In a pamphlet entitled _Wonderful Phenomena_, by Curtis Eli, is the
report of an occurrence, or of an alleged occurrence, that was
investigated by Mr. Addison A. Sawin, a spiritualist. He interpreted in
the only way that I know of, and that is the psyco-chemic process of
combining new data with preconceptions with which they seem to have
affinity. It is said that, at Warwick, C. W., Oct. 3, 1843, somebody
named Charles Cooper heard a rumbling sound in the sky, and saw a cloud,
under which were three human forms, “perfectly white,” sailing through
the air above him, not higher than the tree-tops. It is said that the
beings were angels. They were male angels. That is orthodox. The angels
wafted through the air, but without motions of their own, and an
interesting observation is that they seemed to have belts around their
bodies—as if they had been let down from a vessel above, though this
poor notion is not suggested in the pamphlet. They “moaned.” Cooper
called to some men who were laboring in another field, and they saw the
cloud, but did not see the forms of living beings under it. It is said
that a boy had seen the beings in the air, “side by side, making a loud
and mournful noise.” Another person, who lived six miles away is quoted:
“he saw the clouds and the persons and heard the sounds.” Mr. Sawin
quotes others, who had seen “a remarkable cloud,” and had heard the
sounds, but had not seen the angels. He ends up: “Yours is the glorious
hope of the resurrection of the soul.” The gloriousness of it is an
inverse function of the dolefulness of it: Sunday Schools will not take
kindly to the doctrine—be good and you will moan forever. One supposes
that the glorious hope colored the whole investigation.
Some day I shall publish data that lead me to suspect that many
appearances upon this earth that were once upon a time interpreted by
theologians and demonologists, but are now supposed to be the
subject-matter of psychic research, were beings and objects that visited
this earth, not from a spiritual existence, but from outer space. That
extra-geographic conditions may be spiritual, or of highly attenuated
matter, is not my present notion, though that, too, may be some day
accepted. Of course all these data suffer, in one way, about as much
distortion as they would in other ways, if they had been reported by
astronomers or meteorologists. As to all the material in this chapter, I
take the position that perhaps there were appearances in the sky, and
perhaps they were revelations of, or mirages from, unknown regions and
conditions of outer space, and spectacles of relatively nearby inhabited
lands, and of space-travellers, but that all reports upon them were
products of the assimilating of the unknown with figures and figments of
the nearest familiar similarities. Another position of mine that will be
found well-taken is that, no matter what my own interpretations or
acceptances may be, they will compare favorably, so far as rationality
is concerned, with orthodox explanations. There have been many
assertions that “phantom soldiers” have been seen in the sky. For the
orthodox explanation of the physicists, see Brewster’s _Natural Magic_,
p. 125: a review of the phenomenon of June 23, 1744; that, according to
27 witnesses, some of whom gave sworn testimony before a magistrate,
whether that should be mentioned or not, troops of aërial soldiers had
been seen, in Scotland, on and over a mountain, remaining visible two
hours and then disappearing because of darkness. In Clarke’s _Survey of
the Lakes_ (fol. 1789) is an account in the words of one of the
witnesses. See _Notes and Queries_, 1-7-304. Brewster says that the
scene must have been a mirage of British troops, who, in anticipation of
the rebellion of 1745, were secretly manœuvring upon the other side of
the mountain. With a talent for clear-seeing, for which we are notable,
except when it comes to some of our own explanations, we almost
instantly recognize that, to keep a secret from persons living upon one
side of a mountain, it is a very sensible idea to go and manœuvre upon
the other side of the mountain; but then how to keep the secret, in a
thickly populated country like Scotland, from persons living upon that
other side of the mountain—however there never has been an explanation
that did not itself have to be explained.
Or the “phantom soldiers” that were seen at Ujest, Silesia, in 1785—see
Parish’s _Hallucinations and Illusions_, p. 309. Parish finds that at
the time of this spectacle, there were soldiers, of this earth, marching
near Ujest; so he explains that the “phantom soldiers” were mirages of
them. They were marching in the funeral procession of General von Cosel.
But some time later they were seen again, at Ujest—and the General had
been dead and buried several days, and his funeral procession
disbanded—and if a refraction can survive independently of its primary,
so may a shadow, and anybody may take a walk where he went a week
before, and see some of his shadows still wandering around without him.
The great neglect of these explainers is in not accounting for an
astonishing preference for, or specialization in, marching soldiers, by
mirages. But if often there be, in the sky, things or beings that move
in parallel lines, and, if their betrayals be not mirages, but their
shadows cast down upon the haze of this earth, or Brocken spectres, such
frequency, or seeming specialization, might be accounted for.
Sept. 27, 1846—a city in the sky of Liverpool (_Rept. B. A._, 1847-39).
The apparition is said to have been a mirage of the city of Edinburgh.
This “identification” seems to have been the product of suggestion: at
the time a panorama of Edinburgh was upon exhibition in Liverpool.
Summer of 1847—see Flammarion’s _The Atmosphere_, p. 160—story told by
M. Grellois: that he was travelling between Ghelma and Bône, when he
saw, to the east of Bône, upon a gently sloping hill, “a vast and
beautiful city, adorned with monuments, domes, and steeples.” There was
no resemblance to any city known to M. Grellois.
In the _Bull. Soc. Astro. de France_, 21-180, is an account of a
spectacle that, according to 20 witnesses, was seen for two hours in the
sky of Vienne dans le Dauphiné, May 3, 1848. A city—and an army, in the
sky. One supposes that a Brewster would say that nearby was a
terrestrial city, with troops manœuvring near it. But also vast lions
were seen in the sky—and that is enough to discourage any Brewster. Four
months later, according to the London _Times_, Sept. 13, 1848, a still
more discouraging—or perhaps stimulating—spectacle was, or was not, seen
in Scotland. Afternoon of Sept. 9, 1848—Quigley’s Point, Lough Foyle,
Scotland—the sky turned dark. It seemed to open. The opening looked
reddish, and in the reddish area, appeared a regiment of soldiers. Then
came appearances that looked like war vessels under full sail, then “a
man and a woman and a swan and a peahen.” The “opening” closed, and that
was the last of this shocking or ridiculous mixture that nobody but
myself would record as being worth thinking about.
“Phantom soldiers” that were seen in the sky, near the Banmouth, Dec.
30, 1850 (_Rept. B. A._, 1852-30).
“Phantom soldiers” that were seen at Buderich, Jan. 22, 1854 (_Notes and
Queries_, 1-9-267).
“Phantom soldiers” that were seen by Lord Roberts (_Forty-One Years in
India_, p. 219) at Mohan, Feb. 25, 1858. It is either that Lord Roberts
saw indistinctly, and described in terms of the familiar to him, or that
we are set back in our own notions. According to him, the figures wore
Hindoo costumes.
Extra-geography—its vistas and openings and fields—and the Thoreaus that
are upon this earth, but undeveloped, because they can not find their
ponds. A lonely thing and its pond, afloat in space—they crossed the
moon. In _Cosmos_, n. s., 11-200, it is said that, night of July 7,
1857, two persons of Chambon had seen forms crossing the moon—something
like a human being followed by a pond.
“Phantom soldiers” that were seen, about the year 1860, at Paderborn,
Westphalia (Crowe, _Night-side of Nature_, p. 416).