Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites Part 15

The young Countess being of age to marry, and already betrothed, there was a reception at the chateau. The company, in the evening, wished to have some noisy game; they went into the great hall, where, moreover, the nuptial ball would be held. Animated by the young people who surrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany the guests. But scarcely had she crossed the threshold of the door, than she wished to draw back, and she avowed her fear. They had caused her to pa.s.s first, according to custom, her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at her childishness, closing the doors upon her. But the poor young girl wished to resist; and in shaking and beating the door, caused the picture to fall which was above it. This enormous ma.s.s bruised the head by one of its corners, and killed her immediately.

The scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia, doubtless, like all similar places, having attached to it many strange and wonderful legends, and many servants fully imbued with these legends, and with all the folk-lore which a district like Gallicia contains. We have no information as to what amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into the child, or what use she may have made of the painting in order to terrify her little charge into submission from time to time. That an inquiry, special and distinct, upon this point was necessary ere the main point of the story could be substantiated, is evident; for the establishment of this influence would at once destroy the presentiment sought to be established; and to suppose that the child was brought up without its mind being so poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely rare. Again, the painting was a representation of the Sibyl of c.u.ma. In her early days, says cla.s.sic history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after her short-sighted bargain with Apollo for a life as long in years as the number of grains of sand she held in her hand, forgetting to add the request for perennial beauty also, she shortly became old and decrepid, her form decayed, her countenance melancholy and pale, and her looks haggard; and it is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed to see her pourtrayed. But we are left in the dark as to whether the painting in question represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her decrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration, when, according to the aeneis (Book vi),--

"Her colour changed; her face was not the same, And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.

Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.

Greater than human kind she seem'd to look, And with an accent more than mortal spoke, Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll; When all the G.o.d came rushing on her soul."

That the painting must have depicted the Sibyl in one of the two latter characters is almost certain, for in any other it would have been meaningless; and leaving the question of the extent to which her mind might be poisoned by folk-lore, or by the servants making the painting a bugbear to her,--leaving this in abeyance, what must the effect of a frightful-looking and gigantic picture, staring the child in the face, have been upon a young mind? Little doubt need be entertained of the feeling of terror with which an infant eye would regard it, and we have already shown how such a feeling, being implanted there, would become a part and parcel of its nature, and be never subsequently eradicated.

We see this feeling manifested every day in the aversion which some individuals manifest to certain animals. From emotions taught during childhood and youth, and often lost sight of in mature years, a cat, a dog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &c., has become an object of such dread to some persons, that even in advanced life the presence of one has caused the utmost annoyance and terror.

The powerful and persistent influence of ideas thus a.s.sociated has been clearly and pithily expressed by Locke,[78] and his first instance has an immediate bearing upon our subject:--

"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with darkness than light, yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, probably he shall never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other."

That the fall of the painting was caused by the vibrations occasioned by shaking and beating upon the door beneath it, seems certain; but that there was any _presentimental_ connection (if we may so word it) between the fall of the painting and the previous dread of it,--any foreshadowing in this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal consequences,--there is no satisfactory evidence whatever.

Another example of presentiment, quoted by Boismont, is the following:--

Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on terms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was prepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind.

One of them, B----, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited by the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a degree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered the apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for Europe, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had difficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing letters?--they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take a turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps, nearer the point of departure than we suppose!" Acceding to the request, his friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was astonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B---- walked. On reaching the Battery, B---- precipitated his rate of walking still more, until they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone, expressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. "I regarded him fixedly," to continue the narrative in the words of the narrator; "he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B----,' I cried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height into the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in the face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose his glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words, and sought to pa.s.s by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After looking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted into tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted me night and day, as a torch of h.e.l.l. It was for this end that I brought you here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the work had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without expression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was pa.s.sed. I reconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with bleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still more extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event."

Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of "sudden and mysterious inspiration?" Would it not have been still more mysterious if a minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking incoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with intent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We think it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond the pale of the laws of common observation.

It would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have carried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to a.n.a.lyze the operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom errors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless there are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they are stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far as we are yet acquainted with them.

One of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the authority of Mrs. Crowe.

She writes:--

"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table, covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]

A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.

"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on account of his belonging to the n.o.bility; and she herself, who was also imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind, that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies of the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one of their number."

Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the prophecy:--

"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's elevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late Countess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with Josephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circ.u.mstance in early youth."[80]

The most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences which have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some inexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circ.u.mstances occurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord Bacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum," and to this _dictum_ nothing needs to be added.

"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down (either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it affords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation, and although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the contrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.

It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the G.o.ds, by an inquiry, "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in spite of their vows?" All superst.i.tion is much the same, whether it be that of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pa.s.s over their failure, though it be much more common.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of thought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be impartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is the most powerful."

We have now briefly examined the princ.i.p.al of those phenomena which it has been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive explanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly come within the category of those laws.

Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the authority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the details imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they, to use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of considerable importance), "as they now stand, can have no scientific value; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all, still less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall a.s.suredly founder."[81]

We are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily appertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care against error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of inquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we must entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing such theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.

The great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling us to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure; and it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of the so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own powers is as yet very imperfect and limited.

APPENDIX.

EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR FARADAY'S LETTER ON TABLE MOVING.

_Athenaeum, July 2, 1853, p. 801._

"The object which I had in view in my inquiry was, not to satisfy myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of those who had turned tables,--but that I might be enabled to give a strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for it.

Yet the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should adopt in any other physical investigation. The parties with whom I have worked were very honourable, very clear in their intentions, successful table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the existence of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. It is with me a clear point that the table moves when the parties, though they strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that they move it by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table draws their hands; that it moves first, and they have to follow it; that sometimes it even moves from under their hands. With some, the table will move to the right or left, according as they wish or will it; with others, the direction of the first move is uncertain;--but all agree that the table moves the hands, and not the hands the table. Though I believe the parties do not intend to move the table, but obtain the result by a quasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt of the influence of expectation upon their minds, and, through that, upon the success or failure of their efforts.

"The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections due to expectation--having relation to the substances which I might desire to use; so, plates of the most different bodies, electrically speaking, namely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue, gla.s.s, moist clay, tinfoil, card-board, gutta percha, vulcanized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a bundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of a turner. The table turned. Other bundles of other plates were submitted to different persons at other times,--and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore, these substances may be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither during their use, nor at any other times, could the slightest trace of electrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials, it was readily ascertained that one person could produce the effect; and that the motion was not necessarily circular, but might be in a straight line. No form of experiment or mode of observation that I could devise gave me the slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No attraction or repulsion, or signs of tangential power appeared; nor anything which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical pressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to a.n.a.lyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal direction; doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A soft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was prepared. Four or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board were attached one over the other by little pellets of the cement, and the lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the edges of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil line was drawn over the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from sight. Then the table-turner placed the hands upon the upper card, and we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to offer considerable resistence to mechanical motion, and also to retain the cards in any new position which they might acquire, and yet weak enough to give way slowly to a continued force.

"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all moved to the left together, and so a true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On examination, it was easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the line, that the hand had moved further than the table, and that the latter had lagged behind;--that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper card to the left, and that the under cards and the table had followed and been dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the table had not moved, still the upper card was found to have moved, showing that the hand had carried it in the expected direction. It was evident, therefore, that the table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor had it moved simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things under it, behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the hand back.

"The next step was, to arrange an index, which should show whether the table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both moved or remained at rest together.... Two thin boards, nine and a-half by seven inches, were provided; a board, nine by five inches, was glued to the middle of the under side of one of these (to be called the table-board), so as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the table, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to the further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum for the indicating lever. Then, four gla.s.s rods, seven inches long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, were placed as rollers on different parts of this table-board, and the upper board placed on them; the rods permitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free motion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part corresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the upper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards, entered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this part of the lever was of card-board: the indicating prolongation was a straight hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain the motion of the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were pa.s.sed round both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they tied the boards together, acted also as springs--and whilst they allowed the first, feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted, before the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power in pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a strong lateral action of the hand.

"All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away, the two boards were tied together with string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber springs, so as to be immoveable in relation to each other. They were then placed on the table, and a table-turner sat down to them. The table very shortly moved in due order, showing that the apparatus offered no impediment to the action. A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced the same result under the hands of another person. The index was now put into its place, and the string loosened, so that the springs should come into play. It was soon seen with the party that could will the motion in either direction (from whom the index was purposely hidden), that the hands were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon, though the party certainly thought they were pressing downwards only.

When shown that it was so, they were truly surprised; but when they lifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its normal position, they were convinced. When they looked at the index, and could see for themselves whether they were pressing truly downwards, or obliquely, so as to produce a resultant in the right or left handed direction, then such an effect never took place. Several tried, for a long while together, and with the best will in the world, but no motion, right or left, of the table or hand, or anything else, occurred.

"I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who really wish to know the truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth to a mistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only because it seems to be new or strange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press directly downward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle, or even to know only whether they are doing so or not, unless they have some indicator which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall instruct them; and this is more especially the case when the muscles of the fingers and hand have been cramped and rendered either tingling or insensible or cold by long-continued pressure. If a finger be pressed constantly into the corner of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and then, continuing the pressure, the mind be directed to judge whether the force at a given moment is all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in one direction and how much in the other, it will find great difficulty in deciding, and will, at last, become altogether uncertain,--at least such is my case. I know that a similar result occurs with others, for I have had two boards arranged, separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of vulcanized rubber; and with the vertical index, when a person with his hands on the upper board is requested to press only downwards, and the index is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to him and from him, and in all horizontal directions; so utterly unable is he strictly to fulfil his intention without a visible and correcting indicator. Now, such is the use of the instrument with the horizontal index and rollers; the mind is instructed and the involuntary or quasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement, and, therefore, never rises up to the degree needful to move the table, or even permanently the index itself. No one can suppose that looking at the index can in any way interfere with the transfer of electricity, or any other power, from the hand to the board under it, or to the table. If the board tends to move, it may do so; the index does not confine it; and if the table tends to move, there is no reason why it should not. If both were influenced by any power to move together, they may do so, as they did, indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the mind and muscles left unwatched and unchecked."

PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.

[2] Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne, edit. 1847, T. III, p. 269.

[3] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.

[4] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.

[5] Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.

[6] "Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the true knowledge of G.o.d: who, from the things which are seen to be good, have not been able to conceive aright of that which is goodness itself; nor, while they viewed the work, to acknowledge the architect: but have thought that either fire, or the wind, the swift air, or the stars in their courses, or the vast deep, or the sun and moon, were the deities presiding over the world."--_Liber Sapientiae_, ch. 13, v. 1, 2.