_Ghost Stories_ (Vol. iv., p. 5.; Vol. v., pp. 89. 136.).--I hope it
will not be thought that I mean to vouch for the truth of the stories
after which I am inquiring, if it should turn out that there really are
any; and also that I shall not be thought captious if I am not satisfied
with the substitutes which are proposed. When your correspondent says
that Reichenbach's "system may be advantageously applied to the
explanation of corpse-candles, illuminated churchyards, and other
articles of Welsh and English superstition," I can only say that, as far
as I understand the superstitions referred to, nobody ever thought of
connecting _them_ with _ghosts_. There may be stories of "illuminated
churchyards," with ghosts in them, of which I have not heard but no
ghosts are mentioned by your correspondent. I am not laying undue stress
on a word. If the word _ghost_ means anything, it means a _spirit_; and
I apprehend that the enlightened Baron will not thank any friend who
would sink, or explain away, that meaning. So, I presume, his translator
Dr. Ashburner understood him, when he triumphantly exclaimed, "The
_glorious_ Reichenbach has, in this treatise, done good service against
the _vile demon of superstition_," p. 180. These words would have been
too grand for the celebration of such a petty triumph as snuffing out
Welsh candles, and explaining one or two small superstitions of the
vulgar. I must therefore again, if you will allow me, ask whether
anybody knows of such stories as would really meet what appears to be
the meaning of the author and translator.