trees — Operations during Magnetic Trance — Transference of Senses — Mineral Traction — Clairvoyance — Trance of Santa Theresa — Prophetess of Prevorst — Magnetic Aura — Personal Sympathy — Socrates — Fascino — Prince Hohenlohe 405 — 430
SIBYLLINE INFLUENCE.
Occult Science— A Gipsy — Spells and Charms — Relics — Ordeals — Philosophy of Prophetic Fulfilment — Melancholy effects of Prophecy — Astrology — Conclusion 431 — 443
THE
THE CHALLENGE.
" There are more things in heav'n and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."— HAMLET.
THERE was a shallop floating on the Wye, among the gray rocks and leafy woods of Chepstow. Within it were two fair girls reclining : the one blending the ro- mantic wildness of a maid of Italy with the exquisite purity of English nature ; the other illuming, with the devotion of a vestal, the classic beauty of a Greek.
There was a young and learned bachelor sitting at the helm. Study had stamped an air of thoughtfulness on his brow ; yet a smile was ever playing on his lips, as his heart felt the truth and influence of the beautiful life around him.
Listen, gentle reader, we pray thy courtesy and thy patience, as a rude unskilful pen traces the breathed thoughts of these wanderers of the Wye.
CASTALY. We have roamed, dear Ida, among the classic lands of the far-off Mediterranean : we have
2 THE CHALLENGE.
looked, from her pinnacles of snow, on the silvery gleami- ness of Switzerland, and from purple sierras on the sunny splendour of Spain ; yet these English meadows, with their fringes of wild bloom, come o'er the heart with all the freshness of an infant's dream. Yon majestic crag of Wyndcliff is flinging its purple shadows athwart the water, and floods of golden glory are streaming through the beech-woods of Piercefield : and see, our little sail, white as the wing of a swan, is wafting us towards Abbey Tintern, along this beautiful valley, where the river almost doubles on itself ; meandering among its mead-flowers and its mosses, as loth to leave its lux- uriant bed. Listen ! the breath of evening is among the trees that dip in the ripple of the Wye their leaves of shivering gold. What a scene for minions of the moon to revel in ! Say, shall we charm the lingering hours of this midsummer night among the ivied clois- ters of the abbey ? But where is Astrophel, our moon-struck student, who, like Chaucer's scholar, keeps
" at his bed's head,
A twenty books clothed in black and red, Of Aristotle and his philosophy ?"
They have not taught him courtesy, or he would not steal away from the light of our eyes to commune with owls and ivy-bushes.
Yet we promise him our smile for your sake, Evelyn. Indeed, I am thinking his mysteries will chime in admirably with the solemnity of this lone abbey. We appoint him master of our revels.
EVELYN. Let your smile be in pity, fair Castaly, on the illusions of Astrophel. Ensconced in his dark closet, within a charmed ring of black-letter folios, he has wofully warped his studies, and has read himself into the belief that he is a GIFTED SEER. Yet love him,
THE CHALLENGE. 3
lady, for his virtues ; for his history is a very paradox. His heart is melting with charity for the beings of earth, yet his mind is half-weaned from their fellowship. At his imminent peril, he leaps into the Isis to save a drowning boy, and the world calls him misanthrope, withal. It is the fate indeed of many a cloistered scholar, whose
" desires are dolphin like,
And soar above the element they live in."
Such is Astrophel.
IDA. He looks his part to perfection. There is a shadowy expression in his dark eye, as it were poring over the volume of his own thoughts. Beneath the slender shaft of yon eastern window, behold this proselyte to the sublime science of shadows. He approaches.
Ev. The hour is on him yet. — Astrophel !
ASTROPHEL. Whisper, and tread lightly, Evelyn, for this is haunted ground. Underneath this velvet turf rest the mouldering bones of a noble. I have held communion in my slumber with the spirit by which they were once animated and moved; and the mysteries of the tomb have been unfolded to me. The eidolon of Roger Bigod has thrice come across my sight.
CAST. A ghost !
Ev. And Astrophel believes the truth of this vision ! Such phantasy might well become the Cistercian monks, who once stalked along these gloomy cloisters, but not an Oxford scholar.
ASTR. And why not an Oxford scholar, Evelyn? I do believe in the existence of beings out of the com- mon course of nature ; and, indeed, the history of the world has ever proved the general leaning to this belief, and my own mind feels that this universal adoption is
n2
4 THE CHALLENGE.
a proof of reality of existence. Smile at, or reason with me, you will not shake my faith, for I believe it true ; and even Johnson confessed, that " although all argument might be against it, yet all belief is for it."
Ev. The diffusion of this fallacy, Astrophel, proves only the universal sameness of the constitution of mind. You may, indeed, cite the high authority of Johnson, that "a belief in the apparitions of the dead could become universal only by its truth." Yet, if this one word, apparition, be rightly interpreted, it will not imply the existence of real phantoms, however ethereal, before the eye, for the notion so construed would have been a grand error of Imlac ; no, he adopts an indefinite expression, conscious that mere metaphysics were not illustrative of this subtle question.
There was one Theophilus Insulanus, who, I think, calls all those who have not faith in phantoms, irre- ligious, because, forsooth, "these ghosts are never employed on subjects of frivolous concern." I may be under the ban of this flimsy enthusiast, but you will not gain me as a proselyte, Astrophel, for, like our great poet, I have seen too many ghosts myself.
Yet I know some few self-created wizards, who have solved to their hearts' content those two grand mys- teries, the real existence and the purpose of ghostly visitations ; who, like Owain Glyndwr, " can call spirits from the vasty deep," and even expect that they will "come when they do call for them." Others have laboured under self-glamourie, and believed themselves magicians, until put to the proof. I remember the painter, Richard Cosway, was under this illusion ; and, when the old cynic Northcote desired him to raise Sir Joshua Reynolds, the pseudo-magus confessed himself foiled, by advancing this simple excuse, " I would, were it not sinful /"
It were well if these monomaniacs were laid in the
THE CHALLENGE. 5
famous bed of St. Hilary at Poictiers ; for there, with the muttering of a prayer or two, as the legend tells us, madmen may be cured.
But, in truth, the light of divine reason has so far dispelled these fancies for the supernatural, that very few of us, I presume, are confident in the hope of raising a ghost when we want one ; or of laying it in the Red Sea for a hundred years, by two clergymen, with " bell, book, and candle," and scraps of mystic Latin, when it becomes rude or troublesome.
IDA. Will you not concede that many visionaries have believed, and written from pure and even holy motives ?
Ev. There is no doubt of this, lady ; yet while it has fanned the flame of superstition in minds of lower intel- lect, 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 Olanville, and that arch-mystagogue Moreton (whose