the civil powers that great evils were impending over Germany. He had, accordingly, many visions, which were supposed to have reference to the future, but they were not declared on oath to the magistrates before the year 1619. I shall pass over several of the phantasies he experienced, contenting myself with the notice of one ecstacy only, which was so extremely intense as to shew evident marks that it was alternately pleasurable and painful. Supposing himself to be attended by two angels, Kotter thus proceeds:

"On the 13th day of September," says he, "both the youths returned to me, saying, Be not afraid, but observe the thing which will be shewn to thee.' And I suddenly beheld a circle like the sun, red as it were bloody, in which were black and white lines, or spots, so intermingled, that sometimes there appeared greater number of blacks, sometimes of whites; and this sight continued for some space of time. And when they had said to me, 'Behold! attend! fear not! no evil will befall thee!' lo, there were three successive peals of thunder, at short intervals, so loud and dreadful, that I shuddered all over. But the circle stood before me, and the black and white spots were disunited, and the circle approached so near, that I could have touched it with my hand. And it was so beautiful, that I had never in my life seen any thing more agreeable; and the white spots were so bright and pleasant, that I could not contain my admiration. But the black spots were carried away in a cloud of darkness, in which I heard a dismal outcry, though I could see no one. Yet these words of lamentation were audible:- Woe unto us who have committed

ourselves to the black cloud, to be withdrawn from the circle covered with blood of Divine Grace, in which the grace of God, in his well-beloved Son, had enclosed us!'"*

I have at length concluded my account of the various degrees of vividness which our mental feelings undergo in a transition from the ordinary tranquil state of our waking moments to that extreme mental excitement, which gives rise to spectral impressions. It has been assumed, that ideas, from being more faint than sensations, become more intense.

Another transition remains to be briefly noticed, which is from the highest pitch of mental excitement to those medium states of the mind, which are characterized by coolness and tranquillity. But it is useless to dwell long upon this depression of mental feelings, as it presents phenomena the exact reverse of the last-described stages of excitement. Ideas, from being more intense than sensations, are, first, reduced to the same degree of vividness as actual impressions, when a mental unconsciousness, generally momentary, ensues; and, lastly, they become more faint than sensations.

* This vision I have quoted from Dr Ferriar's illustrations. See his Theory of Apparitions, page 78,

CHAPTER III.

THE IMAGES OF SPECTRAL IMPRESSIONS DIFFER FROM THOSE OF DREAMS IN BEING MUCH MORE VIVID.

Videre somnia est à fortitudine imaginationis ; sicut intelligere ea est à fortitudine intellectûs. ABDALA.

IN a former part of this work it was explained, that when ideas became more vivid than sensations, they were contemplated as present, or as actual impressions; while the least vivid feeling suggested the notion of past time. I then added, that the partial resemblance of spectral impressions to dreams would now perhaps be apparent; but that there was still a difference to be noticed in the circumstances under which they are severally produced. Before spectral impressions could arise, the vivid ideas of our waking hours must be raised to an unusually high degree of intensity; but during our moments of mental repose, a very slight degree of vividness imparted to the faint ideas of perfect sleep was sufficient to excite a similar illusion. Hence the images of spectral impressions differ from those of dreams, in being much more vivid.

It is then my object to illustrate, by a tabular view, the comparative degrees of vividness which subsist between the impressions of dreams and the illusive phantasms of our waking moments.

TABULAR VIEW,

I shall now give a few examples of those cases of spectral illusions, where an exciting cause has so gradually, yet powerfully, operated upon the ideas of dreams, as to make them more than usually intense. Dreams of this kind, after the impression has ceased, are often with difficulty recognised as sleeping or waking visions; nor can the difference be often well determined by any inquiry we may institute,-If the illusion supervened to a state of absolute repose, or of watchfulness ? An instance of this uncertain species of phantasms is contained in a narrative translated by Dr Crichton, from the Psychological Magazine of Germany, (some extracts from which have been before given,) relative to a female who was subject to trances. She is the narrator of her own case; and, after describing some cruel usage she experienced from her husband, which much affected the quality of her spectral impressions, she thus proceeds :-" My sorrows increased, and I went to bed in tears. I awakened about four o'clock in the morning, and imagined myself in my father's house on the river Diele. I looked up into heaven, and saw a water-dog walking in the firmament. As soon as it passed by, the skies descended to me, and my eyes were changed on purpose to see new sights, for I saw many hundred thousand miles. The mansion of God stood in the centre, lightly enveloped in clear blue clouds, and surrounded with a splendour of such various colours as are unknown to the world below. In each colour stood some millions of men, enrobed in garments of the same colour with that in which they stood; for instance, those who stood in red were clad in red, and those in the yellow