Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Stephanie Eason and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
(This book was produced from scanned images of public
domain material from the Google Print project.)
THE
PHANTOM WORLD:
THE HISTORY
AND
PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITS, APPARITIONS,
&c. &c.
FROM THE FRENCH OF AUGUSTINE CALMET.
WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES
BY THE
REV. HENRY CHRISTMAS, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., LIBRARIAN AND SECRETARY OF
SION COLLEGE.
Quemadmodum multa fieri non posse, priusquam facta sunt, judicantur;
ita multa quoque, quae antiquitus facta, quia nos ea non vidimus, neque
ratione assequimur, ex iis esse, quae fieri non potuerunt, judicamus.
Quae certe summa insipientia est.--PLIN. _Hist. Nat._ lib. vii. c. 1.
TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.
PHILADELPHIA:
A. HART, LATE CAREY & HART.
1850.
PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.
TO
HENRY JAMES SLACK, ESQ., F.G.S.
&c. &c. &c.
MY DEAR HENRY--
I inscribe these volumes with your name to record a friendship which
has lasted from our infancy, tain____________ suspicion, and darkened
by no shadow.
So long as eminent talents can challenge admiration, varied and
extensive acquirements command respect, and unfeigned virtues ensure
esteem and regard, so long will you have no common claim to them all;
and none will pay the tribute more gladly than your affectionate
Friend and Cousin,
HENRY CHRISTMAS.
SION COLLEGE, _March, 1850._
INTRODUCTION.
Among the many phases presented by human credulity, few are more
interesting than those which regard the realities of the invisible
world. If the opinions which have been held on this subject were
written and gathered together they would form hundreds of volumes--if
they were arranged and digested they would form a few, but most
important. It is not merely because there is in almost every human
error a substratum of truth, and that the more important the subject
the more important the substratum, but because the investigation will
give almost a history of human aberrations, that this otherwise
unpromising topic assumes so high an interest. The superstitions of
every age, for no age is free from them, will present the popular
modes of thinking in an intelligible and easily accessible form, and
may be taken as a means of gauging (if the expression be permitted)
the philosophical and metaphysical capacities of the period. In this
light, the volumes here presented to the reader will be found of great
value, for they give a picture of the popular mind at a time or great
interest, and furnish a clue to many difficulties in the ecclesiastical
affairs of that era. In the time of Calmet, cases of demoniacal
possession, and instances of returns from the world of spirits, were
reputed to be of no uncommon occurrence. The church was continually
called on to exert her powers of exorcism; and the instances gathered
by Calmet, and related in this work, may be taken as fair specimens of
the rest. It is then, first, as a storehouse of facts, or reputed
facts, that Calmet compiled the work now in the reader's hands--as the
foundation on which to rear what superstructure of system they pleased;
and secondly, as a means of giving his own opinions, in a detached and
desultory way, as the subjects came under his notice. The value of the
first will consist in their _evidence_--and of this the reader will be
as capable of judging as the compiler; that of the second will depend
on their truth--and of this, too, we are as well, and in some respects
better, able to judge than Calmet himself. Those accustomed to require
rigid evidence will be but ill satisfied with the greater part of that
which will be found in this work; simple assertion for the most part
suffices--often first made long after the facts, or supposed facts,
related, and not unfrequently far off from the places where they were
alleged to have taken place. But these cases are often the _best_
authenticated, for in the more modern ones there is frequently such an
evident mistake in the whole nature of the case, that all the
spiritual deductions made from it fall to the ground.
Not a few instances of so-called demoniacal possession are capable of
being resolved into cataleptic trance, a state not unlike that
produced by mesmerism, and in which many of the same phenomena seem
naturally to display themselves; the well-known instance of the young
servant girl, related by Coleridge, who, though ignorant and uneducated,
could during her sleep-walking discourse learnedly in rabbinical
Hebrew, would furnish a case in point. The circumstance of her old
master having been in the habit of walking about the house at night,
reading from rabbinical books aloud and in a declamatory manner; the
impression made by the strange sounds upon her youthful imagination;
their accurate retention by a memory, which, however, could only
reproduce them in an abnormal condition--all teach us many most
interesting psychological facts, which, had this young girl fallen
into other hands, would have been useless in a philosophical point of
view, and would have been only used to establish the doctrine of
diabolical possession and ecclesiastical exorcism. We should have been
told how skilled was the fallen angel in rabbinical traditions, and
how wholesome a terror he entertained of the Jesuits, the Capuchins,
or the _Fratres Minimi_, as the case might be. Not a few of the most
remarkable cases of supposed _modern_ possession are to be accounted
for by involuntary or natural mesmerism. Indeed the same view seems to
be taken by a popular minister of the church (Mr. Mac Niel), in our
own day, viz., that mesmerism and diabolical possession are frequently
identical. Our difference with him is that we should consider the
cases called by the two names as all natural, and he would consider
them as all supernatural. And here, to avoid misconception, or rather
misinterpretation, let me at once observe, that I speak thus of
_modern_ and _recorded_ cases only, accepting _literally_ all related
in the New Testament, and not presuming to say that similar cases
_might_ not occur now. Calmet, however, may be supposed to have
collected all the most remarkable of modern times, and I am compelled
to say I believe not one of them. But when we pass from the evidence
of truth, in which they are so wanting, to the evidence of fraud and
collusion by which many are so characterized, we shall have less wonder
at the general spread of infidelity in times somewhat later, on all
subjects not susceptible of ocular demonstration. Where a system
claimed to be received as a whole, or not at all, it is hardly to be
wondered at that when some portion was manifestly wrong, its own
requirements should be complied with, and the whole rejected. The
system which required an implicit belief in such absurdities as those
related in these volumes, and placed them on a level with the most
awful verities of religion, might indeed make some interested use of
them in an age of comparative darkness, but certainly contained within
itself the seeds of destruction, and which could not fail to germinate
as soon as light fell upon them. The state of Calmet's own mind, as
revealed in this book, is curious and interesting. The belief _of the
intellect_ in much which he relates is evidently gone, the belief _of
the will_ but partially remains. There is a painful sense of
uncertainty as to whether certain things _ought_ not to be received
more fully than he felt himself able to receive them, and he gladly
follows in many cases the example of Herodotus of old, merely relating
stories without comment, save by stating that they had not fallen
under his own observation.
The time, indeed, had hardly come to assert freedom of belief on
subjects such as these. Theology embraced philosophy, and the Holy
Inquisition defended the orthodoxy of both; and if the investigators
of Calmet's day were permitted to hold, with some limitation, the
Copernican theory, it was far otherwise with regard to the world of
spirits, and its connection with our own. The rotundity of the earth
affected neither shrines nor exorcisms; metaphysical truth might do
both one and the other; and the cry of "Great is Diana of the
Ephesians," was not raised in the capital of Asia Minor, till the
"craft by which we get our wealth" was proved to be in danger.
Reflections such as these are painfully forced on us by the evident
fraud exhibited by many of the actors in the scenes of exorcism
narrated by Calmet, the vile purposes to which the services of the
church were turned, and the recklessness with which the supposed or
pretended evil, and equally pretended remedy, were used for political
intrigue or state oppression.
Independent of these conclusions, there is something lamentable in a
state of the public mind, which was so little prone to examination as
to receive such a mass of superstition without sifting the wheat, for
such there undoubtedly is, from the chaff. Calmet's work contains
enough, had we the minor circumstances in each case preserved, to set
at rest many philosophic doubts, and to illustrate many physical
facts; and to those who desire to know what was believed by our
Christian forefathers, and why it was believed, the compilation is
absolutely invaluable. Calmet was a man of naturally cool, calm
judgment, possessed of singular learning, and was pious and truthful.
A short sketch of his life will not, perhaps, be unacceptable to the
reader.
Augustine Calmet was born in the year 1672, at a village near
Commerci, in Lorraine. He early gave proofs of aptitude for study, and
an opportunity was speedily offered of devoting himself to a life of
learning. In his sixteenth year he became a Benedictine of the
Congregation of St. Vannes, and prosecuted his theological and such
philosophical studies as the time allowed with great success. He was
soon appointed to teach the younger portion of the community, and gave
in this employment such decided satisfaction to his superiors, that he
was soon marked for preferment. His chief study was the Scriptures;
and in the twenty-second year of his age, a period unusually early, in
an age when all benefices and beneficial employments were matters of
sale, he was appointed to be sub-prior of the monastery of Munster, in
Alsace, where he presided over an academy. This academy consisted of
ten or twelve monks, and its object was the investigation of
Scripture. Calmet was not idle in his new position; besides
communicating so much valuable information as to make his pupils the
best biblical scholars of the country, he made extensive collections
for his Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, and for his still
more celebrated work, the History of the Bible. These materials he
subsequently digested and arranged. The Commentary, a work of immense
value, was published in separate volumes from 1707 to 1716. His labors
attracted renewed and increased attention, and the offer of a
bishopric was made to him, which he unhesitatingly declined.
In 1718, he was elected to the abbacy of St. Leopold, in Nancy; and
ten years afterwards, to that of Senones, where he spent the remainder
of his days. His writings are numerous--two have been already
mentioned--and so great was the popularity attained by his
Commentaries, that they have been translated into no fewer than six
languages within ten years. It exhibits a favorable aspect of the
author's mind, and gives a very high idea of his erudition. One cause
which tended greatly to its universal acceptability, was its singular
freedom from sectarian bitterness. Protestants as well as Romanists
may use it with equal satisfaction; and accordingly, it is considered
a work of standard authority in England as much as on the continent.
In addition to these Commentaries, and his History of the Bible, and
Fragments, (the best edition of which latter work in English, is by
Isaac Taylor,) he wrote the "Ecclesiastical and Civil History of
Lorraine;" "A Catalogue of the Writers of Lorraine;" "Universal
History, Sacred and Profane;" a small collection of Reveries; and a
work entitled, "A Literal, Moral, and Historical Commentary on the
Rule of St. Benedict," a work which is full of curious information on
ancient customs, particularly ecclesiastical. He is among the few,
also, who have written on ancient music. He lived to a good old age;
and died regretted and much respected in 1757.
Of all his works, the one presented here to the reader, is perhaps the
most popular; it went rapidly through many editions, and received from
the author's hand continual corrections and additions. To say that it
is characterized by uniform judgment, would be to give it a praise
somewhat different as well as somewhat greater than that which it
merits. It is a vast repertory of legends, more or less probable; some
of which have very little foundation--and some which Calmet himself
would have done well to omit, though _now_, as a picture of the belief
entertained in that day, they greatly add to the value of the book.
For the same reasons which have caused the retention of these
passages, no alterations have been made in the citations from
Scripture, which being translations from the Vulgate, necessarily
differ in phraseology from the version in use among ourselves. The
apocryphal books too are quoted, and the story of Bel and the Dragon
referred to as a part of the prophecy of Daniel; but what is of
consequence to observe, is, that _doctrines_ are founded on these
translations, and on those very points in which they differ from our
own.
If the history of popery, and especially that form and development of
it exhibited in the monastic orders, be ever written, this work will
be of the greatest importance:--it will show the means by which
dominion was obtained over the minds of the ignorant; how the most
sacred mysteries were perverted; and frauds, which can hardly be
termed pious, used to support institutions which can scarcely be
called religious. That the spirits of the dead should be permitted to
return to earth, under circumstances the most grotesque, to support
the doctrines of masses for the dead, purgatory and propitiatory
penance; that demons should be exorcised to give testimony to the
merits of rival orders of monks and friars; that relics, many of them
supposititious, and many of the most disgusting and blasphemous
character, should have power to affect the eternal state of the
departed; and that _all_ saints, angels, demons, and the ghosts of the
departed, should support, with great variations indeed, the corrupt
dealings of a corrupt priesthood--form a creed worthy of the darkest
and most unworthy days of heathenism.
There is, however, one excuse, or rather palliation, for the
superstition of that time. In periods of great public depravity--and
few epochs have been more depraved than that in which Calmet
lived--Satan has great power. With a ruler like the regent Duke of
Orleans, with a Church governor like Cardinal Dubois, it would appear
that the civil and ecclesiastical authority of France had sold itself,
like Ahab of old, to work wickedness; or, as the apostle says, "to
work all uncleanness with greediness." In an age so characterized, it
does not seem at all improbable that portentous events should from
time to time occur; that the servants of the devil should be
strengthened together with their master; that many should be given
over to strong delusions and to believe a lie; and that the evil part
of the invisible world should be permitted to ally itself more closely
with the men of an age so congenial. Real cases of demoniacal
possession might, perhaps, be met with, and though scarcely amenable
to the exorcisms of a clergy so corrupt as that of France in that day,
they would yet justify a belief in the reality of those cases got up
for the sake of filthy lucre, personal ambition, or private revenge.
If the public mind was prepared for a belief in such cases, there were
not wanting men to turn it to profitable account; and the quiet
student who believed the efficacy of the means used, and was scarcely
aware of the wickedness of the age in which he lived, might easily be
induced to credit the tales told him of demons expelled by the power
of a church, to which in the beginning an authority to do so had
undoubtedly been given, and whose awful corruptions were to him at
least greatly veiled.
Calmet was a man of great integrity and considerable acumen, but he
passed an innocent and exemplary life in studious seclusion; he mixed
little with the world at large, resided remote "from courts, and
camps, and strife of war or peace;" and there appears occasionally in
his writings a kind of nervous apprehension lest the dogmas of the
church to which he was pledged should be less capable than he could
wish of satisfactory investigation. When he meets with tales like
those of the vampires or vroucolacas, which concern only what he
considered a heretical church, and with which, therefore, he might
deal according to his own will--apply to them the ordinary rules of
evidence, and treat them as mundane affairs--there he is
clear-sighted, critical and acute, and accordingly he discusses the
matter philosophically and logically, and concludes without fear of
sinning against the church, that the whole is delusion. When, on the
other hand, he has to deal with cases of demoniacal possession, in
countries under the rule of the Roman hierarchy, he contents himself
with the decisions of the scholastic divines and the opinions of the
fathers, and makes frequent references to the decrees of various
provincial parliaments. The effects of such a state of mind upon
scientific and especially metaphysical investigation, may be easily
imagined, and are to be traced more or less distinctly in every page
of the work before us.
To conclude: books like this--the "Disquisitiones Magicae" of Delrio,
the "Demonomanie" of Bodin, the "Malleus Maleficarum" of Sprengel, and
the like, are at no time to be regarded merely as subjects of
amusement; they have their philosophical value; they have a still
greater historical value; and they show how far even upright minds may
be warped by imperfect education, and slavish deference to authority.
The edition here followed is that of 1751, which contains the latest
corrections of the author, and several additional pieces, which are
all included in the present volumes.
SION COLLEGE, LONDON WALL,
_April, 1850._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE xv
CHAPTER
I. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the
Old Testament 37
II. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the
New Testament 38
III. Under what form have Good Angels appeared? 41
IV. Opinions of the Jews, Christians, Mahometans, and Oriental
Nations, concerning the Apparitions of Good Angels 44
V. Opinion of the Greeks and Romans on the Apparitions of
Good Genii 47
VI. The Apparition of Bad Angels proved by the Holy
Scriptures--Under what Form they have appeared 50
VII. Of Magic 57
VIII. Objections to the Reality of Magic 61
IX. Reply to the Objections 63
X. Examination of the Affair of Hocque, Magician 67
XI. Magic of the Egyptians and Chaldeans 70
XII. Magic among the Greeks and Romans 73
XIII. Examples which prove the Reality of Magic 75
XIV. Effects of Magic according to the Poets 81
XV. Of the Pagan Oracles 83
XVI. The Certainty of the Event predicted, is not always a
proof that the Prediction comes from God 86
XVII. Reasons which lead us to believe that the greater part
of the Ancient Oracles were only Impositions of the
Priests and Priestesses, who feigned that they were
inspired by God 89
XVIII. On Sorcerers and Sorceresses, or Witches 93
XIX. Instances of Sorcerers and Witches being, as they said,
transported to the Sabbath 98
XX. Story of Louis Gaufredi and Magdalen de la Palud, owned
by themselves to be a Sorcerer and Sorceress 102
XXI. Reasons which prove the Possibility of Sorcerers and
Witches being transported to the Sabbath 106
XXII. Continuation of the same Subject 111
XXIII. Obsession and Possession of the Devil 114
XXIV. The Truth and Reality of Possession and Obsession by
the Devil proved from Scripture 117
XXV. Examples of Real Possessions caused by the Devil 119
XXVI. Continuation of the same Subject 123
XXVII. Objections against the Obsessions and Possessions of
the Demon--Reply to the Objections 128
XXVIII. Continuation of Objections against Possessions, and
some Replies to those Objections 132
XXIX. Of Familiar Spirits 138
XXX. Some other Examples of Elves 142
XXXI. Spirits that keep Watch over Treasure 149
XXXII. Other instances of Hidden Treasures, which were guarded
by Good or Bad Spirits 153
XXXIII. Spectres which appear, and predict things unknown and
to come 156
XXXIV. Other Apparitions of Spectres 159
XXXV. Examination of the Apparition of a pretended Spectre 163
XXXVI. Of Spectres which haunt Houses 165
XXXVII. Other Instances of Spectres which haunt certain Houses 170
XXXVIII. Prodigious effects of Imagination in those Men or
Women who believe they hold Intercourse with the
Demon 172
XXXIX. Return and Apparitions of Souls after the Death of the
Body, proved from Scripture 176
XL. Apparitions of Spirits proved from History 180
XLI. More Instances of Apparitions 185
XLII. On the Apparitions of Spirits who imprint their Hands
on Clothes or on Wood 190
XLIII. Opinions of the Jews, Greeks, and Latins, concerning
the Dead who are left unburied 195
XLIV. Examination of what is required or revealed to the Living
by the Dead who return to Earth 201
XLV. Apparitions of Men still alive, to other living Men,
absent, and very distant from each other 204
XLVI. Arguments concerning Apparitions 216
XLVII. Objections against Apparitions, and Replies to those
Objections 221
XLVIII. Some other Objections and Replies 224
XLIX. The Secrets of Physics and Chemistry taken for
supernatural things 229
L. Conclusion of the Treatise on Apparitions 232
LI. Way of explaining Apparitions 235
LII. The difficulty of explaining the manner in which
Apparitions make their appearance, whatever system may
be proposed on the subject 237
DISSERTATION ON THE GHOSTS WHO RETURN TO EARTH BODILY, THE
EXCOMMUNICATED, THE OUPIRES OR VAMPIRES, VROUCOLACAS, ETC. 241
PREFACE 243
CHAPTER
I. The Resurrection of a Dead Person is the Work of God only 247
II. Revival of Persons who were not really Dead 249
III. Resurrection of a Man who had been buried Three Years,
resuscitated by St. Stanislaus 251
IV. Can a Man really Dead appear in his own Body? 253
V. Revival or Apparition of a Girl who had been Dead some
Months 256
VI. A Woman taken Alive from her Tomb 259
VII. Revenans, or Vampires of Moravia 260
VIII. Dead Persons in Hungary who suck the Blood of the Living 262
IX. Narrative of a Vampire from the Jewish Letters, Letter 137 263
X. Other Instances of Revenans.--Continuation of the "Gleaner" 264
XI. Argument of the Author of the Jewish Letters, concerning
Revenans 266
XII. Continuation of the argument of the Dutch Gleaner 270
XIII. Narrative from the "Mercure Gallant" of 1693 and 1694
on Revenans 272
XIV. Conjectures of the "Glaneur de Hollandais" 273
XV. Another Letter on Ghosts 276
XVI. Pretended Vestiges of Vampirism in Antiquity 278
XVII. Ghosts in Northern Countries 282
XVIII. Ghosts in England 283
XIX. Ghosts in Peru 284
XX. Ghosts in Lapland 285
XXI. Return of a Man who had been Dead some Months 285
XXII. Excommunicated Persons who went out of Churches 289
XXIII. Some Instances of the Excommunicated being rejected or
cast out of Consecrated Ground 291
XXIV. Instance of an Excommunicated Martyr being cast out of
the Ground 292
XXV. A Man cast out of the Church for having refused to pay
Tithes 293
XXVI. Instances of Persons who have given Signs of Life after
their Death, and have withdrawn themselves respectfully
to make room for more worthy Persons 294
XXVII. People who perform Pilgrimage after Death 296
XXVIII. Reasoning upon the Excommunicated who go out of
Churches 297
XXIX. Do the Excommunicated rot in the Earth? 300
XXX. Instances to show that the Excommunicated do not rot, and
that they appear to the Living 301
XXXI. Instances of these Returns to Earth of the Excommunicated 302
XXXII. A Vroucolacan exhumed in the presence of M. de
Tournefort 304
XXXIII. Has the Demon power to kill, and then to restore to
Life? 308
XXXIV. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon can restore
Animation to a Dead Body 310
XXXV. Instances of Phantoms which have appeared to the Living
and given many Signs of Life 313
XXXVI. Devoting People to Death, practised by the Heathens 314
XXXVII. Instances of dooming to Death among Christians 317
XXXVIII. Instances of Persons who have promised to give each
other News of themselves from the other World 321
XXXIX. Extracts from the Political Works of the Abbe de St.
Pierre 325
XL. Divers Systems to explain Ghosts 331
XLI. Divers Instances of Persons being Buried Alive 333
XLII. Instances of Drowned Persons who have come back to Life
and Health 335
XLIII. Instances of Women thought Dead who came to Life again 337
XLIV. Can these Instances be applied to the Hungarian Revenans? 339
XLV. Dead People who chew in their Graves and devour their own
Flesh 340
XLVI. Singular Example of a Hungarian Revenant 341
XLVII. Argument on this matter 343
XLVIII. Are the Vampires or Revenans really Dead? 344
XLIX. Instance of a Man named Curma being sent back to this
World 351
L. Instances of Persons who fall into Ecstatic Trances when
they will, and remain senseless 354
LI. Application of such Instances to Vampires 356
LII. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon fascinates the
Eyes of those to whom Vampires appear 360
LIII. Instances of Resuscitated Persons who relate what they
saw in the other World 361
LIV. The Traditions of the Pagans on the other Life, are
derived from the Hebrews and Egyptians 364
LV. Instances of Christians being Resuscitated and sent back
to this World.--Vision of Vetinus, a Monk of Augia 366
LVI. Vision of Bertholdas, related by Hincmar, Archbishop of
Rheims 368
LVII. Vision of St. Fursius 369
LVIII. Vision of a Protestant of York, and others 371
LIX. Conclusion of this Dissertation 374
LX. Moral Impossibility that Ghosts can come out of their Tombs 376
LXI. What is related of the Bodies of the Excommunicated who
walk out of Churches, is subject to very great
Difficulties (in Belief and Explanation) 378
LXII. Remarks on the Dissertation, concerning the Spirit which
came to St. Maur des Fosses 380
LXIII. Dissertation of an Anonymous Writer on what should be
thought of the Appearance of Spirits, on Occasion of
the Adventure at St. Maur, in 1706 387
Letter of the Marquis Maffei on Magic 407
Letter of the Reverend Father Dom Calmet, to M. Debure 440
PREFACE.
The great number of authors who have written upon the apparitions of
angels, demons, and disembodied souls is not unknown to me; and I do
not presume sufficiently on my own capacity to believe that I shall
succeed better in it than they have done, and that I shall enhance
their knowledge and their discoveries. I am perfectly sensible that I
expose myself to criticism, and perhaps to the mockery of many
readers, who regard this matter as done with, and decried in the minds
of philosophers, learned men, and many theologians. I must not reckon
either on the approbation of the people, whose want of discernment
prevents their being competent judges of this same. My aim is not to
foment superstition, nor to feed the vain curiosity of visionaries,
and those who believe without examination everything that is related
to them as soon as they find therein anything marvelous and
supernatural. I write only for reasonable and unprejudiced minds,
which examine things seriously and coolly; I speak only for those who
assent even to known truth but after mature reflection, who know how
to doubt of what is uncertain, to suspend their judgment on what is
doubtful, and to deny what is manifestly false.
As for pretended freethinkers, who reject everything to distinguish
themselves, and to place themselves above the common herd, I leave
them in their elevated sphere; they will think of this work as they
may consider proper, and as it is not calculated for them, apparently
they will not take the trouble to read it.
I undertook it for my own information, and to form to myself a just
idea of all that is said on the apparitions of angels, of the demon,
and of disembodied souls. I wished to see how far that matter was
certain or uncertain, true or false, known or unknown, clear or
obscure.
In this great number of facts which I have collected I have endeavored
to make a choice, and not to heap together too great a multitude of
them, for fear that in the too numerous examples the doubtful might
not harm the certain, and in wishing to prove too much I might prove
absolutely nothing. There will, even amongst those I have cited, be
found some which will not easily be credited by many readers, and I
allow them to regard them as not related.
I beg those readers, nevertheless, to discern justly amongst these
facts and instances; after which they can with me form their
opinion--affirm, deny, or remain in doubt.
From the respect which every man owes to truth, and the veneration
which a Christian and a priest owes to religion, it appeared to me
very important to undeceive people respecting the opinion which they
have of apparitions, if they believe them all to be true; or to
instruct them and show them the truth and reality of a great number,
if they think them all false. It is always shameful to be deceived;
_____________________and in regard to religion, to believe on light
grounds, to remain wilfully in doubt, or to maintain oneself without
any reason in superstition and illusion; it is already much to know
how to doubt wisely, and not to form a decided opinion beyond what one
really knows.
I never had any idea of treating profoundly the matter of apparitions;
I have treated of it, as it were, by chance, and occasionally. My
first and principal object was to discourse of the vampires of
Hungary. In collecting my materials on that subject, I found many
things concerning apparitions; the great number of these embarrassed
this treatise on vampires. I detached some of them, and thus have
composed this treatise on apparitions: there still remains a large
number of them, which I might have separated for the better
arrangement of this treatise. Many persons here have taken the
accessory for the principal, and have paid more attention to the first
part than to the second, which was, however, the first and the
principal in my design. For I own I have always been much struck with
what was related of the vampires or ghosts of Hungary, Moravia, and
Poland; of the vroucolacas of Greece; and of the excommunicated, who
are said not to rot. I thought I ought to bestow on it all the
attention in my power; and I have deemed it right to treat on this
subject in a particular dissertation. After having deeply studied it,
and obtaining as much information as I was able, I found little
solidity and certainty on the subject; which, joined to the opinion of
some prudent and respectable persons whom I consulted, had induced me
to give up my design entirely, and to renounce laboring on a subject
which is so contradictory, and embraces so much uncertainty.
But looking at the matter in another point of view, I resumed my pen,
decided upon undeceiving the public, if I found that what was said of
it was absolutely false; showing that what is uttered on this subject
is uncertain, and that one ought to be very reserved in pronouncing on
these vampires, which have made so much noise in the world for a
certain time, and still divide opinions at this day, even in the
countries which are the scene of their pretended return, and where
they appear; or to show that what has been said and written on this
subject is not destitute of probability, and that the subject of the
return of vampires is worthy the attention of the curious and the
learned, and deserves to be seriously studied, to have the facts
related of it examined, and the causes, circumstances, and means
sounded deeply.
I am then about to examine this question as a historian, philosopher,
and theologian. As a historian, I shall endeavor to discover the truth
of the facts; as a philosopher, I shall examine the causes and
circumstances; lastly, the knowledge or light of theology will cause
me to deduce consequences as relating to religion. Thus I do not write
in the hope of convincing freethinkers and pyrrhonians, who will not
allow the existence of ghosts or vampires, nor even of the apparitions
of angels, demons, and spirits; nor to intimidate those weak and
credulous, by relating to them extraordinary stories of apparitions. I
do not reckon either on curing the superstitious of their errors, nor
the people of their prepossessions; not even on correcting the abuses
which arise from this unenlightened belief, nor of doing away all the
doubts which may be formed on apparitions; still less do I pretend to
erect myself as a judge and censor of the works and sentiments of
others, nor to distinguish myself, make myself a name, or divert
myself, by spreading abroad dangerous doubts upon a subject which
concerns religion, and from which they might make wrong deductions
against the certainty of the Scriptures, and against the unshaken
dogmas of our creed. I shall treat it as solidly and gravely as it
merits; and I pray God to give me that knowledge which is necessary to
do it successfully.
I exhort my reader to distinguish between the facts related, and the
manner in which they happened. The fact may be certain, and the way in
which it occurred unknown. Scripture relates certain apparitions of
angels and disembodied souls; these instances are indubitable and
found in the revelations of the holy books; but the manner in which
God operated the resurrections, or in which he permitted these
apparitions to take place, is hidden among his secrets. It is
allowable for us to examine them, to seek out the circumstances, and
propound some conjectures on the manner in which it all came to pass;
but it would be rash to decide upon a matter which God has not thought
proper to reveal to us. I say as much in proportion, concerning the
stories related by sensible, contemporary, and judicious authors, who
simply relate the facts without entering into the examination of the
circumstances, of which, perhaps, they themselves were not well
informed.
It has already been objected to me, that I cited poets and authors of
little credit, in support of a thing so grave and so disputed as the
apparition of spirits: such authorities, they say, are more calculated
to cast a doubt on apparitions, than to establish the truth of them.
But I cite those authors as witnesses of the opinions of nations; and
I count it not a small thing in the extreme license of opinions, which
at this day predominates in the world, amongst those even who make a
profession of Christianity, to be able to show that the ancient Greeks
and Romans thought that souls were immortal, that they subsisted after
the death of the body, and that there was another life, in which they
received the reward of their good actions, or the chastisement of
their crimes.
Those sentiments which we read in the poets, are also repeated in the
fathers of the church, and the pagan and Christian historians; but as
they did not pretend to think them weighty, nor to approve them in
repeating them, it must not be imputed to me either, that I have any
intention of authorizing. For instance, what I have related of the
manes, or lares; of the evocation of souls after the death of the
body; of the avidity of these souls to suck the blood of the immolated
animals, of the shape of the soul separated from the body, of the
inquietude of souls which have no rest until their bodies are under
ground; of those superstitious statues of wax which are devoted and
consecrated under the name of certain persons whom the magicians
pretended to kill by burning and stabbing their effigies of wax; of
the transportation of wizards and witches through the air, and of
their assemblies of the Sabbath; all those things are related both in
the works of the philosophers and pagan historians, as well as in the
poets.
I know the value of one and the other, and I esteem them as they
deserve; but I think that in treating this matter, it is important to
make known to our readers the ancient superstitions, the vulgar or
common opinions, and the prejudices of nations, to be able to refute
them, and bring back the figures to truths, by freeing them from what
poesy had added for the embellishment of the poem, and the amusement
of the reader.
Moreover, I generally repeat this kind of thing, only when it is
apropos of certain facts avowed by historians, and by other grave and
rational authors; and sometimes rather as an ornament of the
discourse, or to enliven the matter, than to derive thence certain
proofs and consequences necessary for the dogma, or to certify the
facts and give weight to my recital.
I know how little we must depend on what Lucian says on this subject;
he only speaks of it to make game of it. Philostratus, Jamblicus, and
some others, do not merit more consideration; therefore I quote them
only to refute them, or to show how far idle and ridiculous credulity
has been carried on these matters, which were laughed at by the most
sensible among the heathens themselves.
The consequences which I deduce from all these stories, and these
poetical fictions, and the manner in which I speak of them in the
course of this dissertation, sufficiently vouch that esteem, and give
as true and certain only what is so in fact; and that I do not wish to
impose on my reader, by relating many things which I myself regard as
false, or as doubtful, or even as fabulous. But that ought to be
prejudicial to the dogma of the immortality of the soul, and to that
of another life, not to the truth of certain apparitions related in
Scripture, or proved elsewhere by good testimony.
The first edition of this work having been printed in my absence, and
upon an incorrect copy, several misprints have occurred, and even
expressions and phrases displeasing and interrupted. I have tried to
remedy this in a second edition, and to cast light on those passages
which they noticed as demanding explanation, and correcting what might
offend scrupulous readers, and prevent the bad consequences which
might be derived from what I had said. I have even done more in this
third edition. I have retrenched several passages; others I have
suppressed; I have profited by the advice which has been given me; and
I have replied to the objections which have been made.
People have complained that I took no part, and did not come to a
decision on several difficulties which I propose, and that I leave my
reader in uncertainty.
I make but little defence against this reproach; I should require more
justification if I decided without a perfect knowledge of causes, for
one side of the question, at the risk of embracing an error, and of
falling into a still greater impropriety. There is wisdom in
suspending one's judgment till we have succeeded in finding the very
truth.
I have also been told, that certain persons have made a joke of some
facts which I have related. If I have related them as certain, and
they afford just cause for pleasantry, let the condemnation pass; but
if I cited them as fabulous and false, they present no subject for
pleasantry; _Falsum non est de ratione faceti._
There are certain persons who delight in jesting on the most serious
things, and who spare nothing, either sacred or profane. The histories
of the Old and New Testament, the most sacred ceremonies of our
religion, the lives of the most respectable saints, are not safe from
their dull, tasteless pleasantry.
I have been reproached for having related several false histories,
several doubtful facts, and several fabulous events. This is true; but
I give them for what they are. I have declared several times, that I
did not vouch for their truth, that I repeated them to show how false
and ridiculous they were, and to deprive them of the credit they might
have with the people; and if I had gone at length into their
refutation, I thought it right to let my reader have the pleasure of
refuting them, supposing him to possess enough good sense and
self-sufficiency, to form his own judgment upon them, and feel the
same contempt for such stories that I do myself. It is doing too much
honor to certain things to refute them seriously.
But another objection, and a much more serious one, is said to be,
what I say of the illusions of the demon, leading some persons to
doubt of the truth of the apparitions related in Scripture, as well as
of the others suspected of falsehood.
I answer, that the consequences deduced from principles are not right,
except when things are equal, and the subjects and circumstances the
same; without that there can be no application of principles. The
facts to which my reasoning applies are related by authors of small
authority, by ordinary or common-place historians, bearing no
character which deserves a belief of anything superhuman. I can,
without attacking their person or their merit, advance that they may
have been badly informed, prepossessed, and mistaken; that the spirit
of seduction may have been of the party; that the senses, the
imagination, and superstition, may have made them take that for truth,
which was only seeming.
But, in regard to the apparitions related in the Holy Scriptures, they
borrow their infallible authority from the sacred and inspired authors
who wrote them; they are verified by the events which followed them,
by the execution or fulfilment of predictions made many ages
preceding; and which could neither be done, nor foreseen, nor
performed, either by the human mind, or by the strength of man, not
even by the angel of darkness.
I am but little concerned at the opinion passed on myself and my
intentions in the publication of this treatise. Some have thought that
I did it to destroy the popular and common idea of apparitions, and to
make it appear ridiculous; and I acknowledge that those who read this
work attentively and without prejudice, will remark in it more
arguments for doubting what the people believe on this point, than
they will find to favor the contrary opinion. If I have treated this
subject seriously, it is only in what regards those facts in which
religion and the truth of Scripture is interested; those which are
indifferent I have left to the censure of sensible people, and the
criticism of the learned and of philosophical minds.
I declare that I consider as true all the apparitions related in the
sacred books of the Old and New Testament; without pretending,
however, that it is not allowable to explain them, and reduce them to
a natural and likely sense, by retrenching what is too marvelous about
them, which might rebut enlightened persons. I think on that point I
may apply the principle of St. Paul;[1] "the letter killeth, and the
Spirit giveth life."
As to the other apparitions and visions related in Christian, Jewish,
or heathen authors, I do my best to discern amongst them, and I exhort
my readers to do the same; but I blame and disapprove the outrageous
criticism of those who deny everything, and make difficulties of
everything, in order to distinguish themselves by their pretended
strength of mind, and to authorize themselves to deny everything, and
to dispute the most certain facts, and in general all that savors of
the marvelous, and which appears above the ordinary laws of nature.
St. Paul permits us to examine and prove everything: _Omnia probate_;
but he desires us to hold fast that which is good and true: _quod
bonum est tenete_.[2]
Footnotes:
[1] 2 Cor. iii. 16.
[2] 1 Thess. v. 21.
ADVERTISEMENT.
Every body talks of apparitions of angels and demons, and of souls
separated from the body. The reality of these apparitions is
considered as certain by many persons, while others deride them and
treat them as altogether visionary.
I have determined to examine this matter, just to see what certitude
there can be on this point; and I shall divide this Dissertation into
four parts. In the first, I shall speak of good angels; in the second,
of the appearance of bad angels; in the third, of the apparitions of
souls of the dead; and in the fourth, of the appearance of living men
to others living, absent, distant, and this unknown to those who
appear. I shall occasionally add something on magic, wizards, and
witches; on the Sabbath, oracles, and obsession and possession by
demons.
THE PHANTOM WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
THE APPEARANCE OF GOOD ANGELS PROVED BY THE BOOKS OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT.
The apparitions or appearances of good angels are frequently mentioned
in the books of the Old Testament. He who was stationed at the
entrance of the terrestrial Paradise[3] was a cherub, armed with a
flaming sword; those who appeared to Abraham, and who promised that he
should have a son;[4] those who appeared to Lot, and predicted to him
the ruin of Sodom, and other guilty cities;[5] he who spoke to Hagar
in the desert,[6] and commanded her to return to the dwelling of
Abraham, and to remain submissive to Sarah, her mistress; those who
appeared to Jacob, on his journey into Mesopotamia, ascending and
descending the mysterious ladder;[7] he who taught him how to cause
his sheep to bring forth young differently marked;[8] he who wrestled
with Jacob on his return from Mesopotamia,[9]--were angels of light,
and benevolent ones; the same as he who spoke with Moses from the
burning bush on Horeb,[10] and who gave him the tables of the law on
Mount Sinai. That Angel who takes generally the name of GOD, and
acts in his name, and with his authority;[11] who served as a guide to
the Hebrews in the desert, hidden during the day in a dark cloud, and
shining during the night; he who spoke to Balaam, and threatened to
kill his she-ass;[12] he, lastly, who contended with Satan for the
body of Moses;[13]--all these angels were without doubt good angels.
We must think the same of him who presented himself armed to Joshua on
the plain of Jericho,[14] and who declared himself head of the army of
the Lord; it is believed, with reason, that it was the angel Michael.
He who showed himself to the wife of Manoah,[15] the father of Samson,
and afterwards to Manoah himself. He who announced to Gideon that he
should deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites.[16] The angel
Gabriel, who appeared to Daniel, at Babylon;[17] and Raphael who
conducted the young Tobias to Rages, in Media.[18]
The prophecy of the Prophet Zechariah is full of visions of
angels.[19] In the books of the Old Testament the throne of the Lord
is described as resting on cherubim; and the God of Israel is
represented as having before his throne[20] seven principal angels,
always ready to execute his orders, and four cherubim singing his
praises, and adoring his sovereign holiness; the whole making a sort
of allusion to what they saw in the court of the ancient Persian
kings,[21] where there were seven principal officers who saw his face,
approached his person, and were called the eyes and ears of the king.
Footnotes:
[3] Gen. iii. 24.
[4] Gen. xviii. 1-3.
[5] Gen. xix.
[6] Gen. xxi. 17.
[7] Gen. xxviii. 12.
[8] Gen. xxxi. 10, 11.
[9] Gen. xxxii.
[10] Exod. iii. 6, 7.
[11] Exod. iii. iv.
[12] Numb. xxii. xxiii.
[13] Jude 9.
[14] Josh. v. 13.
[15] Judges xiii.
[16] Judges vi. vii.
[17] Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21.
[18] Tobit v.
[19] Zech. v. 9, 10, 11, &c.
[20] Psalm xvii. 10; lxxix. 2, &c.
[21] Tobit xii. Zech. iv. 10. Rev. i. 4.