provided ourselves with candles and matches, and when we had lighted
them, we entered the back parlour, which Mr. Mc. N. had heard from the
different inhabitants was the room in which they had met with most
annoyance.
"The clairvoyante was then put to sleep, and asked if she liked the
house, and would recommend us to take it. She shuddered and said 'No;
that two people had been murdered there, and we should be _troubled_.'
We asked in which room; she answered, 'it was before this house was
built--that another house stood there then--a very old house.' This was
not exactly on the same ground, but the room we were in was on part of
it. She said that it was these murdered people who would trouble us. We
asked if she could see them, and she answered 'no.'
"We then waited in silence to see if anything occurred; but nothing did,
except a metallic sound at the door, which was ajar, like the striking
of two pieces of iron. We all heard it, but could not say what
occasioned it.
"After a little time, some one suggested that we should extinguish the
lights. We did so, and were then in absolute darkness. There was but one
window in the room, and that was coated with dust, and the shutter was
shut; besides, as I have said, it was a very dark night, and this room,
being at the back, looked into a yard, I believe; at all events, not
into a street.
"Presently, the clairvoyante started, and exclaimed, 'Look there!' We
saw nothing, and asked what it was.
"'There!' she said. 'There again! don't you see it?'
"'What?' we asked. 'The lights!' she said. 'There! Now!' These
exclamations were made at intervals of two or three seconds.
"We all said we saw nothing whatever.
"'If Mrs. Crowe would take hold of my hand, I think she would see them,'
she suggested.
"I did so; and then at intervals of a few seconds, I saw thrown up,
apparently from the floor, waves of white light, faint, but perfectly
distinct and visible. In order that I might know whether our perceptions
of this phenomenon were simultaneous, I desired her, without speaking,
to press my hand each time she saw it, which she did; and each time I
distinctly saw the wave of white light. I saw it, at these intervals, as
long as I held her hand and we were in the dark. Nobody saw it but she
and myself; and we did not follow up the experiment by the others taking
her hand, which we should have done.
"During this interval, another light suddenly appeared in the middle of
the room, away from where we were standing, I saw a bright diamond of
light, like an extremely vivid spark--only not the colour of fire; it
was white, brilliant, and quiescent, but shed no rays. I did not mention
this, because I wished to learn if it was visible to any body else--but
nobody spoke of it; not even the clairvoyante. Whether she saw it or
not, I cannot say. When the candles were re-lighted these lights were no
longer visible. I and one of the gentlemen went over the house above and
below, but saw nothing but the dust and desolation of a long uninhabited
dwelling.
"When we came away, and Mr. Mc. N. had locked the door, we walked to the
carriage. I said, 'then you none of you saw the waves of light.'
"'No,' said they.
"'Well,' said I, 'I certainly did, and I never saw anything like it
before. Moreover, I saw another sort of light.'
"'Did you,' said Mr. Mc. N., interrupting me; 'was it a bright spark of
light like the oxy-hydrogen light.'
"'Exactly,' said I. 'I could not think what to compare it to; but that
was it.'
"I thus was certain that he had seen the same thing as myself; he had
not spoken of it from a similar motive; he waited to have his impression
confirmed by further testimony.
"You see our results were not great, but the visit was not wholly barren
to me. Of course, many wise people will say, I did not see the lights,
but that they were the offspring of my excited imagination. But I beg to
say that my imagination was by no means excited. If I had been there
_alone_, it would have been a different affair; for though I never saw a
ghost nor ever fancied I did, I am afraid I should have been very
nervous. But I was in exceedingly good company, with two very clever
men, besides the lawyer, a lady, and the clairvoyante; so that my nerves
were perfectly composed, as I should not object to seeing any ghost in
such agreeable society. Moreover, I did not _expect_ any result;
because, there is very seldom any on these occasions, as ghosts appear
we know not why; but certainly not because people wish to see them. They
generally come when least expected and least thought of.
"Mr. Mc. N., on inquiry, learnt that unaccountable lights were amongst
the things complained of. What occasioned them and the other phenomena,
it had certainly been the proprietor's interest for many years to
discover; it had also been the interest of numerous tenants, who having
taken the house for a term, found themselves obliged to leave it at a
sacrifice. Yet, for all those years, no explanation could be found for
the annonyances but that the house was haunted. No tradition seems
extant to account for its evil reputation. If what the clairvoyante said
was true, the murders must have occurred long ago.
"A gentleman, an inhabitant of the same city, once mentioned to me that
a friend of his, many years previously, when quite a young man, had one
Sunday evening been walking alone in the fields outside this town; and
that he met a young woman, a perfect stranger, who, on some pretence
asked him to see her safe home. He did so; she led him to a lone farm
house, and then inviting him to walk in, shewed him into a room and left
him. Whilst waiting for her return, idly looking about, he found hidden
under the table, which was covered with a cloth, a dead body. On this
discovery, he rushed to the door; it was locked; but the window was not
very high from the ground, and by it he escaped; terrified to such a
degree, that he not only left the city that very evening, but hastened
out of the country, apprehensive that he had been enticed to the house
and shut up with the murdered man, for the purpose of throwing the guilt
on him; and as justice was not so clear sighted, and much more
inexorable than in these days, he feared the circumstantial evidence
might go against him. He settled in a foreign country and finally died
there.
"Where this locality was, I don't know, except that it was in the
environs of the city--environs which have since been covered with
buildings; what if the house that we visited should have been erected on
the site of that lone farm!
"It may be so; at all events, this story shews how possible it is that
some similar event might have occurred on the spot where the haunted
house stands."
In conclusion, let me once more recall to my readers that one, whose
insight none will dispute, reminds us, in relation to this very subject,
that "our philosophy," does not comprehend all wisdom and all truth.
Philosophy is a good guide when she opens her eyes, but where she
obstinately shuts them to one class of facts because she has previously
made up her mind they cannot be genuine, she is a bad one.
Professor A. told me that when he was at Goettingen, as a great favour,
and through the interest of an influential professor there, he was
allowed to see a book that had belonged to Faust, or Faustus, as we call
him. It was a large volume, and the leaves were stiff and hard like
wood. They contained his magic rites and formulas, but on the last page
was inscribed a solemn injunction to all men, as they loved their own
souls, not to follow in his path or practice the teaching that volume
contained.
There appears to be a mystery out of the domain--I mean the present
domain of science; within the region of the hyper-psychical, regarding
our relations, while in this world, with those who have past the gates,
a belief in which is, I think, innate in human nature. This belief, in
certain periods and places, grows rank and mischievous; at others, it is
almost extinguished by reaction and education; but it never wholly dies;
because, every where and in all times, circumstances have occurred to
keep it alive, amongst individuals, which never reach the public ear.
Now, the truth is always worth ascertaining on any subject; even this
despised subject of ghosts, and those who have an inherent conviction
that they themselves are spirits, temporarily clothed in flesh, feel
that they have an especial interest in the question. We are fully aware
that the investigation presents all sorts of difficulties, and that the
belief is opposed to all sorts of accepted opinions; but we desire to
ascertain the grounds of a persuasion, so nearly concerning ourselves
which in all ages and all countries has prevailed in a greater or less
degree, and which appears to be sustained by a vast amount of facts,
which, however, we admit are not in a condition to be received as any
thing beyond presumptive evidence. These facts are chiefly valuable, as
furnishing cumulative testimony of the frequent recurrence of phenomena
explicable by no known theory, and therefore as open to the spiritual
hypothesis as any other. When a better is offered, supported by
something more convincing than pointless ridicule and dogmatic
assertion, I for one, shall be ready to entertain it. In the meanwhile,
hoping that time may, at length, in some degree, rend the veil that
encompasses this department of psychology, we record such experiences as
come under our observation and are content to await their
interpretation.
APPENDIX.
I have referred in the preceding pages to the loss of several letters,
which I should have been glad to insert here.
The following very interesting ones I have fortunately retained. I give
them verbatim, only suppressing the names of the writers, as requested.
* * * * *
LETTER I.
_Aug. 18, 1854._
MADAM,
I have received your kind favor of the 15th, and I really feel that I
must now apologize to you, for venturing so quickly to call in question
the accuracy of your details. Being unaware, however, of the marvellous
coincidence of the _two dreams_, I feel assured you at once appreciated
the motives which alone impelled me to write.
Allow me, then, to attempt a narration of the particulars referred to in
my last, as having come under my own observation.
Two intimate friends of mine (clergymen of the Church of England) and
one of whom is unmarried, have for the last three years occupied a large
old-fashioned house in the country. It is a very pretty place--stands
within its own grounds--and is quite aloof from any other dwellings. It
has long had the reputation in the neighbourhood of being haunted, in
consequence, it is said, of a former proprietor having committed suicide
there. The story goes thus, he was _laid out_ in a chamber which is now
called the spare room, and is the scene of what I am about to relate. I
may as well tell you that it was only on my last visit, some six weeks
since, that I became at all aware of the _character_ of the mansion, for
my friends felt so annoyed at what has taken place, that they purposely
avoided communicating to their visitors what they thought might make
them anything but comfortable.
On that occasion there happened to be on a visit to my friend's wife, a
lady very nearly related to him. She had the spare room assigned to her
as a chamber, and on the very first night of her arrival was so
terrified by what took place that she would not again sleep there
without company.
She stated that in the middle of the night she was alarmed by the most
unearthly groanings and lamentations--the voice seemed close to her
bedside. It was afterwards attended by a rustling noise, and she
distinctly felt the curtains at the foot of the bed removed. Now, as my
knowledge of what was going on could not be disputed, my friends
admitted that it was not the _first_ time these noises had been heard,
nay, that in two instances the apparition of a form in grave-clothes had
been seen; the one occurring to a young gentleman of about twenty years
of age, who happened to be visiting them, and the other to one of their
own servants. In the former case, it appears that the young man was
sitting rather late at night in the study reading--all the family being
in bed--when the form emerged, apparently, from the wall dividing the
study from the haunted chamber. It remained a short time only and then
melted away. So great was the young man's terror that he has never been
near the place since. The servant also described a similar appearance,
and no one in the house who saw her terror could believe it acted.
Independently of all this, no less than four gentlemen, two of them from
the University, have experienced all the unearthly groanings and
be-wailings before mentioned, and in nearly every instance the parties
were, like myself, ignorant of the character attributed to the house.
But I now come to my own experience.
I was on a visit to my friends about twelve months since, when I met a
gentleman who had just left the army for the church. He appeared about
21 years of age, and there was that indescribable _something_ in his
manner which charmed me immediately. Without any pretence to being set
up--so to speak--in piety, there was yet _that_ in his sunny countenance
and air of cheerfulness, which made you feel that he had been called to
a brighter path of usefulness. I certainly very much admired him, and I
have since learnt that he is a general favourite. On retiring to rest I
found that he was to occupy the next room--not the study side.
From a variety of causes I could not sleep--but the imaginative powers
were not particularly aroused--my thoughts were of very prosy and
worldly things. As near as I could recollect, about an hour after I had
been in bed, I heard the most dreadful groans followed by exclamations
of the most horrible kind. The voice certainly _seemed_ in the room, and
was continued for at _least two hours_, at intervals of about ten
minutes. It was that of a man who had committed a deadly sin which could
never be pardoned! The agony seemed to me to be intense.
Will you believe it, Madam, in spite of what I thought of my
acquaintance of the next chamber, I ascribed it to him. I believed
little in the supernatural, and concluded it to be some dreadful dream.
It is astonishing the thought never struck me that a _continuous_ dream
of such a character was scarcely possible. It did not, however, and
despite of its unearthly character, and the apparent woe of the
unfortunate one--the despair, as I said before, of a lost soul--I
continued to associate it all with my neighbour next door, until the
events which occurred at my last visit entirely upset my conviction, and
I became at once assured I had been doing him a great injustice.
Like some of the cases in the "Night Side of Nature," you will perceive
here a great difference in the manifestations--to some it was given to
_hear_, to others to _see_. Are you still of opinion that this results
from what you term comparative freedom of _rapport_! Do you not think
there _are_ times when the material may give place to the supernatural?
I admit freely the truth of spectral illusions--I have myself
experienced one--but knew it to be nothing more. Still, notwithstanding
this, and my further belief in a _certain_ connection of mind and
matter, I cannot altogether cast from me the persuasion that the
Almighty One may _at times_ think fit to exercise a power independent of
all rule, for the attainment of certain ends to us, perhaps, unknown.
I cannot conclude without telling you that with regard to what I have
mentioned above, nothing in the shape of _trick_ could possibly have
been practised. Trusting I may not have trespassed too much on your
patience, I will now remain, Madam, yours very respectfully,
J. H. H.
* * * * *
LETTER II.
_Gloucestershire, June 10, 1854._
MADAM,
Being not long ago on a visit of some days at the house of a friend, I
happened to meet with your work, entitled "The Night side of Nature."
The title struck my imagination, and opening the book I was delighted to
find that it treated of subjects which had long engaged my serious
thoughts. I was much pleased to see in you such an able and earnest
protester against the cold scepticism of the age in reference to truths
of the highest order, and those too sustained by a body of evidence
which in any other case would be esteemed irresistible. I must also say
that I never met with so great a number of well authenticated facts in
any other work as you have given us, whilst the truly catholic spirit of
your theological reflections, was to me pecularly refreshing. I once had
a thought of making a similar collection, that design I have however
abandoned, the state of my health not admitting of much literary labour.
I could relate to you many things as remarkable as any you have
described, for the truth of which I can vouch. I will mention one of a
most singular nature, and should you be inclined to read anything more
from me on these matters, I shall feel a pleasure in the communication.
Writing letters I find to be a relief from a melancholy, induced some
two years ago by a variety of heavy afflictions, and this must be my
apology for addressing you. But to my narrative:--
Shortly after I entered the ministry, I was introduced to a gentleman of
very superior mind who belonged to the same profession, and whom I had
never seen equalled for the genius and eloquence which his conversation
displayed.
I became at once attached to him, and for some reason or other he
evinced a desire to cultivate my friendship. After some months of most
agreeable intercourse had elapsed, he was taken seriously ill, and one
evening I was hastily summoned to his house. On my entering his chamber
he requested that we might be left alone, and he then told me that it
was his impression that his disease was mortal--that many supernatural
occurrances had marked his life, which he desired might be given to the
world when he was gone, and that he wished me to perform this office.
Having expressed my willingness to gratify him, he commenced the chapter
of extraordinaries. Here is one event in his remarkable history. Prior
to his becoming a minister and when in humble circumstances, he lodged
at the house of a tradesman at a certain sea-port town in W--s. He was
then in perfect health. One night he retired to rest in peculiarly good
spirits, and as his custom was (for it was then summer) he sat near the
window and gazed for some time on the beauties of nature. He then amused
himself for a while by humming a tune, when presently on looking towards
the door, he saw the figure of a man enter--his dress was a blood red
night cap, flannel jacket, and breeches. The man approached the bed (his
countenance and walk indicating extreme illness), threw himself upon it,
gave several groans and apparantly expired. My friend was so filled with
horror that he lost all power of speech and motion, and remained fixed
on his seat till morning, when he told his landlord the occurrence of
the night, and declared that unless they could find him other apartments
he would leave them that very day. The honest people were disinclined to
part with him and agreed to accommodate him on the ground-floor. About
_twelve months after this_, he went out on a market day for the purpose
of purchasing some provisions, and when he returned, he heard that his
old room was taken; but what was his surprise to find in the new lodger
the very form, with the very same dress that had so terrified him a year
before!
The man was then very ill: he died in a few weeks, and the circumstances
were without _any exception_ the same as those which my friend had
witnessed. This is one of those cases in which it is extremely difficult
to ascertain the design of the appearance.
I should much like to know what conjecture you would form, as to the
_modus_ and end of such a singular incident.
Of the veracity of the narrator it was impossible for me to doubt. As
this minister is still _living_ I am not at liberty to mention his
name.
Pray excuse the freedom of thus addressing you, and believe me to be
Madam, with every sentiment
of respect and esteem,
Yours, very truly,
Mrs. C. Crowe. R. I. O.
* * * * *
LETTER III.
_Gloucestershire, June 21, 1854._
MADAM,
As I find that another communication will not be unacceptable, I proceed
to detail a few cases. My first relates to the minister, a part of whose
history I have given you, and belongs to the class of prophetic dreams.
When he had resolved to study for the ministry and through the influence
of friends, had obtained admission to a Dissenting College; as the day
affixed for his departure drew near, he was filled with anxiety, from
the fact that he had not even money to pay his travelling expenses.
He did not like to borrow, and he had no reason to conclude that any
one suspected the miserable state of his finances. The evening before
his expected removal, he laid down to rest with a troubled heart. This
was in the very same seaport where the circumstance happened which I
have already told you. After some hours of great mental suffering sleep
came to his relief, and in his dream there seemed to approach him one of
a most pleasing form, who told him that he not only saw that he was in
distress, but that he well knew the cause of it, and that if he would
walk down on the beach to a certain place which he pointed out as in a
picture, he would find under some loose stones enough for his present
necessities. In the morning, accordingly, almost as soon as it was light
he hastened to the indicated spot and to his great surprise and delight
found a sum amounting to a trifle more than was absolutely necessary for
his journey. I would just, in passing, remark that he said that on
another occasion, his father who died many years before appeared to him
with an angry countenance, and assured him that he would suffer much
from something he had done in reference to his family, but as this was
evidently an unpleasant and even painful topic I did not wish him to
enlarge upon it. The other fact I shall mention, happened to my
grandfather who was also a minister. I am well aware that it is of such
a nature that the relation of it would in most companies excite a burst
of laughter or at least a contemptuous and sceptical smile, but I know I
am addressing one who has studied in a very different school of
philosophy. It was in the large town of B--m where my grandfather
resided for many years, that the event took place. He himself my
grandfather, my aunts, and my mother used often to tell it to their
friends when the conversation turned on the supernatural. I have
probably heard it a hundred times and I am not ashamed to say that on
the testimony of such a man as my grandfather I cannot but yield to it
my belief.
One morning when _breakfast had just commenced_, my grandfather went
from the table, at which my grandmother also was sitting, into the
passage, for what purpose I have now forgotten, and there he found (for
the front door had been standing open,) a strange looking man in black,
with a shuffling gait and a club foot. He declared that he had an
instantaneous conviction that this was a supernatural appearance, and
that a spirit of evil stood before him. The man in black exclaimed,
moving towards the breakfast room, "I am come to take breakfast with you
this morning." My grandfather convulsively seizing the handle of the
door, said, with a stern look, "you are too late sir," to which the
other instantly replied, "I am not too late for the remnant," and then
rushed into the street. My grandfather followed, and to his amazement
saw this creature at the top of the street, which was of great length,
and in a moment or two he vanished. My grandmother heard a loud talking,
and when my grandfather returned to the table in considerable agitation,
she naturally wished to know what had occurred, but as she was near her
confinement he of course concealed the matter from her. The mysterious
words of the stranger followed him continually, and he puzzled himself
in seeking to explain their meaning. In a few days my grandmother was
confined. The child was dead-born and her life for some time hung in
jeopardy. He now believed he had arrived at the solution of the
difficulty--the infant was the "remnant" referred to.