In which the author first refutes some idle opinions
concerning spirits, and then the passengers relate their
several deaths.
It is the common opinion that spirits, like owls, can see in the dark;
nay, and can then most easily be perceived by others. For which reason,
many persons of good understanding, to prevent being terrified with
such objects, usually keep a candle burning by them, that the light may
prevent their seeing. Mr. Locke, in direct opposition to this, hath not
doubted to assert that you may see a spirit in open daylight full as
well as in the darkest night.
It was very dark when we set out from the inn, nor could we see any
more than if every soul of us had been alive. We had traveled a good way
before any one offered to open his mouth; indeed, most of the company
were fast asleep, [4] but, as I could not close my own eyes, and
perceived the spirit who sat opposite to me to be likewise awake, I
began to make overtures of conversation, by complaining HOW DARK IT WAS.
“And extremely cold too,” answered my fellow traveler; “though, I thank
God, as I have no body, I feel no inconvenience from it: but you will
believe, sir, that this frosty air must seem very sharp to one just
issued forth out of an oven; for such was the inflamed habitation I am
lately departed from.” “How did you come to your end, sir?” said I.
“I was murdered, sir,” answered the gentleman. “I am surprised then,”
replied I, “that you did not divert yourself by walking up and down and
playing some merry tricks with the murderer.” “Oh, sir,” returned he,
“I had not that privilege, I was lawfully put to death. In short,
a physician set me on fire, by giving me medicines to throw out my
distemper. I died of a hot regimen, as they call it, in the small-pox.”
One of the spirits at that word started up and cried out, “The
small-pox! bless me! I hope I am not in company with that distemper,
which I have all my life with such caution avoided, and have so happily
escaped hitherto!” This fright set all the passengers who were awake
into a loud laughter; and the gentleman, recollecting himself, with some
confusion, and not without blushing, asked pardon, crying, “I protest
I dreamed that I was alive.” “Perhaps, sir,” said I, “you died of that
distemper, which therefore made so strong an impression on you.” “No,
sir,” answered he, “I never had it in my life; but the continual and
dreadful apprehension it kept me so long under cannot, I see, be so
immediately eradicated. You must know, sir, I avoided coming to London
for thirty years together, for fear of the small-pox, till the most
urgent business brought me thither about five days ago. I was so
dreadfully afraid of this disease that I refused the second night of
my arrival to sup with a friend whose wife had recovered of it several
months before, and the same evening got a surfeit by eating too many
muscles, which brought me into this good company.”
“I will lay a wager,” cried the spirit who sat next him, “there is not
one in the coach able to guess my distemper.” I desired the favor of him
to acquaint us with it, if it was so uncommon. “Why, sir,” said he, “I
died of honor.”--“Of honor, sir!” repeated I, with some surprise. “Yes,
sir,” answered the spirit, “of honor, for I was killed in a duel.”
“For my part,” said a fair spirit, “I was inoculated last summer, and
had the good fortune to escape with a very few marks on my face. I
esteemed myself now perfectly happy, as I imagined I had no restraint
to a full enjoyment of the diversions of the town; but within a few days
after my coming up I caught cold by overdancing myself at a ball, and
last night died of a violent fever.”
After a short silence which now ensued, the fair spirit who spoke last,
it being now daylight, addressed herself to a female who sat next her,
and asked her to what chance they owed the happiness of her company. She
answered, she apprehended to a consumption, but the physicians were not
agreed concerning her distemper, for she left two of them in a very hot
dispute about it when she came out of her body. “And pray, madam,” said
the same spirit to the sixth passenger, “How came you to leave the other
world?” But that female spirit, screwing up her mouth, answered, she
wondered at the curiosity of some people; that perhaps persons had
already heard some reports of her death, which were far from being true;
that, whatever was the occasion of it, she was glad at being delivered
from a world in which she had no pleasure, and where there was nothing
but nonsense and impertinence; particularly among her own sex, whose
loose conduct she had long been entirely ashamed of.
The beauteous spirit, perceiving her question gave offense, pursued it
no farther. She had indeed all the sweetness and good-humor which are
so extremely amiable (when found) in that sex which tenderness most
exquisitely becomes. Her countenance displayed all the cheerfulness, the
good-nature, and the modesty, which diffuse such brightness round the
beauty of Seraphina, [5] awing every beholder with respect, and, at the
same time, ravishing him with admiration. Had it not been indeed for
our conversation on the small-pox, I should have imagined we had been
honored with her identical presence. This opinion might have been
heightened by the good sense she uttered whenever she spoke, by the
delicacy of her sentiments, and the complacence of her behavior,
together with a certain dignity which attended every look, word, and
gesture; qualities which could not fail making an impression on a heart
[6] so capable of receiving it as mine, nor was she long in raising in
me a very violent degree of seraphic love. I do not intend by this, that
sort of love which men are very properly said to make to women in the
lower world, and which seldom lasts any longer than while it is
making. I mean by seraphic love an extreme delicacy and tenderness of
friendship, of which, my worthy reader, if thou hast no conception, as
it is probable thou mayest not, my endeavor to instruct thee would be as
fruitless as it would be to explain the most difficult problems of Sir
Isaac Newton to one ignorant of vulgar arithmetic.
To return therefore to matters comprehensible by all understandings:
the discourse now turned on the vanity, folly, and misery of the lower
world, from which every passenger in the coach expressed the highest
satisfaction in being delivered; though it was very remarkable that,
notwithstanding the joy we declared at our death, there was not one of
us who did not mention the accident which occasioned it as a thing we
would have avoided if we could. Nay, the very grave lady herself, who
was the forwardest in testifying her delight, confessed inadvertently
that she left a physician by her bedside; and the gentleman who died
of honor very liberally cursed both his folly and his fencing. While
we were entertaining ourselves with these matters, on a sudden a most
offensive smell began to invade our nostrils. This very much resembled
the savor which travelers in summer perceive at their approach to that
beautiful village of the Hague, arising from those delicious canals
which, as they consist of standing water, do at that time emit odors
greatly agreeable to a Dutch taste, but not so pleasant to any other.
Those perfumes, with the assistance of a fair wind, begin to affect
persons of quick olfactory nerves at a league’s distance, and increase
gradually as you approach. In the same manner did the smell I have just
mentioned, more and more invade us, till one of the spirits, looking out
of the coach-window, declared we were just arrived at a very large
city; and indeed he had scarce said so before we found ourselves in the
suburbs, and, at the same time, the coachman, being asked by another,
informed us that the name of this place was the City of Diseases. The
road to it was extremely smooth, and, excepting the above-mentioned
savor, delightfully pleasant. The streets of the suburbs were lined
with bagnios, taverns, and cooks’ shops: in the first we saw several
beautiful women, but in tawdry dresses, looking out at the windows; and
in the latter were visibly exposed all kinds of the richest dainties;
but on our entering the city we found, contrary to all we had seen in
the other world, that the suburbs were infinitely pleasanter than the
city itself. It was indeed a very dull, dark, and melancholy place. Few
people appeared in the streets, and these, for the most part, were old
women, and here and there a formal grave gentleman, who seemed to be
thinking, with large tie-wigs on, and amber-headed canes in their hands.
We were all in hopes that our vehicle would not stop here; but, to our
sorrow, the coach soon drove into an inn, and we were obliged to alight.