The Phantom World Part 58

Almost all the theologians agree that the angels appear in the aerial bodies with which they clothe themselves.

"To make you understand in what manner they take and invest themselves with these bodies, in order to render themselves visible to men, and to make themselves heard by them, we must first of all explain what is vision, which is only the bringing of the _species_ within the compa.s.s of the organ of sight. This "_species_" is the ray of light broken and modified upon a body, on which, forming different angles, this light is converted into colors. For an angle of a certain kind makes red, another green, blue or yellow, and so on of all the colors, as we perceive in the prism, on which the reflected rays of the sun forms the different colors of the rainbow; the _species_ visible is then nothing else than the ray of light which returns from the object on which it breaks to the eyes.

"Now, light falls only on three kinds of objects or bodies, of which some are diaphanous, others opake, and the others partic.i.p.ate in these two qualities, being partly diaphanous and partly opake. When the light falls on a diaphanous body which is full of an infinity of little pores, as the air, it pa.s.ses through without causing any reflection. When the light falls on a body entirely opake, as a flower, for instance, not being able to penetrate it, its ray is reflected from it, and returns from the flower to the eye, to which it carries the _species_, and renders the colors distinguishable, according to the angles formed by reflection. If the body on which the light falls is in part opake and in part diaphanous, like gla.s.s, it pa.s.ses through the diaphanous part, that is to say, through the pores of the gla.s.s which it penetrates, and reflects itself on the opake particles, that is to say, which are not porous. Thus the air is invisible, because it is absolutely penetrated with light: the flower sends back a color to the eye, because, being impenetrable to the light, it obliges it to reflect itself; and the gla.s.s is visible only because it contains some opake particles, which, according to the diversity of angles formed upon it by the ray of light, reflect different colors.

"That is the manner in which vision is formed, so that air being invisible, on account of its extreme transparency, an angel could not clothe himself with it and render himself visible, but by thickening the air so much, that from diaphanous it became opake, and capable of reflecting the ray of light to the eye of him who perceived him. Now, as the angels possess knowledge and power far beyond anything we can imagine, we need not be astonished if they can form aerial bodies, which are rendered visible by the opacity they impart to them. In respect to the organs necessary to these aerial bodies, to form sounds and make themselves heard, without having any recourse to the disposition of matter, we must attribute them entirely to a miracle.

"It is thus that angels have appeared to the holy patriarchs. It is thus that the glorious souls that partic.i.p.ate the angelic nature can a.s.sume an aerial body to render themselves visible, and that even demons, by thickening and condensing the air, can make to themselves a body of it, so as to become visible to men, by the particular permission of G.o.d, to accomplish the secrets of his providence, as they are said to have appeared to St. Anthony the Hermit, and to other saints, in order to tempt them.

"Excuse, sir, this little physical digression, with which I could not dispense, in order to make you understand the manner in which angels, who are purely spiritual substances, can be perceived by our fleshly senses.

"The only point on which the holy doctors do not agree on this subject is, to know if angels appear to men of their own accord, or whether they can do it only by an express command from G.o.d. It seems to me that nothing can better contribute to the decision of this difficulty, than to determine the way in which the angels know all things here below; for if it is by means of "_species_" which G.o.d communicates to them every day, as St. Augustine believes, there is no reason to doubt of their knowing all the wants of mankind, or that they can, in order to console and strengthen them, render their presence sensible to them, by G.o.d's permission, without receiving an express command from him on the subject; which may be concluded from what St. Ambrose says on the subject of the apparition of angels, who are by nature invisible to us, and whom their will renders visible. _Hujus naturae est non videri, voluntatis, videri._[662]

"On the subject of demons, it is certain that their power was very great before the coming of Jesus Christ, since he calls them himself, the powers of darkness, and the princes of this world. It cannot be doubted that they had for a long time deceived mankind, by the wonders which they caused to be performed by those who devoted themselves more particularly to their service; that several oracles have been the effect of their power and knowledge, although part of them must be ascribed to the subtlety of men; and that they may have appeared under fantastic forms, which they a.s.sumed in the same way as the angels, that is to say, in aerial bodies, which they organized. The Holy Scriptures a.s.sure us even, that they took possession of the bodies of living persons. But Jesus Christ says too precisely, that he has destroyed the kingdom of the demons, and delivered us from their tyranny, for us possibly to think rationally that they still possess that power over us which they had formerly, so far as to work wonderful things which appeared miraculous; such as they relate of the vestal virgin, who, to prove her virginity, carried water in a sieve; and of her who by means of her sash alone, towed up the Tiber a boat, which had been so completely stranded that no human power could move it. Almost all the holy doctors agree, that the only means they now have of deceiving us is by suggestion, which G.o.d has left in their power to try our virtue.

"I shall not amuse myself by combating all the impositions which have been published concerning demons, incubi, and succubi, with which some authors have disfigured their works, any more than I shall reply to the pretended possession of the nuns of Loudun, and of Martha Brossier,[663] which made so much noise at Paris at the commencement of the last century; because several learned men who have favored us with their reflections on these adventures, have sufficiently shown that the demons had nothing to do with them; and the last, above all, is perfectly quashed by the report of Marescot, a celebrated physician, who was deputed by the Faculty of Theology to examine this girl who performed so many wonders. Here are his own words, which may serve as a general reply to all these kind of adventures:--_A natura multa plura ficta, a Daemone nulla._ That is to say, that the const.i.tution of Martha Brossier, who was apparently very melancholy and hypochondriacal, contributed greatly to her fits of enthusiasm; that she feigned still more, and that the devil had nothing to do with it.

"If some of the fathers, as St. Thomas, believe that the demons sometimes produce sensible effects, they always add, that it can be only by the particular permission of G.o.d, for his glory and the salvation of mankind.

"In regard to all those prodigies and those common spells, which the people ascribe to sorcery or commerce with the demon, it is proved that they can be performed only by natural magic, which is the knowledge of secret effects of natural causes, and several by the subtlety of art. It is the opinion of the greater number of the fathers of the church who have spoken of it; and without seeking testimony of it in Pagan authors, such as Xenophon, Athenaeus, and Pliny, whose works are full of an infinity of wonders which are all natural, we see in our own time the surprising effects of nature, as those of the magnet, of steel, and mercury, which we should attribute to sorcery as did the ancients, had we not seen sensible demonstrations of their powers. We also see jugglers do such extraordinary things, which seem so contrary to nature, that we should look upon these charlatans as magicians, if we did not know by experience, that their address alone, joined to constant practice, makes them able to perform so many things which seem marvelous to us.

"All the share that the demons have in the criminal practices of those who are commonly called sorcerers, is suggestion; by which means they invite them to the abominable research of every natural cause which can do injury to others.

"I am now, sir, at the most delicate point of your question, which is, to know if our souls can return to earth after they are separated from our bodies.

"As the ancient philosophers erred so strongly on the nature of the soul--some believing that it was but a fire which animated us, and others a subtile air, and others affirming that it was nothing else but the proper arrangement of all the machine of the body, a doctrine which could not be admitted any more as the cause of in men than in beasts; we cannot therefore be surprised that they had such gross ideas concerning their state after death.

"The error of the Greeks, which they communicated to the Romans, and the latter to our ancestors was, that the souls whose bodies were not solemnly interred by the ministry of the priests of religion, wandered out of Hades without finding any repose, until their bodies had been burned and their ashes collected. Homer makes Patroclus, who was killed by Hector, appear to his friend Achilles in the night to ask him for burial, without which, he is deprived, he says, of the privilege of pa.s.sing the river Acheron. There were only the souls of those who had been drowned, whom they believed unable to return to earth after death; for which we find a curious reason in Servius, the interpreter of Virgil, who says, the greater number of the learned in Virgil's time, and Virgil himself, believing that the soul was nothing but a fire, which animated and moved the body, were persuaded that the fire was entirely extinguished by the water--as if the material could act upon the spiritual. Virgil explains his opinions on the subject of souls very clearly in these verses:--

'Igneus est ollis vigor, et celestis origo.'

And a little after,

'totos infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et toto se corpore miscet;'

to mark the universal soul of the world, which he believed with the greater part of the philosophers of his time.

"Again, it was a common error amongst the pagans, to believe that the souls of those who died before they were of their proper age, which they placed at the end of their growth, wandered about until the time came when they ought naturally to be separated from their bodies.

Plato, more penetrating and better informed than the others, although like them mistaken, said, that the souls of the just who had obeyed virtue ascended to the sky; and that those who had been guilty of impiety, retaining still the contagion of the earthly matter of the body, wandered incessantly around the tombs, appearing like shadows and phantoms.

"For us, whom religion teaches that our souls are spiritual substances created by G.o.d, and united for a time to bodies, we know that there are three different states after death.

"Those who enjoy eternal beat.i.tude, absorbed, as the holy doctors say, in the contemplation of the glory of G.o.d, cease not to interest themselves in all that concerns mankind, whose miseries they have undergone; and as they have attained the happiness of angels, all the sacred writers ascribe to them the same privilege of possessing the power, as aerial bodies, of rendering themselves visible to their brethren who are still upon earth, to console them, and inform them of the Divine will; and they relate several apparitions, which always happened by the particular permission of G.o.d.

"The souls whose abominable crimes have plunged them into that gulf of torment, which the Scripture terms h.e.l.l, being condemned to be detained there forever, without being able to hope for any relief, care not to have permission to come and speak to mankind in fantastic forms. The Scripture clearly set forth the impossibility of this return, by the discourse which is put into the mouth of the wicked rich man in h.e.l.l, introduced speaking to Abraham; he does not ask leave to go himself, to warn his brethren on earth to avoid the torments which he suffers, because he knows that it is not possible; but he implores Abraham to send thither Lazarus, who was in glory. And to observe _en pa.s.sant_ how very rare are the apparitions of the blessed and of angels, Abraham replies to him, that it would be useless, since those who are upon earth have the Law and the Prophets, which they have but to follow.

"The story of the canon of Rheims, in the eleventh century, who, in the midst of the solemn service which was being performed for the repose of his soul, spoke aloud and said, That he was sentenced and condemned,[664] has been refuted by so many of the learned, who have shown that this circ.u.mstance is clearly supposit.i.tious, since it is not found in any contemporaneous author; that I think no enlightened person can object it against me. But even were this story as incontestable as it is apocryphal, it would be easy for me to say in reply, that the conversion of St. Bruno, who has won so many souls to G.o.d, was motive enough for the Divine Providence to perform so striking a miracle.

"It now remains for me to examine if the souls which are in purgatory, where they expiate the rest of their crimes before they pa.s.s to the abode of the blessed, can come and converse with men, and ask them to pray for their relief.

"Although those who have desired to maintain this popular error, have done their endeavors to support it by different pa.s.sages from St.

Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Thomas, it is certain that all these fathers speak only of the return of the blessed to manifest the glory of G.o.d; and of St. Augustine says precisely, that if it were possible for the souls of the dead to appear to men, not a day would pa.s.s without his receiving a visit from Monica his mother.

"Tertullian, in his Treatise on the Soul, laughs at those who in his time believed in apparitions. St. John Chrysostom, speaking on the subject of Lazarus, formally denies them; as well as the law glossographer, Canon John Andreas, who calls them phantoms of a sickly imagination, and all that is reported about spirits which people think they hear or see, vain apparitions. The 7th chapter of Job, and the song of King Hezekiah, reported in the 38th chapter of Isaiah, are all full of the witnesses which the Holy Spirit seems to have desired to give us of this truth, that our souls cannot return to earth after our death until G.o.d has made them angels.

"But in order to establish this still better, we must reply to the strongest objections of those who combat it. They adduce the opinion of the Jews, which they pretend to prove by the testimony of Josephus and the rabbis; the words of Jesus Christ to his apostles, when he appeared to them after his resurrection; the authority of the council of Elvira;[665] some pa.s.sages from St. Jerome, in his Treatise against Vigilantius; of decrees issued by different Parliaments, by which the leases of several houses had been broken on account of the spirits which haunted them daily, and tormented the lodgers or tenants; in short an infinite number of instances, which are scattered in every story.

"To destroy all these authorities in a few words, I say first of all, that it cannot be concluded that the Jews believed in the return of spirits after death, because Josephus a.s.sures us that the spirit which the Pythoness caused to appear to Saul was the true spirit of Samuel; for, besides that the holiness of this prophet had placed him in the number of the blessed, there are circ.u.mstances attending this apparition which have caused most of the holy fathers[666] to doubt whether it really was the ghost of Samuel, believing that it might be an illusion with which the Pythoness deceived Saul, and made him believe that he saw that which he desired to see.

"What several rabbis relate of patriarchs, prophets, and kings whom they saw on the mountain of Gerizim, does not prove either that the Jews believed that the spirits of the dead could come back, since it was only a vision proceeding from the spirit in ecstasy, which believed it saw what it saw not truly; all those who compose this appearance were persons of whose holiness the Jews were persuaded.

What Jesus Christ says to his apostles, that the spirits have 'neither flesh nor bones,' far from making us believe that spirits can come back again, proves on the contrary evidently, that they cannot without a miracle make us sensible of their presence, since it requires absolutely a corporeal substance and bodily organs to utter sounds; the description does agree with souls, they being pure substances, exempt from matter, invisibles, and therefore cannot _naturally_ be subject to our senses.

"The Provincial Council held in Spain during the pontificate of Sylvester I., which forbids us to light a taper by day in the cemeteries of martyrs, adding, as a reason, that we must not disturb the spirits of the saints, is of no consideration; because besides that these words are liable to different interpretations, and may even have been inserted by some copyist, as some learned men believe, they only relate to the martyrs, of whom we cannot doubt that their spirits are blessed.

"I make the same reply to a pa.s.sage of St. Jerome, because arguing against the heresiarch Vigilantius, who treated as illusions all the miracles which were worked at the tombs of the martyrs; he endeavors to prove to him that the saints who are in heaven always take part in the miseries of mankind, and sometimes even appear to them visibly to strengthen and console them.

"As for the decrees which have annulled the leases of several houses on account of the inconvenience caused by ghosts to those who lodged therein, it suffices to examine the means and the reasons upon which they were obtained, to comprehend that either the judges were led into error by the prejudices of their childhood, or that they were obliged to yield to the proofs produced, often even against their own superior knowledge, or they have been deceived by imposture, or by the simplicity of the witnesses.

"With respect to the apparitions, with which all such stories are filled, one of the strongest which can be objected against my argument, and to which I think myself the more obliged to reply, is that which is affirmed to have occurred at Paris in the last century, and of which five hundred witnesses are cited, who have examined into the truth of the matter with particular attention. Here is the adventure, as related by those who wrote at the time it took place.[667]

"The Marquis de Rambouillet, eldest brother of the d.u.c.h.ess of Montauzier, and the Marquis de Precy, eldest son of the family of Nantouillet, both of them between twenty and thirty, were intimate friends, and went to the wars, as in France do all men of quality. As they were conversing one day together on the subject of the other world, after several speeches which sufficiently showed that they were not too well persuaded of the truth of all that is said concerning it, they promised each other that the first who died should come and bring the news to his companion. At the end of three months the Marquis de Rambouillet set off for Flanders, where the war was then being carried on; and de Precy, detained by a high fever, remained at Paris. Six weeks afterwards de Precy, at six in the morning, heard the curtains of his bed drawn, and turning to see who it was, he perceived the Marquis de Rambouillet in his buff vest and boots; he sprung out of bed to embrace him to show his joy at his return, but Rambouillet, retreating a few steps, told him that these caresses were no longer seasonable, for he only came to keep his word with him; that he had been killed the day before on such an occasion; that all that was said of the other world was certainly true; that he must think of leading a different life; and that he had no time to lose, as he would be killed the first action he was engaged in.

"It is impossible to express the surprise of the Marquis de Precy at this discourse; as he could not believe what he heard, he made several efforts to embrace his friend, whom he thought desirous of deceiving him, but he embraced only air; and Rambouillet, seeing that he was incredulous, showed the wound he had received, which was in the side, whence the blood still appeared to flow. After that the phantom disappeared, and left de Precy in a state of alarm more easy to comprehend than describe; he called at the same time his valet-de-chambre, and awakened all the family with his cries. Several persons ran to his room, and he related to them what he had just seen.

Every one attributed this vision to the violence of the fever, which might have deranged his imagination; they begged him to go to bed again, a.s.suring him that he must have dreamed what he told them.

"The Marquis in despair, on seeing that they took him for a visionary, related all the circ.u.mstances I have just recounted; but it was in vain for him to protest that he had seen and heard his friend, being wide awake; they persisted in the same idea until the arrival of the post from Flanders, which brought the news of the death of the Marquis de Rambouillet.

"This first circ.u.mstance being found true, and in the same manner as de Precy had said, those to whom he had related the adventure began to think that there might be something in it, because Rambouillet having been killed precisely the eve of the day he had said it, it was impossible de Precy should have known of it in a natural way. This event having spread in Paris, they thought it was the effect of a disturbed imagination, or a made up story; and whatever might be said by the persons who examined the thing seriously, there remained in people's minds a suspicion, which time alone could disperse: this depended on what might happen to the Marquis de Precy, who was threatened that he should be slain in the first engagement; thus every one regarded his fate as the denouement of the piece; but he soon confirmed everything they had doubted the truth of, for as soon as he recovered from his illness he would go to the combat of St. Antoine, although his father and mother, who were afraid of the prophecy, said all they could to prevent him; he was killed there, to the great regret of all his family.

"Supposing all these circ.u.mstances to be true, this is what I should say to counteract the deductions that some wish to derive from them.

"It is not difficult to understand that the imagination of the Marquis de Precy, heated by fever, and troubled by the recollection of the promise that the Marquis de Rambouillet and himself had exchanged, may have represented to itself the phantom of his friend, whom he knew to be fighting, and in danger every moment of being killed. The circ.u.mstances of the wound of the Marquis de Rambouillet, and the prediction of the death of de Precy, which was fulfilled, appears more serious: nevertheless, those who have experienced the power of presentiments, the effects of which are so common every day, will easily conceive that the Marquis de Precy, whose mind, agitated by a burning fever, followed his friend in all the chances of war, and expected continually to see announced to himself by the phantom of his friend what was to happen, may have imagined that the Marquis de Rambouillet had been killed by a musket-shot in the side, and that the ardor which he himself felt for war might prove fatal to him in the first action. We shall see by the words of St. Augustine, which I shall cite by-and-by, how fully that Doctor of the Church was persuaded of the power of imagination, to which he attributes the knowledge of things to come. I shall again establish the authority of presentiments by a most singular instance.

"A lady of talent, whom I knew particularly well, being at Chartres, where she was residing, dreamt in the night that in her sleep she saw Paradise, which she fancied to herself was a magnificent hall, around which were in different ranks the angels and spirits of the blessed, and G.o.d, who presided in the midst, on a shining throne. She heard some one knock at the door of this delightful place; and St. Peter having opened it, she saw two pretty children, one of them clothed in a white robe, and the other quite naked. St. Peter took the first by the hand and led him to the foot of the throne, and left the other crying bitterly at the door. She awoke at that moment, and related her dream to several persons, who thought it very remarkable. A letter which she received from Paris in the afternoon informed her that one of her daughters was brought to bed with two children, who were dead, and only one of them had been baptized.

"Of what may we not believe the imagination capable, after so strong a proof of its power? Can we doubt that amongst all the pretended apparitions that are related, imagination alone produces all those which do not proceed from angels and blessed spirits, or which are not the effect of fraudulent contrivance?

"To explain more fully what has given rise to those phantoms, the apparition of which has been published in all ages, without availing myself of the ridiculous opinion of the skeptics, who doubt of everything, and a.s.sert that our senses, however sound they may be, can only imagine everything falsely, I shall remark that the wisest amongst the philosophers maintain that deep melancholy, anger, frenzy, fever, depraved or debilitated senses, whether naturally, or by accident, can make us see and hear many things which have no foundation.

"Aristotle says[668] that in sleep the interior senses act by the local movement of the humors and the blood, and that this action descends sometimes to the sensitive organs, so that on awaking, the wisest persons think they see the images they have dreamt of.

"Plutarch, in the Life of Brutus, relates that Ca.s.sius persuaded Brutus that a spectre which the latter declared he had seen on waking, was an effect of his imagination; and this is the argument which he puts in his mouth:--

"'The spirit of man being extremely active in its nature, and in continual motion, which produces always some fantasy; above all, melancholy persons, like you, Brutus, are more apt to form to themselves in the imagination ideal images, which sometimes pa.s.s to their external senses.'

"Galen, so skilled in the knowledge of all the springs of the human body, attributes spectres to the extreme subtility of sight and hearing.

"What I have read in Cardan seems to establish the opinion of Galen.

He says that, being in the city of Milan, it was reported that there was an angel in the air, who appeared visibly, and having ran to the market-place, he, with two thousand others, saw the same. As even the most learned were in admiration at this wonder, a clever lawyer, who came to the spot, having observed the thing attentively, sensibly made them remark that what they saw was not an angel, but the figure of an angel, in stone, placed on the top of the belfry of St. Gothard, which being imprinted in a thick cloud by means of a sunbeam which fell upon it, was reflected to the eyes of those who possessed the most piercing vision. If this fact had not been cleared up on the spot by a man exempt from all prejudice, it would have pa.s.sed for certain that it was a real angel, since it had been seen by the most enlightened persons in the town to the number of two thousand.