arise from some other cause. When I was sent for, the family were under the full conviction that he was insane, although they confessed, that in everything, except the foolish notion of seeing apparitions, he was perfectly rational and steady. During the whole of the time that he was relating his case to me, and his mind was fully occupied, he felt the most gratifying relief, for in all that time he had not seen one apparition: and he was elated with pleasure indeed, when I told him I should not send him to the asylum, since his was a complaint I could cure at his own house. But whilst I was writing a prescription, and had suffered him to be at rest, I saw him get up suddenly, and go with a hurried step to the door. What did you do that for?" he looked asliamed and mortified, and replied, I had been so well whilst in conversation with you, that I could not believe that the phantom I saw enter the room was not really a soldier, and I got up to convince myself. I need not here detail particularly the medical treatment adopted; but it may be as well to state the circumstances which probably led to the complaint, and the principle acted on in the cure. Some time previously he had had a quarrel with a drunken soldier, who attempted, against his inclination, to enter his house at an unseasonable hour, and in the struggle to turn him out, the soldier drew his bayonet, and, having struck him across the temples, divided the temporal artery; in consequence of which he lost a very large quantity of blood before a surgeon arrived, there being no one present who knew that, in such cases, simple compression with the finger upon the spouting artery, would stop the effusion of blood. He had scarcely recovered from the effects of this loss of blood, when he undertook, to accompany a friend in his walking-match against time, in which he went forty-two miles in nine hours. Elated with success, he spent the whole of the following day in drinking a but found himself, a short time afterwards, so much out of health, that he came to the resolution of abstaining altogether from liquor. was in of the week following this abstinence from his usual habits, that he had the disease he now complained of. All his symptoms continued to increase for several days till I saw him, allowing him no time for rest. Never was he able to get rid of these shadows by night when in bed, nor by day when in motion; times walked that view, and at others went into a variety He ked miles with deve bodily pain, from the severe lashing of a waggoner with told his whip, who came every night to a particular corner of his room, but who always disappeared when he jumped out of bed to retort, which he did several nights suc cessively. The whole of this complaint was effectually removed by bleeding, by leeches, and by active purgatives. After the first employment of these means, he saw no more phantoms in the day time; and after the second, once only, between sleeping and waking, saw the milkman in his bedroom. He has remained perfectly rational and well ever since, and can go out in the dark as fearlessly as ever, being fully convinced that the ghosts which he was so confident he saw, were merely the creatures of disease. The summing up of Dr. Alderson on the cases of which the foregoing takes the lead, is simple, explicit, and undeniable all The hallucination, which the foregoing cases, detail, may be distinguished from partial insanity, from delirium, from somnambulism, and from reverie, to a of which it bears some resemblance. In partial insanity, the patient, though sensible on most subjects, is generally intent on one particular train of thought; and, whenever he has occasion to speak upon that subject, he flies off into some absurd notion or other, and no argument whatever can drive him from his purpose. In delirium, the patient neither knows where he is nor what he does, except for a few moments, when violently roused. In somnambulism, there are certain voluntary motions performed, without our being sensible of volition. In reverie, the mind is so wholly intent on its own particular train of thoughts, that the patient takes no notice whatever of any thing around him. "But in such cases as I have detailed, there is no point on which the patients can be said to be irrational; they merely state that they perceive objects, where we know, and where they can very easily convince themselves, that they do not stisseur, of belşeriat di kolod as leer vnomisest dopa exist their thoughts at moql 2001 Are combinations s of disjointed things na dina blow 107And forms impalpable and unperceived Loqua Of others' sight, familiar are to them," When this circumstance occurs in the day-time, and more frequent opportunities for examination are afforded, they do convince themselves of their non-existence and, when, as I have said before, their own reason is assisted by the more cultivated and unimpaired understanding of those around them,---when there is no art, no attempt at imposition, the whole is clearly made to appear a mere delusion, a deceptio visus, arising from a temporary disordered state of the animal functions, wholly independent of the persons or bodies those figures represent. But what must have, been the case in other circumstances? Suppose these phantoms had only appeared in the night--suppose the physician had affected all the arts and tricks of the designing magician, or the crafty priest---how would it have been then ?---Why, precisely what we have before asserted :---they would have gone through life with a belief in the actual re-appearance of the dead, as well as the capability of communicating with the spirits of their departed frtends; and thus they might have contributed their evidence to the vile impositions of those who have made a gain of the credulity of mankind, and who have, from interested motives, encouraged the fear of ghosts, the worship of demons, the belief of supernatural agency, which they could controul by their spells; of those who, like Owen Glendower, can call spirits from the vasty deep, or of the mystic masons, who pretend to show you the spirits of long departed friends. Here too we see how a Mahomet, a Swedenborg, a Jacob Behmen, may have not only imposed on the world, but also on themselves, the whole farrago of their celestial communications, and converse with superior beings; and it seems to me probable, that certain professors of this art may have the power of throwing themselves into that state, in which they can bring before them those imaginary unsubstantial beings. This is no new opinion. If I remember right, it has been related of the Pythian priestess, and appears to me to be the case with the wizards of Kamschatka, and is probably the object of the whirling motion of the dervises, and of the serpent-eaters in Egypt." DT Dr. Alderson further observes, that the common argument against ghosts,---that they are only seen by one person at a time, although indicative of the real source of the illusion, has failed to command the belief which is due to it. In point of fact, what we have already hinted is too true,---that certain gifted and amiable persons, possessed of minds of not the very first concoction, have been involuntarily disposed to connect a disbelief in apparitions with a state of mind indisposed to the necessary quantum of faith in other matters. We have before alluded to the opinion put by Dr. Johnson into the mouth of Imlac, in Rasselas. Cumberland adopts a similar argument: and hear Addison, who wrote before either of them:-- T "I think a person who is terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of ghosts fabulous and groundless. Could I not give myself up to this general testimony of mankind, I should to the relations of particular persons, who are now living, and whom I cannot distrust in other matters of fact." It was in the reign of Queen Anne that Glanville wrote his Book upon Witches; and upon the unphilosophical principle thus assumed by Addison, Johnson, Cumberland, and their great and little followers, the grave testimonies which that sagacious divine produced of an universal belief in witchcraft, ought to be received as a proof of its existence. Witches suckling devils, riding on broomsticks, and transformed into hares, were everyday occurrences, as witness the reverend and worshipful hands of the Clergymen, the Justices of the Peace, &c. &c. of half the parishes in England. Addison lived to see the penal Acts founded on such testimony repealed, and the belief in it laughed to scorn; and would have done well to distrust it on kindred occasions. Upon the whole, this brief essay, by Dr. Alderson, at once supplies, in a small compass, an unanswerable antidote to a superstitious belief în ghosts on testimony, and supplies precautionary information, which will frequently rally the disordered mind into a sa into a salutary combat with the effects of disease, Our sole regret is on the score of the innumerable good stories which will shrink into most inelegant fiction, by the cold touch of a philosophy so inele inelegantly founded on mere matter of fact, paciest selvio HI-15Q48 194936919 901 avior: to neitsivnon elda, 28 30 MTAKA 1995, 650979q @THEORY 229sunid 9200w zoudt vino ei 3 Ir learning be ever productive of happiness, it is when connected with the habit of theory. For a person, under the guidance of this habit, sees in almost every thing a verification of the system; and those objects or combinations which make against him his expert at removing to a great distance, and, consequently, reducing to almost nothing. He uses reason in the constructive part of his labour; but, because that is fallible, his system will have errors; and to bend and shape facts to support these, is the work of passion. The whole man, therefore, is and to thrown into an easy current, which produces no counter onesands of move in it, is to be happy. It is common enough to ridicule minds of this description, but, we fear, not quite so common to understand them; for theory, in some shape or other, has been the failing of the greatest and best of men. It requires no ordinary reach, indeed, to frame a system of any thing that shall stand the test of ordinary examination; for be the principles ever so sound, and ever so harmonious among themselves, elves, one flaw in the mold which they they must be cast in, to be made palpable to common apprehensions, is sufficient to draw upon their author the reprehension of the usual judges of such things. 2. pre Every man is inwardly theoretical and positive; and it is because philosophical systems break, or turn into a new direction, his little particular current, that he becomes disposed to pick them to pieces. They are good as long as no interest or vanity of his is disturbed by their influence. But it seems a circumstance to be re regretted, that formed taste, or a prevalent fashion, should suspend a veil between the young inquirer after truth, and those forms of intellect which reside nearest the adyta of her fane. The man of exalted theory is to the sceptic, what a jeweller, having his gems laid out in order in his shop, is to a man with an equal quantity huddled up in a wallet on his back. The shop is worth something. Theory has, besides, a kind of generative principle within itself, for it puts ideas, if one may so speak, into a state of fermentation, and extracts a new spirit from their union. Whereas scepticism keeps its perceptions in a cold and unprolific separation, , and though they be brilliant as the stars, they are also as unproductive. But theory, like the principle of attraction, tends constantly to unity and proportion, and whoever would wish thetantly utmost splendour of the human imagination, must seek for it in the writings of systematic philosophers. This, it is true, has been converted into blame, but let it be remembered, that imagination has been used only as a lamp to light up the deep fecesses of an obscure palace, for such is is!" nature.zóxq sai to všímg 903 xiste has jupow ¿sin buojɔ sys186590 It appears from what has been said, that theory is something more yis than a mere case to exhibit truth in; though men fashion it, of necessity, according to the greater or less capacity of their minds. It is in all cases, however, productive of much good. It exercises invention, to their remote consequences, that op be and invigorates the discriminating powers. It induces a habit of cir cumspection, lest a man make the latter part of his common-wealth contradict the beginning," and accustoms the mind to follow its ideas may foreseen and provided against. The greatest apparent inconvenience resulting from it is dogmatism. But a man is always positive in proportion to the vividness of his conviction of the truth or falsehood of a proposition; and it is only those whose bluntness of perception prevents their arriving at clear ideas linger between truth and falsehood in that state is commonly called being open to conviction. To be scepwhich tical, is to be persuaded of the doubtfulness of everything; and this persuasion may be accompanied by as much dogmatism as the inverse of it. The framer or supporter of a system has always one advantage —he is sure to be more contented with himself, because it is essentially more pleasing to build than to destroy. Spinoza was an illustrious example of this. His opinions were less consolatory, in a certain sense, than those even of Pyrrho himself; but the delight arising from following the path of what he deemed truth, through the whole dominion of nature, made him insensible of almost everything commonly desired by men. He attained, perhaps, as high a degree of that serene felicity which merits the name of happiness, as it is permitted man to reach in this world. His speculations united him to nature her constancy and sameness lent simplicity and equability to his mind. It does honour to the memory of those princes who sought his society: they must hav have thought of something distinct from the arts of petty power pt sidegisq The man without a system, of some sort or other, is a mariner withut a chart: he is at the mercy of the winds and waves. In such a man paradox, or, occasionally, a little contradiction, is a venial fault. He attempts to build without cement, and with unhewn stones, and so rents and roughnesses are unavoidable. What is worse, he has favourite notions, though disclaiming a favourite set, and wears them, ga as the old knights did their mistresses' favours, in his hat, to challenge essay of prowess. These, commonly, are the acute angles of ideas, if the expression be allowable, nipt off from their broad pyramidal bases, and singular from their extreme tenuity. The reader wonders at the fineness of the thought, which dazzles the more from being put in sparkling contrast with the heavy masses around it; as the lightning appears r more bright when it cleaves its way through the dark ridges of a cloud. The little sceptic feels the objects around him escape the grasp of his 18 mind; he can never drive them into a cul de sac where they must at length turn round and be taken. He lives in a land of shadows in which everything seems disposed to elude being known-he struggles with indistinct forms-he becomes weary without becoming wiseando at length determines to lie still, and suffer the phantoms to mock him as they please. But this is a state of inward agony a feeling of the absolute nothingness of life. How much better is it to erect a mound upon which speculation may sit above the atmosphere of error! though, occasionally, a cloud may mount and stain the purity of the prospect! Hic fic labor, hoc opus est food sect bisa mood and bede mo sa have a system, is to have an everlasting spur to thought, an aim to which you tend through evil and through good report. It is this which raises a shaking among the dry bones of knowledge, which ཚ་ ་་ r gathers together principles, turns up the soil of the mind, and implants those healthy and vigorous shoots of thought, beneath which happiness delights to recline. It suffers no stagnation in the stream of life, no branching off of minor rivulets into useless channels, but, drawing all into one broad, bed, it creates a deep and fertilizing river, of what otherwise might have putrified in a morass. It espouses action to speculation, and the chorus of their epithalamium is-Valete curas. TO THE DOG WHICH SLEEPS AT THE FOOT OF THE TITIAN VENUS. You little dog, how can you sleep so ? If I were in your place, I'd creep so That mouth which breathes a breath of fire--- That arm which, pressing on the sheet, With all the youth and fire of Cupid, 1 19. B. I LONDON:Published by HENRY L. HUNT, 38, Tavistock-street, Covent-garden, and 22, Olà Bond-street. Price Fourpence; or, if stamped for country circulation free of postage, Sevenpence. Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in town; and by the following Agents in the country: Bath, at the London Newspaper Office Norwich, Burks and Kinnebrook, Mer- Yarmouth, W. Meggy 1. Armagh, P. Moller. Taunton, J. Kerswell, High-street. Broad-street, Golden-square, &- é |