Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects Part 16

To this account of Mr. Davis, I will subjoin what my worthy friend and neighbour Randal Caldicot, D.D. hath affirmed to me many years since, viz. When any Christian is drowned in the river Dee, there will appear over the water where the corps is, a light, by which means they do find the body: and it is therefore called the Holy Dee. The doctor's father was Mr. Caldicot, of Caldicot in Cheshire, which lies on the river.

ORACLES.

HIERONIMUS Carda.n.u.s, lib. 3, "Synesiorum Somniorum", cap. 15, treats of this subject, which see. Johannes Scotus Erigena, when he was in Greece, did go to an Oracle to enquire for a Treatise of Aristotle, and found it, by the response of the oracle. This he mentions in his works lately printed at Oxford; and is quoted by Mr. Anthony a Wood in his Antiquities of Oxon, in his life. He lived before the conquest, and taught Greek at the Abby in Malmesbury, where his scholars stabbed him with their penknives for his severity to them. Leland mentions that his statue was in the choir there.

ECSTACY.

Carda.n.u.s, lib. 2. Synes. Somniorum, cap. 8.

"IN Ecstasin multis modis dilabuntur homines, aut per Syncopen, aut animi deliquium, aut etiam proprie abducto omni sensu externo, absque alia Causa. Id vero contingit consuetis plerunque, & nimio affectu alicujus rei laborantibus; --- Ecstasis medium est inter vigiliam & somnium, sicut somnus inter mortem & vigiliam, seuvitam --- Visa in Ecstasi certiora insomniis: Clariora & evidentiora --- Ecstasi deprehensi audire possunt, qui dormiunt non possunt".

Men fall into an Ecstacy many ways, either by a syncope, by a vanishing and absence of the spirits, or else by the withdrawing of every external sense without any other cause. It most commonly happens to those who are over sollicitous or fix their whole minds upon doing any one particular thing. An Ecstacy is a kind of medium between sleeping and waking, as sleep is a kind of middle state between life and death. Things seen in an Ecstacy are more certain than those we behold in dreams: they are much more clear, and far more evident.

Those seized with an Ecstacy can hear, those who sleep cannot.

Anno 1670, a poor widow's daughter in Herefordshire, went to service not far from Harwood (the seat of Sir John Hoskins, Bart. R.S.S.) She was aged near about twenty; fell very ill, even to the point of death; her mother was old and feeble, and her daughter was the comfort of her life; if she should die, she knew not what to do: she besought G.o.d upon her knees in prayer, that he would be pleased to spare her daughter's life, and take her to him: at this very time, the daughter fell into a trance, which continued about an hour: they thought she had been dead: when she recovered out of it, she declared the vision she had in this fit, viz. that one in black habit came to her, whose face was so bright and glorious she could not behold it; and also he had such brightness upon his breast, and (if I forget not) upon his arms. And told her, that her mother's prayers were heard, and that her mother should shortly die, and she should suddenly recover; and she did so, and her mother died. She hath the character of a modest, humble, virtuous maid. Had this been in some Catholick country, it would have made a great noise.

'Tis certain, there was one in the Strand, who lay in a trance a few hours before he departed. And in his trance had a vision of the death of King Charles II. It was at the very day of his apoplectick fit.

There is a sheet of paper printed 16 ... concerning Ecstacies, that James Usher, late Lord Primate of Ireland, once had: but I have been a.s.sured from my hon. friend James Tyrrell, Esq. (his Lordship's grandson) that this was not an ecstacy; but that his Lordship upon reading the 12, 13, 14, &c. chapters of the Revelation, and farther reflecting upon the great increase of the sectaries in England, supposed that they would let in popery, which consideration put him into a great transport, at the time when his daughter (the Lady Tyrrel) came into the room; when he discoursed to her divers things (tho' not all) contained in the said printed paper.

GLANCES OF LOVE AND MALICE.

"AMOR ex Oculo": Love is from the eye: but (as the Lord Bacon saith) more by glances than by full gazings; and so for envy and malice.

Tell me dearest, what is Love ?

'Tis a Lightning from above: 'Tis an Arrow, 'tis a Fire, 'Tis a Boy they call Desire.*

* Mr. Fletcher in Cupid's Revenge.

'Tis something divine and inexplicable. It is strange, that as one walks the streets sometimes one shall meet with an aspect (of male or female) that pleases our souls; and whose natural sweetness of nature, we could boldly rely upon. One never saw the other before, and so could neither oblige or disoblige each other. Gaze not on a maid, saith Ecclus. 9, 5.

The Glances of envy and malice do shoot also subtilly; the eye of the malicious person, does really infect and make sick the spirit of the other. The Lord Bacon saith it hath been observed, that after triumphs, the triumphants have been sick in spirit.

The chymist can draw subtile spirits, that will work upon one another at some distance, viz. spirits of alkalies and acids, e.g. spirits coelestial (sal armoniac and spirits of C. C. will work on each other at half a yard distance, and smoke;) but the spirits above mentioned are more subtile than they.

"Non amo te Sabati, nece possum dicere quare, Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te".

Fellow, I love thee not, I can't tell why, But this, I'll tell thee, I could sooner die.

But if an astrologer had their nativities, he would find a great disagreement in the schemes. These are hyper-physical opticks, and drawn from the heavens.

Infants are very sensible of these irradiations of the eyes. In Spain, France, &c. southern countries, the nurses and parents are very shy to let people look upon their young children, for fear of fascination. In Spain, they take it ill if one looks on a child, and make one say, G.o.d bless it. They talk of "mal de ojos". We usually say, witches have evil eyes.

AN ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF SECOND- SIGHTED MEN IN SCOTLAND.

**In Two Letters from a learned friend of mine in Scotland.

I.

**To Mr. JOHN AUBREY, Fellow of the Royal Society.

SIR,

FOR your satisfaction I drew up some queries about the second-sighted men, and having sent them to the northern parts of this kingdom, some while ago, I received answers to them from two different hands, whereof I am now to give you an account, viz.

Query 1.

If some few credible, well attested instances of such a knowledge as is commonly called the second-sight, can be given ?

Answer.

Many instances of such knowledge can be given, by the confession of such who are skilled in that faculty: for instances I refer you to the fourth query.

Query 2.

If it consists in the discovery of present or past events only ? or if it extend to such as are to come ?

Answer.

The second-sight relates only to things future, which will shortly come to pa.s.s. Past events I learn nothing of it.

Query 3.

If the objects of this knowledge be sad and dismal events only; such as deaths and murders ? or, joyful and prosperous also ?

Answer.

Sad and dismal events, are the objects of this knowledge: as sudden deaths, dismal accidents. That they are prosperous, or joyful, I cannot learn. Only one instance I have from a person worthy of credit, and thereby judge of the joyfulness, or prosperity of it, and it is this. Near forty years ago, Maclean and his Lady, sister to my Lord Seaforth, were walking about their own house, and in their return both came into the nurse's chamber, where their young child was on the breast: at their coming into the room, the nurse falls a weeping; they asked the cause, dreading the child was sick, or that she was scarce of milk: the nurse replied, the child was well, and she had abundance of milk; yet she still wept; and being pressed to tell what ailed her; she at last said Maclean would die, and the Lady would shortly be married to another man. Being enquired how she knew that event, she told them plainly, that as they both came into the room, she saw a man with a scarlet cloak and a white hat betwixt them, giving the Lady a kiss over the shoulder; and this was the cause of weeping. All which came to pa.s.s after Maclean's death; the tutor of Lovet married the Lady in the same habit the woman saw him. Now by this instance, judge if it be prosperous to one, it is as dismal to another.

Query 4.

If these events which second-sighted men discover, or foretel, be visibly represented to them, and acted, as it were before their eyes ?

Answer.

Affirmatively, they see those things visibly; but none sees but themselves; for instance, if a man's fatal end be hanging, they will see a gibbet, or a rope about his neck: if beheaded, they will see the man without a head; if drowned, they will see water up to his throat; if unexpected death, they will see a winding sheet about his head: all which are represented to their view. One instance I had from a gentleman here, of a Highland gentleman of the Macdonalds, who having a brother that came to visit him, saw him coming in, wanting a head; yet told not his brother he saw any such thing; but within twenty-four hours thereafter, his brother was taken, (being a murderer) and his head cut off, and sent to Edinburgh. Many such instances might be given,

Query 5.

If the second-sight be a thing that is troublesome and uneasy to those that have it, and such as they would gladly be rid of?