OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF APPARITIONS; OR, AN ATTEMPT TO TRACE SUCH ILLUSIONS TO THEIR PHYSICAL CAUSES. BY SAMUEL HIBBERT, M.D., F.R.S.E., SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY OF SCOTTISH ANTIQUARIES, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE-COURT, HIGH-STREET ; AND G. & W. B. WHITTAKER, AVE-MARIA-LANE, LONDON. 1824. PREFACE. DURING the course of the last winter I had the honour of reading an Essay on Spectral Impressions to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Whatever interest it excited was rather due to the subject, than to the degree of success with which a theory of apparitions could possibly be discussed in the limits of a short paper. This consideration therefore, among others, has given rise to the pre sent volume. The plan of this work may here be briefly stated. In the first place, a general view is given of the particular morbid affections with which the production of phantasms is often connected. Apparitions are likewise considered as nothing more than ideas or the recollected images of the mind, which have been rendered more vivid than actual impressions. In a second part of this work, my object has been to point out, that, in well-authenticated ghoststories of a supposed supernatural character, the ideas which are rendered so unduly intense as to induce spectral illusions, may be traced to such fantastical objects of prior belief as are incorporated in the various systems of superstition, which for ages have possessed the minds of the vulgar. In the succeeding and far most considerable part of this treatise, the research is of a novel kind. Since apparitions are ideas equalling or exceeding in vividness actual impressions, there ought to be some important and definite laws of the mind which have given rise to this undue degree of vivdness. It is chiefly, therefore, for the purpose of explaining such laws that this dissertation is written. But I here enter into a perfectly new field of research, where far greater difficulties are to be encountered than I anticipated. The extent of these can only be estimated by the metaphysician. The last object of this dissertation was to have established, that all the subordinate incidents connected with phantasms might be explained on the following general principle:-That in every undue excitement of our feelings, (as, for instance, when ideas become more vivid than actual impressions,) the operations of the intellectual faculty of the mind sustain corresponding modifications, by which the efforts of the judgment are rendered proportionally incorrect. But the reason which I assign at the termination of this work, for being obliged to suspend such an intention, is," that an object of this nature cannot be attempted but in connexion with almost all the phenomena of the human mind. To pursue the inquiry, therefore, any farther, would be to make a dissertation on apparitions the absurd vehicle of a regular system of metaphysics."* This work is not addressed to any particular class of readers. As we live in an age exceeded by no previous one for the desire of information, and as there is a general interest excited on the subject of apparitions, which are properly regarded as unexplained phenomena, I have not thought fit to fashion this discourse to the exclusive taste either of metaphysicians or physiologists; but, on the contrary, have so endeavoured to treat it, that, without any previous study of the sciences which it involves, it may be fully understood. Yet the reader ought by no means to flatter himself, that he will be enabled to comprehend the laws which give rise to phantasms without any mental exertion on Page 384. |