EXAMINATION OF THE APPARITION OF A PRETENDED SPECTRE.
Business[308] having led the Count d'Alais[309] to Marseilles, a most
extraordinary adventure happened to him there: he desired Neure to
write to our philosopher (Gassendi) to know what he thought of it;
which he did in these words: the count and countess being come to
Marseilles, saw, as they were lying in bed, a luminous spectre; they
were both wide awake. In order to be sure that it was not some
illusion, they called their valets de chambre; but no sooner had
these appeared with their flambeaux, than the spectre disappeared.
They had all the openings and cracks which they found in the chamber
stopped up, and then went to bed again; but hardly had the valets de
chambre retired than it appeared again.
Its light was less shining than that of the sun; but it was brighter
than that of the moon. Sometimes this spectre was of an angular form,
sometimes a circle, and sometimes an oval. It was easy to read a
letter by the light it gave; it often changed its place, and sometimes
appeared on the count's bed. It had, as it were, a kind of little
bucklers, above which were characters imprinted. Nevertheless, nothing
could be more agreeable to the sight; so that instead of alarming, it
gave pleasure. It appeared every night whilst the count stayed at
Marseilles. This prince, having once cast his hands upon it, to see if
it was not something attached to the bed curtain, the spectre
disappeared that night, and reappeared the next.
Gassendi being consulted upon this circumstance, replied on the 13th
of the same month. He says, in the first place, that he knows not what
to think of this vision. He does not deny that this spectre might be
sent from God to tell them something. What renders this idea probable
is the great piety of them both, and that this spectre had nothing
frightful in it, but quite the contrary. What deserves our attention
still more is this, that if God had sent it, he would have made known
why he sent it. God does not jest; and since it cannot be understood
what is to be hoped or feared, followed up or avoided, it is clear
that this spectre cannot come from him; otherwise his conduct would be
less praiseworthy than that of a father, or a prince, or a worthy, or
even a prudent man, who, being informed of somewhat which greatly
concerned those in subjection to them, would not content themselves
with warning them enigmatically.
If this spectre is anything natural, nothing is more difficult than to
discover it, or even to find any conjecture which may explain it.
Although I am well persuaded of my ignorance, I will venture to give
my idea. Might it not be advanced that this light has appeared because
the eye of the count was internally affected, or because it was so
externally? The eye may be so internally in two ways. First, if the
eye was affected in the same manner as that of the Emperor Tiberius
always was when he awoke in the night and opened his eyes; a light
proceeded from them, by means of which he could discern objects in the
dark by looking fixedly at them. I have known the same thing happen to
a lady of rank. Secondly, if his eyes were disposed in a certain
manner, as it happens to myself when I awake: if I open my eyes, they
perceive rays of light though there has been none. No one can deny
that some flash may dart from our eyes which represents objects to
us--which objects are reflected in our eyes, and leave their traces
there. It is known that animals which prowl by night have a piercing
sight, to enable them to discern their prey and carry it off; that the
animal spirit which is in the eye, and which may be shed from it, is
of the nature of fire, and consequently lucid. It may happen that the
eyes being closed during sleep, this spirit heated by the eyelids
becomes inflamed, and sets some faculty in motion, as the imagination.
For, does it not happen that wood of different kinds, and fish bones,
produce some light when their heat is excited by putrefaction? Why
then may not the heat excited in this confined spirit produce some
light? He proves afterwards that imagination alone may do it.
The Count d'Alais having returned to Marseilles, and being lodged in
the same apartment, the same spectre appeared to him again. Neure
wrote to Gassendi that they had observed that this spectre penetrated
into the chamber by the wainscot; which obliged Gassendi to write to
the count to examine the thing more attentively; and notwithstanding
this discovery, he dare not yet decide upon it. He contents himself
with encouraging the count, and telling him that if this apparition is
from God, he will not allow him to remain long in expectation, and
will soon make known his will to him; and also, if this vision does
not come from him, he will not permit it to continue, and will soon
discover that it proceeds from a natural cause. Nothing more is said
of this spectre any where.
Three years afterwards, the Countess d'Alais avowed ingenuously to the
count that she herself had caused this farce to be played by one of
her women, because she did not like to reside at Marseilles; that her
woman was under the bed, and that she from time to time caused a
phosphoric light to appear. The Count d'Alais related this himself to
M. Puger of Lyons, who told it, about thirty-five years ago, to M.
Falconet, a medical doctor of the Royal Academy of Belle-Lettres, from
whom I learnt it. Gassendi, when consulted seriously by the count,
answered like a man who had no doubt of the truth of this apparition;
so true it is that the greater number of these extraordinary facts
require to be very carefully examined before any opinion can be passed
upon them.
Footnotes:
[308] Vie de Gassendi, tom. i. p. 258.
[309] Alais is a town in Lower Languedoc, the lords of which bear the
title of prince, since this town has passed into the House of
Angouleme and De Conty.