Full text of "More glimpses of the world unseen;"

The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9241 0021 01 64 3 1924 100 210 164 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2005 ajotnell HmneraUB Cibrarn at^ata. Sem lotk THE GIFT OF MORE GLIMPSES OF THE WORLD UNSEEN T-ONDOn: printed by spottiswoonr. and co., new-street sql'aue an'u i'arliamevt street Movt (Glimpses of t$e Morlli Wln^ttn EDITED BY THE REV. FREDERICK GEORGE LEE, D.C.L. VICAR OF ALL SAINTS', LAMBETH EDITOR OF ' THE OTHER WORLD ; OR, GLIMPSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL' ETC. LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1878 rights reserved] [All right y^ DEDICATED OS ■'■o ^ E. LOUISALEE WITH REGARD, AFFECTION AND RESPECT ' As those that flit from their old home, and betake themselves to dwell in another country, where they are sure to settle, are wont to forget the faces and fashions whereto they were formerly inured, and to apply themselves to the knowledge and acquaint- ance of those with whom they shall afterwards converse ; so it is here with me, being to remove from my earthly tabernacle, wherein I have worn out the few and evil days of my earthly pilgrimage, to an abiding City above, I have desired to acquaint myself with that Invisible World, to which I am going to enter, to know my good God and His blessed angels and saints, with whom I hope to pass an happy eternity ' Preface to TIk Invisible IVorld, by Bishop Joseph Hall PREFACE. INCE the issue, three years ago, of my two volumes, ' The Other World, or ■jyTTT^;-^ Glimpses of the Supernatural,' I have been favoured with a large number of valuable and valued communications regarding the Super- natural, from people and places near and far off, some of which seemed to me to contain records and revelations of such inherent interest as to warrant my weaving them, with some system and order, into another volume. Hence the present publication. As the various incidents and facts thus gathered range over a very wide field — some having rela- viii PREFACE. tion, as their narrators believe, to the angelic world, — the battalions of the living God — and others to the armies of the demons — I have been compelled, by the resolution to compress my book into a single volume, to curtail my own comments, allowing the different examples of supernatural inter\'ention to tell their own tale, which the great majority do with considerable pertinence. I venture to repript here some kind words from the pen of a stranger, the Rev. C. J. Serpart, S.J., Missionary Apostolic of Chaibassa, Bengal, with regard to my two previously-published volumes on this subject, for which I feel deeply grateful ; because the unsought-for testimony of an inde- pendent Catholic clergyman, and a member of so illustrious an Order as that of the Society of Jesus, who by observation and investigation knows much of the dark practices of Oriental Necromancy, is eminently satisfactory, and is an acceptable reward for my labours : — ' The design of your book, the able manner in which it is expressed, the fair way of proposing your argument, and quoting authorities, made me PREFA CE. ix feel a strong inclination to write to you, and hope you would be equally fair in accepting the few observations which occurred to me in reading several times your work. It is not that I differ from you in the exposition of materialism and false science, nor in the facts you relate, nor in your appreciation of them. No. In all this we perfectly agree. I could even add to your stock, having by circumstance been., driven to a close study of this matter, and heard and read much _ about it. I wish, on the contrary, to congratulate you for having taken such a reasonable view of it, and so well succeeded in putting it in its proper light. You will be pleased also to know that your views are no less in agreement with those of Count de Mirville, the ablest writer in France on this subject, and of the great American philosopher and reviewer. Dr. Brownson, whose volume, entitled " The Spirit Rapper," is very interesting, as well as original.' As a contrast to the above judgment, a re- viewer in the 'Times' of April 19, 1876 — after an allusion to what Dr. Carpenter calls ' unconscious X PREFA CE. cerebration ' as perfectly explaining, and accounting for, spiritualistic phenomena — wrote thus: — 'The tendency of Dr. Lee's work is in the last degree mischievous. The worst enemies of the Church of England or of Religion could hardly seek a better ally than a clergyman who drags into the light of day those relics or survivals of heathenism, and who claims our belief in the name of Religion for every lying legend which held its own, in spite of Christianity, through some of the darkest periods of the World's history.' Other criticisms were more violent in language, though equally sceptical in spirit ; and enunciated propositions which, if accepted, would imply that God's ancient revelation was a myth, and historical Christianity a fable. I recur to such criticisms, therefore, with regret, not for my own sake, or the sake of the volume under criticism, but for the sake of the writers. The sneers of anonymous sceptics, however, and the scorn of flippant unbelievers, I have learnt to value at their true worth — no very high figure. I can pass them by unheeded and unanswered ; and even go so far as to return with interest the PREFA CE. xi compliments which some of the said writers, who affect the patronage of the scorners, have been so kind as to pay me, because of what they are pleased to term my ' grovelling superstition,' • repulsive fanaticism,' and ' debasing gullibility.' These critics and their patrons, who in their sore extremity appear to have discarded the ordinary rules of evidence, become excited in their manner and a little wild in their literary composi- tions, if any of their favourite assumptions or random guesses are by chance or design criticised and exposed. Now, as many of these assumptions are being day by day duly exploded ; and as the lofty and insolent dogmatism of certain of these self-elevated philosophers, who personally made the assumptions in question, is now only laughed at ; assertions on the old basis are found to have decreased alarmingly in value, while new and random excogitations from the same quarter, of so-called ' scientific ' marvels, advertising them- selves solely by their absurdity, often remain altogether and deservedly unnoticed.' ' To anyone who has witnessed, for instance, the more remarkable spiritualistic phenomena — such as are described xii PREFA CE. As regards this said ' Spiritualism,' dealt with towards the end of the volume, it is much to be deplored that the Bishops of the Established Church do not warn their flocks against the heretical tenets and dangerous practices of its votaries ; and that the ' inferior clergy,' as they are termed, do not deal with the subject in some other spirit than that exhibited by the shallow and sceptical writers in the public press.' As long as week by week in the publications of the so-called ' Spiritual- ists ' — the laboured and dreary arguments of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, in his recent treatise, ' Mesmerism, Spiritualism, &c.. Historically and Scientifically Treated,' to prove that such phenomena result from ' the possession of men's minds by dominant ideas,' are really beneath notice. And no wonder ; for this learned scientific gentleman, on p. 1 14, declares that upon this subject ' no amount of testimony is good for anything.' Sic cadit qucestio. Such a childish method of reasoning and treating the movement may fortify prejudiced unbelievers in it, and those who avowedly know nothing about it save by hearsay ; because, as enquiry is useless, and any personal testimony good for nothing, on Dr. Carpenter's scientific mode, both enquiry and testimony are beside the question. It is clear, therefore, that the ordinary laws of evidence should be at once revised in the interests of Science under a royal commission of gentlemen who regard themselves and each other as exclusively ' scien- tific' ' Much credit is due to the Rock newspaper for having so forcibly spoken out when others have been silent. PREFA CE. xiii bishops, clergy, and people are fondly led to imagine that the whole system is founded on trickery, delusion and imagination, so- long will Spiritualism steadily increase, as regards the number and power of its supporters, and extend its dark and baneful influence by the working of false and lying wonders. It only remains for me to add an expression of respectful acknowledgtpent to those corre- spondents who have favoured me with communica- tions, which are duly used in the pages which follow. Such have been received, amongst others, from the Rev. W. S. Lach-Szyrma, M.A., Vicar of Newlyn, Cornwall ; the Rev. H. O. Middleton, M.A., of Brighton; E. W. Trafford, Esq., of Norwich ; the Rev. Arthur Bellamy, B.A., Vicar of Publow, Bristol ; Dr. James A. Sewell, of Quebec ; Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.A.S., of Not- tingham ; the Rev. Dr. Sadleir, of Castleknock, near Dublin ; J. M. Davenport, Esq. ; the Rev. J. H. Blunt, M.A. ; Newton Crosland, Esq., of Black- heath ; Captain Caldwell, of New Grange Lodge, Bray, County Wicklow ; the Rev. E. W. Garrow, xiv PREFA CE. M.A., of Bilsthorpe Rectory ; J. T. H. Saint, Esq., of Dr. Johnson's Buildings, Temple ; Lieut.-Colonel H. B. Barnett ; the Rev. Dr. A. T. Lee ; Henry Spicer, Esq. ; the Lady Gertrude Douglas ; the Hon. Mrs. Cowper-Temple ; Mrs. George Raven- shaw, of Malvern Link ; Mrs. Redbourne ; Mrs. Pryce Williams, and Miss M. J. Arnold. To each and all my thanks are most sincerely tendered. F. G. L. All Saints' Vicarage, Lambeth : . Martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 1877. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introduction PAGE I II. Warnings of Coming Danger or Death, AND Dreams 49 III. Apparitions and Spectral Appearances at the Time of Death . . -85 IV. Angelic Aid and Intervention V. Modern Necromancy . Appendix 147 177 241 General Index 246 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION How impotent they are ! and yet on earth They have repute for wondrous power and skill ; And books describe how that the very face Of the Evil One, if seen, would have a force Even to freeze the blood, and choke the life Of him who saw it. TTie Dream of Gerontms, — 1- H. Newman. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. ^NTENDED as a supplementary addition to my two volumes ' The Other World ; or, Glimpes of the Supernatural/ this book has been compiled mainly from communications to myself of the deepest interest which, from time to time, I have received from several parts of the world, and for which I am deeply grateful, or from published tractates and books of authority and reputation. Now that the final struggle between Christianity and blank Athe- ism is upon us, not only in Protestant or semi-Pro^ testant countries, but in Italy ' where churches and ' At Naples a new journal was (recently, i.e. September, 1877) announced with the title oi Anarchia. It would have proved a fit companion to the Ateo of Leghorn, Atheism and anarchy are doubtless popular with the revolutionists in Italy, that is, with the revolutionists who are out of office. 4 MORE GLIMPSES OF ecclesiastics are so numerous and where Christian principles have held a general sway since the decay and collapse of the Roman Empire ; it is important, when every person in Christendom is called upon to range himself either on the side of Truth or Error, Light or Darkness, to have old and true principles, evidenced and supported efficiently by new and valuable facts. We have lived to see that Materialism, dogmatic and destructive, has forcibly entered the sanctuary, and would rudely put out the lamp. The Universe has been carefully probed by her devotees, but only to find the mere material husks of existence — nothing more. Space has been painfully explored by the intellectually scien- tific, only for such to learn the delightful and consoling lesson, and to proclaim it to suffering ^humanity, that 'there is no God, and Science is The Government has suppressed one of these journals, the Anarchia, but on what grounds it is not stated. The Ateo does not expect suppression from the Ministers, who banish religion from the army and navy and from schools and other institutes of education. On Sunday, September 2, the walls of Leghorn were placarded with an announcement of the third number of the Ateo, containing an article headed ' The Three Impostors, Moses, Christ, and Mahomet.' This num- ber was sequestrated by the police, probably in compliment to the Jews, who are very numerous in Leghorn, and who possess great influence in Italy. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 5 his prophet,' and to teach the dark and dreary doctrine that man passes through the grave and gate of Death into cold oblivion and blank nothing- ness.' In opposition to this stands the Christian Reve- lation, as enshrined in the three ancient creeds^ three in external form, but one only in substance — accepted in common both by East and West. Over and above this, wherever baptism is duly administered, there are representatives of Chris- tianity, v^Jjuo-, by every fibre of the spiritual bond which binds them to their Master, are bound to stand in direct antagonism to the materialistic theories, now so popular and accepted in Christendom. ' One author writes, ' Amongst the enUghtened of all nations and times, the dogma of the immortality of the soul has ever had but few partisans.' Mirabeau on his death-bed remarked, ' I am now entering into nothingness.' Danton, of--* the French Revolution, exclaimed, ' I shall soon make my residence in nothingness.' The Prussian Frederick — called by some persons, ' the Great ' — candidly confessed his dis- belief in the immortality of the soul. ' No one,' wrote. Feuerbach, ' who has eyes to see can fail to remark that the beUef in the immortality of the soul has long been effaced from ordinary life, and that it now only exists in the subjec- tive imagination of individuals, still very numerous.' An English writer, in a similar spirit, maintains that ' the im- mortality of man is impossible,' and 'the existence of a Supreme Being demonstrably false.' I have purposely avoided giving page and book for the above statements. 6 MORE GLIMPSES OF The present intellectual struggle, however, is not new. From the beginning it has been going on. And when the redundant verbiage and strange jargon of opponents and respondents are rightly apprehended and examined, it is found to be no- thing more nor less than a struggle between Reli- gion and Atheism, between Belief and Unbelief. Here in England the most notorious professors of modern Atheism — worshipped by the World in general, courted and flattered by those of high positions both in Church and State, whose friend- ship is sought by ecclesiastics, and who are cringed to by popularity-hunting preachers — discuss sub- jects which even some of the most demoniacal and outrageous promoters of the French Revolution of 1788 would never have touched or handled ; and this with a calm flippancy which, to any Christian, adds to the astonishment and sorrow with which such demoralizing discussions are glanced at. The liberty of the press has almost resulted in the su- premacy of Satan. It is effectively preparing the way for Antichrist. On the other hand, the certain existence and alarming influence of what has been termed ' spirit- ualism' — i.e., in other words, divination, soothsay- THE WORLD UNSEEN. 7 ing, witchcraft, and necromancy, as set forth and condemned in the Old Testament — has proved a startling, if not an effective, stumbling-block to the unbeneficent yet over-confident apostles of Athe- ism.' Rather than admit its facts, they would apparently overthrow all the ordinary rules of evi- dence : while their unconcealed vexation and angry disappointment that a certain handful of so-called ' scientific ' authorities should have been forced to admit the truth and reality of spiritual manifesta- tions, and should have thrown themselves into the ranks of the spiritualists, has caused divers contra- dictions and no small perplexity amongst the Agnostics. The manner in which these latter have endeavoured to account for, and explain away, some of the most undisputed phenomena of modern necromancy, to any person who has wit- nessed the phenomena in question, is not only childish, but contemptible. Dr. Garth Wilkinson, a disciple of Swedenborg, and a writer of singular vigour and power, points 1 'Modem spiritualism,' as Dr. G. Sexton has main- tained, ' is destined to crush the materialism of the age, and hurl the scepticism, now so prevalent, from the throne which - it has usurped.' Spiritualism audits Critics, p. 1.8. London, J. Bums. 8 MORE GLIMPSES OF this out in the following trenchant and remarkable passage of one of his recent works : — ' There is one special combatant which it, Athe- ism, has to meet, and must meet, to wit, spiritism, which is indeed the bite noire of modern Material- ism. Here Science quits her avowed tactics: and her preparation for the fight with this arch-enemy, consists in no buckling-on of armour; that she leaves to professional jugglers ; but in putting her head into a bush of thorny dislikes, and exposing behind the proportions of her materialism. In a word she voluntarily puts out all her senses, and puts on all her pretexts before the encounter. Whether so much agonized fear of the question, and so much heat of hatred against a verdict on the other side, is a usual condition of successful enquirj', let Science herself decide; but, of the magnitude of her horror, and of its incapacity to reason and experiment, the history of the pending controversy is full.' ' This particular part of the subject will be dealt with more in detail in a later chapter, in which the new system of spiritualism will be considered ' On Human Science and Divine Revelation, by Dr. J. T. Garth Wilkinson, pp. 257-8. London : J. Speirs, 1876. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 9 in the light of extracts from the published writings of its leading supporters, and its practices com- pared with those of the magicians and diviners of previous ages. Disbelief, of course, meets this new system with scoff and sneer, until enquiry takes place. Then the natural revulsion consequent upon a perfect conviction of its supernatural cha- racter, enables the advocates of spiritualism to win over converts by hundreds. An easy path, both in the past and present, has been cut out for the unbelievers by the short- sighted policy of timorous or incompetent defenders of historical Christianity. For example : for some generations the truth of miracles has been only admitted with wavering will, ambiguous words, and weak and incomplete arguments, full of apologies and terms of doubtful signification. The super- natural characteristics of Paganism, for instance ; the truth of the miracles recorded (for example) by St. Augustine to have been wrought in his day ; the unbroken line of miraculous manifestations chronicled in the histories of the saints, and formally proved on their beatification and canonization, are each and all denied, or satisfactory proof of them is maintained to be not forthcoming. Some persons lo MORE GLIMPSES OF have feebly endeavoured to draw an arbitrary line between the miracles of our Lord and those of His apostles ; nothwithstanding His pledge that they should do ' greater works ; ' or again, between the miracles of Holy Scripture and those of eccle- siastical history ; while others have held that no miracles were wrought after the first century of the Christian era ; and others again, that they may possibly have been witnessed here and there up to the end of the third century, but not later ; and that now they have long ago certainly ceased to take place. Of the intercourse between men and angels, not exactly miraculous, but affording true glimpses of the Unseen World, by which the former have been aided by the latter, as when an angel troubled the pool of Bethsaida, and virtue went out of the water for the healing of bodily diseases. Bishop Hall has put on record some shrewd words of wisdom which are well worthy of notice : — 'The trade that we have with good spirits,' he remarks, ' is not now driven by the eye, but is like to themselves, spiritual ; yet not so but that even in bodily occasions we have many times insensible ihelps from them in such manner as that, by the THE WORLD UNSEEN. ii effects, we can boldly say, Here hath been an angel, though we saw him not.' ' Of this kind was that (no less than miraculous) cure which at St. Madernes, in Cornwall, was wrought upon a poor cripple (one John Trelille) whereof (besides the attestations of many hundreds of the neighbours) I took a strict and personal examination in that last visitation (at Whitsuntide) which I either did or ever shall hold. This man that for sixteen years together was fain to walk upon his hands, by reason of the close contraction of the sinews of his legs, was (upon three monitions in his dream to wash in that well) suddenly so restored to his limbs, that I saw him able both to walk, and to get his own maintenance ; I found here was neither art nor collusion, the thing done, the author invisible.' ' Then again, to turn from light to darkness, there appears to some, and these not the least thoughtful, but one way of accounting for the extraordinary and astonishing tricks performed by Indian jugglers, and that is by referring them to ' Divers Treatises, by Joseph Hall, late Bishop of Nor- wich, vol. iii. p. 971. London, 1662. 12 MORE GLIMPSES OF necromancy, which certainly was a reality, and no doubt is a reality still. ' I am satisfied,' writes an English officer of rank and family, 'that the performances of the native " wise-men " are done by the aid of familiar spirits. The visible growth of a mango tree out of an empty vesseL into which a little earth is placed, a growth which spectators witness, and the secret of which has never been discovered, may not be unreasonably referred to the same occult powers which enabled the Egyptian magicians of old to imitate the miraculous acts which Moses, by God's command, openly wrought in the face of Pharaoh and his people.' Elsewhere a renowned traveller wrote this : — ' Sheik Bechir has for some years devoted his time, singular as it may appear, to the cultivation of magic ; and the stories he relates of his interviews with immaterial beings are novel and startling. At times he will place a jug between the hands of two persons sitting opposite to each other, when after the recital of certain passages taken indis- criminately from the " Koran " and the " Psalms of David," it will move spontaneously round, to the astonishment of the holders. A stick, at his bid- THE WORLD UNSEEN. _ 13 ding, will proceed unaided, from one end of the room to the other. On two earthenware jars being placed in opposite corners of the room, one being empty, the other filled with water, the empty jar will, on the recital of certain passages, move across the room. The jar full of water-will rise of itself on the approach of its companion, and empty its contents into it, the latter returning to its place in the same manner that it came ; an egg boiling in a saucepan will be seen to spring suddenly out of the water, and be carried to a considerable distance. A double-locked door will unlock itself. There cannot be a doubt that an unseen influence of some kind is called into operation, but of what kind those may conjecture who like to speculate on such matters. But it is in the more serious cases of disease and lunacy that his powers are called into play. Previous to undertaking a cure, he shuts himself up in a darkened room, and devotes his time to prayer and fasting. Af last one of the genii, described by him to be much of the same appearance as human beings, will suddenly come before him and demand his bidding. He then states his position, and requires assistance in the case he is about to undertake. The genius replies 14 MORE GLIMPSES OF at once that his request is granted, and encourages him to proceed. . . . That the Sheik stoutly maintains his intercourse with spiritual agents to be real and effective is unquestionable ; and indeed this belief in magic, and in the interposition of an order of unseen creatures in worldly affairs, at the bidding of those who choose to devote themselves earnestly to such intercourse, is universal throughout the entire population of every religion and sect. There are Christian priests who affirm that the Psalms of David contain an extensive series of necromantic passages, which, if thoroughly understood and properly treated, would place the whole world of spirits entirely at man's disposal, and invest him, through their medium, with miraculous powers.' ' Instances could be multipled in which the most extraordinary and unaccountable results have been brought about by the intervention of individuals who make this communion the subject of their study and contemplation. But, as the ears of Europeans could only be shocked by assertions and statements which they would not fail of hold- ing to be utterly fabulous and ridiculous, the subject is merely alluded to in these pages to THE WORLD UNSEEN. ij indicate the existence of a very prominent and prevalent belief in Lebanon.' ■ A correspondent of the Times newspaper, dis- cussing this subject, relates what he himself wit- nessed on the part of these Magi or jugglers when quartered at Attock, in 1861 : ' After placing some cardboard figures on a cloth spread on the bare floor of the mess-room, the juggler engaged began to play upon a rude reed instrument. In a moment up jumped the figures and commenced dancing in time to the music. This dance was quaint, orderly and intricate, but performed with the greatest regu- larity and art. A particular motion of the jug- gler's right hand made all the figures cease moving and suddenly fall down.' , Another performance was of the following cha- racter. The juggler placed a rupee at one corner of the mess-table, and the signet ring of one of the officers witnessing the acts done, at the opposite cdrner. Upon the music being recommenced the ring, as it is said, ' wobbled across the table, clawed the rupee, and carried the prize back to its own cor- ner, as a spider would a fly.' ' Mount Lebanon, by Colonel Churchill, in 3 vols. Vol. i. pp. 164-167. London, 1853. i6 MORE GLIMPSES OF A French conjuror who witnessed this and other similar performances, acknowledged himself utterly unable to account for the marvels done by these Oriental jugglers. He had, as he declared, offered them large sums of money for a knowledge of their secrets, but the tempting offers were invari- ably and sternly refused.* Why such persons — often the poorest of the poor — should prove them- selves superior to the power of money, is a subject astonishing to the commonplace European and worthy of investigation. Furthermore, the well-known basket trick, done without a special stage or platform, without machi- nery or preparation, and performed in any place or spot — a greensward, a paved yard, a messroom — is one which, witnessed by thousands, has never been discovered. A girl or boy placed under a large wicker basket of a tall conical shape, a basket which can be previously and fully examined by all, and is evidently an ordinary basket and nothing more, is stabbed through and through by the juggler, who uses a long sword for his purpose. Screams indicating pain follow each violent thrust ' This assertion seems at variance with another statement on a later page. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 17 of the weapon, which, drawn out, seems to be covered with blood. Thrust after thrust of the sword into the sides of the basket follows. The screams become fainter and at last cease altogether. Then the juggler, with incantations and wild cries, dances round and round for a few seconds, when, all of a sudden, removing the basket (which is again examined by the spectators), no sign of the girl or boy is seen. In the space of a minute, or Sometimes even less, the child who had been placed under the basket, comes running forward from some distant spot. Such performances have been wit- nessed again and again by keen and competent critics, who have been altogether unable to account for the extraordinary things witnessed, or to give any satisfactory explanation of the acts done. The late Lord Mayo, as is stated, witnessed the trick many times, and after much deliberation, referred it, as so many others have done (though they keep their opinion to themselves), to the influence and power of spirits or demons.' ' On this point Lieut-Colonel H. C. B. Barnett, of the 25th Regiment Madras Native Infantry, informs me that Father Gannon, a Roman Catholic Secular Priest, sometime chaplain' of St. Thomas's Mount near Madras, once found himself standing in a crowd to see an oriental juggler per- C i8 MORE GLIMPSES OF A similar conclusion was arrived at by a shrewd and observant lady, Mrs. J. B. Speid, who gave her impressions of Indian life and manners in a readable and interesting work, 'Our Last Years in India,' which was published about fifteen years ago ; from which the following is taken : — ' Some of these hill- and especially Bheel-wizards, are very uncanny gentlemen indeed. I have been told by Englishmen wondrous stories of the curious arts practised, and even taught by them. One gentleman declared that, under their instructions, he had himself become an adept ; and, apparently somewhat indignant at my incredulity, offered to demonstrate the truth of his assertion on the spot. But, as he had owned that the fruit of this forbidden tree of knowledge had tasted bitterly to his con- science, and had, in the first instance, caused him much remorse, though, as he explained, ' one be- comes accustomed to everything,' I declined par- form the Basket Trick. Father Gannon, believing that it was accomplished by the aid of demons, protected himself by the sacred sign of the Cross, and by an extemporized mental act of exorcism effectively resisted the action. At once the juggler ended his invocations and mumbling incantations, and, turning sharply upon the priest, requested him to go away. He did so, and then it is reported that the deed was done. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 19 taking of it. . . . The power possessed was a certain authority over living but inanimate things, as plants and trees, which it was declared could be made, by invoking the spirits of earth, air, and water, according to a set formula, and especially by an adjuration in the most Sacred Name, to bend and advance themselves towards the person using the incantation. . . . On another occasion Captain told me that he had secreted a ring with a view of ascertaining the truth of the imputed powers of the conjuror. The usual preliminaries having been completed. Captain was directed to lay his hand lightly on a brass saucer, which he was assured would indicate the spot where the ring had been deposited. This accordingly took place ; for Captain had no sooner pressed his palm on the rim, than he felt the saucer start beneath it, and it soon brought him to the person to whom the ring had been consigned. There was no possibility, it was asserted, of collusion, as none save the person who held it, knew where the ring had been placed. The Moonshee (professor of languages, etc.) says the Mahometans admit the fact of supernatural power, and believe it to be of Satanic origin. They say the secret has been 20 MORE GLIMPSES OF handed down from a remote antiquity, and pre- served in certain families alone — an heirloom of unlawful knowledge gathered in some old time from the forbidden tree.' ' As to possession by, and intercourse with, an evil spirit, one of the most remarkable cases on record is given by Bishop Hall of Norwich in one of his published tractates, a case (here reprinted verbatim) which at once illustrates the reality of witchcraft, and indirectly throws some light on that form of modern necromancy known as 'spiritualism.' ' I cannot forbear to single out that one famous story of Magdalene de la Croix,' writes the bishop, 'in the year of our Lord Christ, 1545, who being born at Cordova in Spain, whether for the indigence or devotion of her parents, was at five years age, put into a convent of nuns ; at that age an evil spirit presented himselfe to her in the form of a blackmore, foul and hideous ; she startled at the sight, not without much horror ; but with faire speeches and promises of all those gay toyes wherewith children are wont to be delighted, she was wont to hold society with him, not without ' Our Last Years in India, by Mrs. J. B. Speid, pp. 107-111. London, 1862. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 21 strong charges of silence and secrecy ; in the mean time giving proof of a notable quick wit, and more than the ordinary ability incident unto her age ; so as she was highly esteemed, both of the young novices, and of the aged nuns. No sooner was she come to the age of twelve or thirteen years, then the devill solicits her to marry with him, and for her dowry promises her that for the space of thirty years, she shall live in such fame and honour for the opinion of her sanctity, as that she shall be for that time the wonder of all Spain. ' Whiles this wicked spirit held his unclean con- versation with her in her chamber, he delegates another of his hellish complices, to supply the place and forme of his Magdalene in the church, in the cloister, in all their meetings ; not without mar- vellous appearance of gravity, and devotion ; dis- closing unto her also, the affairs of the world abroad, and furnishing her with such advertisements, as made her wondered at ; and won her the repu- tation, not of a holy virgin only, but of a prophet- esse. Out of which height of estimation, although she was not for years capable of that dignity, she was by the general votes of the sisterhood chosen unanimously, to be the Abbess of that Convent. 22 MORE GLIMPSES OF ' Wonderful were the feats which she then did : the priest cries out in his celebration that he missed one of the holy Hosts, which he had conse- crated : and lo, that was by her wonted Angel invisibly conveighed to holy Magdalene. The wall that was betwixt her lodging and the Quire, at the elevation of the Host clave assunder, that holy Magdalene might see that sacred act : and (which was yet more notorius) on solemn festivals, when the nuns made their procession, Magdalene was in the sight of the beholders, lift up from the earth the height of three cubits, as if she should have been rapt up to heaven : and sometimes, whik she bore in her arms a little image of the Child Jesus, new born and naked, weeping (like a true Magdalene) abundantly over the babe, her haire seemed by a miracle, suddenly lengthened so low as to reach unto her ankles, for the covering of the naked child ; which so soon as she had laid aside that dear burden, returned suddenly to its wonted length. ' These and many other the like miracles,made her so famous, that Popes, Emperours, the Gran- dees of Spain wrote to her beseeching her in their letters to recommend their affairs to God in her THE WORLD UNSEEN. 23 powerful devotions, and in requiring her advice and advertisements in matters of high importance ; as appeared afterwards by the letters found in her cabinet. And the great ladies of Spain and othet parts would not wrap their new-born infants in any clouts or swadling-bands, but such as the sacred hands of Abbess Magdalene had first touched and blessed. All the nuns of Spain were so proud of so great an honour to their order, and such mira- culous proof of their sanctity. ' At last it pleased God to lay open this notable fraud of the Devill ; for Magdalene after thirty years' acquaintance with this paramour, having been Abbess now twelve years, began to receive some remorse of her former practises ; and growing to a detestation of her horrible society with that evill spirit, found means freely to discover to the Visitors of her Order, all the whole carriage of this abominable and prodigious wickednesse. Although some credible, wise, and learned persons have re- ported that she, perceiving the nuns to have taken notice of her foul pranks, lest she should run into a deserved condemnation, did (under the favour of those laws which give pardon to self-accusing offenders) voluntarily confesse her monstrous vil- 24 MORE GLIMPSES OF lany and impiety. This confession blankt many of her favourers and admirers ; and seemed so strange that it was held fit not to beleeve it, with- out strict and legall examinations, and proceedings. Magdalene was close imprisoned in her convent ; and being called to question, confessed all this mysterie of iniquity. ' Yet still her Moore continued his illusions ; for, while she was fast lockt up in her cell, with a strong guard upon her doores ; the nuns were no sooner come into the quire, towards morning, to say their mattins, than this deputy-apparition of Magdalene took up her wonted stall, and was seen devoutly tossing her beads anipng her sisters ; so as they thought the visitors had surely freed her of the crimes objected, upon her vehement penitence. But, hearing that Magdalene was still fast caged in her prison, they acquainted the visitors with what they had seen the morning before : who, upon full examination, found that she had never lookt out of the doores of her gaole. The processe was at last sent up to Rome ; whence, since the confession was voluntary, she had her absolution. A story of great note and use for many occasions, and too well known in the world, to admit of either deniall THE WORLD UNSEEN. 25 or doubt, and ratisfied, as by the known consent of the time, so by the faithfull records of Zuingerus, Bodin, Reney, Gaulatius.' > A record such as the above is startling, but is repudiated as too absurd for reasonable people to accept, by a considerable majority who, themselves scientifically superstitious, condemn and banish all other kinds of ' superstition.' It is obviously impossible, however, that the Fathers and Rulers of the Christian Church could have been utterly mistaken (as modem theories would make them), as to the certain reality of magic, witchcraft, and necromancy : ^ for it is un- ' Divers Treatises, by Joseph Hall, vol. iii. pp. 993-994. London, 1662. ^ A law passed by Constantine, the first Christian em- peror (from which the following extract is made), contains a faithful record of what was then accepted and currently believed concerning the magical arts : ' Their skill is to be condemned, and very deservedly punished in the severest manner^ who, being furnished with knowledge of the magic arts, shall be discovered to have acted anything, either for the impairing of man's health, or drawing chaste minds to unlawful love. But no vexatious actions are to be brought against remedies that are sought for the bodies of men ; or against charms that are innocently used in country places, for fear lest storms, or winds, or hail, should hurt the fore- ward vineyards; or against everything whereby no man's health or credit was lost, but the gifts of God and the works of men were preserved from damage.' The original passage 26 MORE GLIMPSES OF questionable that such practices have been delibe- rately and authoritatively condemned by local and other Councils of influence, and generally accepted. For example, the twenty-fourth canon of the Council of Ancyra, held in the year of our Lord 314, appointed no less than five years' penance to pretended prophets and enchanters, as well as to fortune-tellers, as also to those who took such people into their houses to cure diseases. A fur- ther Declaration of that Council, given both by Gratian and Lancelot, implies that many wicked women, deluded by the illusions of Satan, believe that they ride through the air, and see sometimes sad sights and at other times joyful sights. But all priests are therein enjoined to instruct the people of God that such illusions are both errone- ous and reprehensible. Furthermore, at the Coun- cil of Laodicea, held exactly fifty years afterwards, the thirty-sixth of the Canons then enacted so- lemnly excommunicates all clerics who should be Magicians, Enchanters, Soothsayers or Astrologers : while the sixtieth and sixty-first Canons of the begins and ends thus : — ' Eoriim est scientia punienda, etc . . . . ne divina munera et labores hominum sternerentur.' In Cod. Just. Lib. ix. tit. 18. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 27 Council of TruUo, held A.D. 692, condemn Fortune- tellers, Casters of Nativities, Enchanters and Charmers — the same kind of sinners condemned in Holy Scriptures. Local Councils, of course, did but apply old rules and regulations which the universal Church had always regarded as generally binding. The celebrated Bull of Pope Alexander VIII., by consequence, only gathered up, and gave point and purpose to rules and laws which had ever been in existence in the Church of God ; and which had materially aided in checking all dealings with evil spirits, or any invocations for securing the assistance of the principalities and powers of darkness. This important Bull, promulgated in 1484, declared that it had come to the knowledge of the Sovereign Pontiff that great numbers of people of both sexes, careless of their own salva- tion, and falling from the Catholic Faith, are not«^ afraid to abuse their own bodies with demons who, after invocation, come forth to serve persons of both sexes, and who with their enchantments, charms and sorceries, vex and afflict man and beast, both with inward and outward pains and tortures, ofttimes making men impotent and women sterile ; frequently destroying infants and . the 28 MORE GLIMPSES OF Increase of flocks and herds ; blasting the fruit of the ground and the grapes of the vines : so that, according to his official duty as Servus servoriim Dei, he applies suitable remedies and well-deserved punishments upon such sinners — enjoining that transgressors of the laws of God by these unlawful methods be corrected, imprisoned, punished, and fined ; and that, if need be, after excommunication had, the secular arm be called in for their further punishment' Other Popes in more recent periods, e.g. Pope Adrian VI., Pope Benedict XIV., and Pope Pius IX.,^ have spoken with equal force ; and all magical ' The reader, after studying the false principles and dark practices of modern necromancers, set forth in another chapter, cannot fail to perceive how exactly the condemna- tory words of Pope Alexander are applicable to the lying delusions, the spirit-invocations, the prying into secrets and other occult performances, of our nineteenth -century dealers with evil spirits. It should be observed that since the laws against witchcraft were short-sightedly repealed in England, such persons can now only be dealt with by enactments touching ' rogues and vagabonds.' " ' These women, carried away by gesticulations not always of a modest kind, by the tricks of somnambulism, and what they call clairvoyance, babble of their seeing whatever is in- visible, and presume to institute discourses concerning Reli- gion itself, to evoke the souls of the dead, to receive answers, to reveal things unknown and distant, and rashly to practise THE WORLD UNSEEN. 29 incantations and invocations have been formally condemned. This is not the case only in the Western Church ; ' for in the East, similar con- demnations of such practices have been promul- gated ; while quite lately in Russia the practice of modern spiritualism has been authoritatively, officially, and solemnly prohibited. other superstitious things of the same nature, sure of gaining by divination great profit for themselves and their masters. In all these things whatever art or illusion it be that they use, where physical means are ordered to non-natural effects, there is found a deception wholly unlawful and heretical, and a scandal against virtuous morals. Therefore, to restrain efficaciously so great a crime^one so hostile to religion and civil society, the pastoral solicitude, vigilance and zeal of all the bishops ought as much as possible to be excited. Where- fore let the ordinaries of places, as much as they can, with the assistance of divine grace, whether by the admonition of paternal charity, or by severe reproof, or, finally by the application of legal remedies, according as they shall judge it expedient in the Lord, regard being had to the circumstances of places, persons, and time, bestow all diligence to repress the abuses of magnetism of this kind, and to root them up, that the Lord's flock may be defended from the enemy, and the deposit of the Faith be kept entire, and the faithful entrusted to them be preserved from the corruption of morals.' — The Abuses of Magnetism: Decree of the Sacred Congregation, July 30, 1856. ' The R. C. Archbishop of Quebec, in the year 1854, issued a pastoral letter against spirit-rapping and table- turning, in which his grace forbade, as a superstitious practice, the causing tables to turn or rap, with the intention 30 MORE GLIMPSES OF I am indebted to a friend for the following account of a haunted house in Berkshire, which, I believe, may possibly never, as yet, have been published. It is taken from a manuscript in the handwriting of the seventeenth century, preserved by the representative of an old Berkshire family ; and though slightly abridged, contains substantially all that is pointed and of interest in the case thus recorded. It has many features in common with the haunted house at Woodstock, in the time of the Commonwealth ; with Mr. John Wesley's case, as also with an account of a spiritualistic stance, given in a later chapter. ' In 1679, the house of a certain Mr. William Morse of Newbury, in Berkshire, was infested with demons. Bricks, stones, sticks, pieces of wood, were thrown about. A long staff danced up and down the chimney, and afterwards was hung upon a line and swung to and fro ; an iron crook was violently hurryed about by an invisible hand ; and a chair flew about the room till at last it alighted on the table. A chest was carryed about from one place to another, the doors barricaded, the keys of the of invoking the dead or spirits, of consulting them or of having any communications whatsoever with them. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 31 family taken off the bunch and flung about with a loud noise. ' A little boy was the chief sufferer. He was flung about with such violence, that his friends feared that his brains would be dashed out ; his bed-clothes were pulled off his bed, his bed shaken. A man who tried to hold him in a chair, found chair, boy and all, moving about. The child was thrown towards the fire, pricked on the back ; pins and knives were stuck into him, which the spec- tators pulled out. Sometimes he barked like a dog ; sometimes he clucked like a hen. Before the devil put an end to these tricks, the invisible hand put on an astonishing visibility. The appa- rition of a blackamoor child was seen ; then a violent drumming or regular thumping on the table took place ; musical sounds were heard in the air, and a voice saying, " Revenge, revenge, sweet revenge ! " On the spectators praying, the sounds stayed for awhile, but began again when they left off. Eventually, however, a voice sounded " Alas ! alas ! we are overcome, we are cast out ! We knock no more." And then the excitement ceased altogether.' Those who have dealt with cases of this kind, 32 MORE GLIMPSES OF under the guidance of the warnings provided in God's Word, find little difficulty in acknowledging that evil spirits are sometimes permitted to linger in, and haunt, certain localities. Particular Catholic traditions support such a conviction. The old Christian forms of exorcism obviously imply the truths that exorcism was at once sorely needed and frequently practised. Who then will venture to declare that in these latter days the necessity no longer exists, because the cause has been surely removed .' Not I. Though the influence of evil spirits is great, and all the more dangerous, because so many, persons in these latter days deny their existence ; yet the work and malice of such evil spirits are evident to those more far-seeing souls who, in the light of the Christian revelation, read accurately the ominous signs of the times. The rebuke which Bishop Hall gave to the unbelievers of his day — less than a century had elapsed when it was uttered, since Englishmen were of one heart and of one soul, both in faith and worship— is one which is more than ever needed now, when our nation seems to be casting off the Faith of our forefathers and revelling in indifference THE WORLD UNSEEN. 33 and materialism. These are Bishop Hall's plain- spoken and forcible words : — \ ' Of all other the Sadducees had been the most dull and sottish hereticks that ever were (if, as some have construed them), they had utterly denied the very being of any spirits. Sure (as learned Cameron pleads for them), they could not be so senseless ; for believing the books of Moses, and being con- scious of their own animation, their bosoms must need convince them of their spiritual inmate ; and what but a spirit could enable them to argue against spirits .' And how could they hold a God and no spirit .? It was bad enough that they denied the immortality and constant subsistance of those angelical immaterial substances ; an opinion long since hissed out, not of the ^hool of Christianity only, but of the very stalls and styes of the most brutish Paganism.' ' But, notwithstanding the popularity of indif- ferentism, and the influence of materialistic specu- lations, God, in His mercy, still grants Glimpses of the Unseen World, and of the spiritual order, to some, who are on the watch for them, so that seeing 1 Divers Treatises, by Joseph Hall, the late Bishop of Norwich, p. 959. London, 1662. 34 MORE GLIMPSES OF they may see, and hearing they may hear. The power of faith is still potent, the virtue of hope great, the influence of charity vast ; so that some amongst us trace the finger of God's power, and, seeing it, lowlily and humbly adore. For, unless people are prepared to reject all evidence whatsoever of the Supernatural — which, no doubt, many are, more especially those who hate the Catholic Religion, and profess to believe * - only in that which they can see and handle — it is impossible to deny the reality and certainty of various remarkable and notorious cures wrought in recent years, amongst other spots dear to Christians, at the celebrated shripe of Our -Blessed Lady of Lourdes.' Information of the greatest interest regarding certain of these more recent cures, has ' Those who may desire to make themselves acquainted with the details of the miraculous apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes should read a small volume with that title, issued by R. Washboume in 1870, from the pen of my firiend (now resting in God), the late Provost Husenbeth. Hundreds of miracles have been- wrought at the shrine, some of which are there set forth. Of these Father Brownlow,' of Torquay (sometime of St. George's Mission, now of the Diocese of Plymouth), writes : ' I see that Count Artus has offered to wager ten thousand francs that no one can disprove the mira- cles related in M. La Serre's book — the French Institute being the jury.' THE WORLD UNSEEN: 35 reached us from persons, some, Roman Catholics, and others, members of the Church of England, who either know personally the subjects of them, or were actually eyewitnesses of God's great mercy thus manifested to the sick and afflicted. From these the following six examples are selected : — I. That of Madame Stephanie Deferne, who was, at tlie time of the cure, thirty-three years of age. For the previous seven years she had suffered from chronic rheumatism. She suffered terribly in her legs, which were useless, a;id so had to be carried up to the grotto. She arrived there at 9 A.M., praying constantly for God's mercy, through the intercession of our Blessed Lady. Up to half-past twelve she felt no improvement. She then pro- mised to have 300 masses said for the souls in purgatory. After this she was placed in the Well, and came out almost cured, though suffering a little from pains in her feet. Later on, having been plunged again, she so entirely lost all her pains, that she was enabled, by God's power, to go about tending the other sick pilgrims at the shrine. Her crutches were carried about the town 36 MORE GLIMPSES' OF by a youth, who narrated the cure, and then deposited them as a token of the same near Our Lady's altar. ' 2. Madame Lefevre, a widow, a^ed sixty-three, residing at Paris, had suffered greatly, during the previous twelve months, from a diseased knee-joint, and could not walk without crutches. The doctors of the Hospital of La Chariti had not cured her. Subscriptions were gathered by her neighbours in Paris to enable her to go with the pilgrims to Lourdes. She did so, enduring much fatigue and pain during the journey. On arriving at the Holy Well she was plunged into it. During this, she prayed earnestly to God for mercy and a cure. In a short time she was taken out and found that she could walk as well as when she was in her teens. On her return to France, her friends and neigh- bours went with her to their parish church to thank the Almighty, by the Te Deum and other Catholic canticles, for His great mercy. 3. Joseph Riviere, a poor deaf, dumb, blind and paralysed man, from the commune of Mexans, near Angers, was perfectly cured, after having washed in the miraculous spring, as has been fully and completely testified to by M. de la Perraudiere, THE WORLD UNSEEN. 37 Mayor of that commune, and other responsible and influential eye-witnesses.' 4. A most remarkable case was that of Madame Quill4 a native of Gien, who had been completely paralysed in her legs for eight years. Her phy- sicians enjoined her to try the waters of Bourbon I'Archambault, but these made her worse. She became so very ill, that on her way to Lourdes, the services of a doctor had to be procured, who gave her morphia, the only remedy which afforded her even temporary ease. For some time she suffered from such painful suffocations that it was feared she would never reach her destination alive. On one occasion a priest gave her the last sac- raments. On arriving at Lourdes she was no sooner put into the spring or bath, than she at once experienced a most remarkable change ; so much so, indeed, that she was able to get out of the water alone. Hereupon she gave thanks to God * On these miracles, ' an old-fashioned clergyman of the Church of England,' as he terms himself, writes : — ' I can quite understand persons who do not believe in the Incar- nation, and who do not regard the Blessed Virgin as "Blessed amongst Women," repudiating these examples of God's power and mercy : but I cannot understand the scoffs and scorn of the clergy, who judge at random, without knowing or enquiring ; and often in language which is coarse.' 38 MORE GLIMPSES OF and Our Lady, and then, without aid, proceeded up the steep hill which leads to the Maison des Pkres. There, on being questioned by Father Piccard, so that her true state beforehand might be proved, she was advised to continue her prayers and to descend again into the bath. A few hours afterwards she did this, to find herself, on having come out, perfectly healed, and without the slightest trace of her former malady. 5. The most noteworthy cure, perhaps, was that of M^re Joseph, sister of the Sainte Enfance de Marie, at Nancy, who had been consumptive from her infancy, and had now reached the last stage of that dreadful, malady. She was subject to fainting fits, and had lost the use of her voice. • The doctors of the convent maintained that she could not possibly live through the autumn; while the other physicians at Nancy, one and all, pronounced her case hopeless. She had heretofore refused to go to Lourdes, fearing, as is said, to act in opposi- tion to God's Will. At last, however, her superior ordered her to take the journey, and she at once obeyed. She passed five nights on the railway, in her way thither suffering most excruciating agony. She arrived at Lourdes on a Sunday, and was THE WORLD UNSEEN. 39 taken at once to the grotto of Our Lady in a car- riage. On reaching it, ' she felt,' as she herself declared, and to use her own expression, ' as if she were already in Paradise.' She would not demand her own cure, but, when in the bath, asked only that God's most Holy and adorable Will should be done. For four hours she remained in devotion at the Grotto, and was then placed in the water. Suddenly, ' she felt,' as she described it, 'as if a heavy weight had been taken off her chest, and as if she were quite a new creature.' She went up out of the bath, by her own strength, exclaiming ' I am cured ! God be praised ; I am cured ! ' and at once sang the canticle of Our Lady, Magnificat, with a strong and clear voice. Her prayers were thus answered. God's Will was done. Her cure was at once instantaneous and complete. 6. Another case, of a similar kind, is recorded in a London Roman Catholic newspaper.' It is the cure of an Irishwoman by the application of clay from the Grotto of Lourdes during a Nine Days' prayer, and is contained in the following letter : — 1 Weekly Register, December 23, 1876. 40 MORE GLIMPSES OF ' . . . 29th November, 1876. '. . . You Avill feel interested in hearing of a miraculous cure lately effected by the clay you so kindly sent to me from Lourdes. A very holy and very useful Sister of Mercy was afflicted with a fearfully dangerous disease. She was under the doctors, who at last declared that her recovery was hopeless. Our Mother Catherine happened to be in the convent at the time, and knowing how great a loss she would be to the community, felt in her heart that our Lady of Lourdes would cure the poor afflicted invalid. She went, therefore, to the poor sick nun's cell, and, after hearing of her suffer- ings, said to her, " You must be cured : our Lady of Lourdes will do it for you if you but ask Her with faith and love." Mother Catherine then gave her some of the clay from the Grotto with a little picture representing the Apparition. They then commenced a Novena together. The old nun had no confidence in her own faith, and turning to Mother Catherine, said, " The Blessed Virgin will cure me through your?." And so, indeed, it turned out. The poor invalid began to grow better and better every day, and now she is able to attend to her usual employment. She is, of course, further- THE WORLD UNSEEN. 41 ing the devotion to our Blessed Lady to the best of her power, and has erected a beautiful statue in the convent as an offering of her thanksgiving.' Lady Gertrude Douglas most obligingly writes thus to me concerning that of which she was an actual eye-witness : ' I have just returned from Lourdes, where I had the good fortune, or rather the great favour conferred on me, of witnessing with my own eyes four miraculous cures of the most marvellous de- scription : besides the smaller one of my own eyes getting well after washing them in the waters. I had been sent to Luchon to take the waters for rheumatic ophthalmia with which I was threatened. I went to Lourdes first, and from the first hour I touched my eyes with the water, all pain left, and they have gradually become quite well.' I close this chapter with the following facts, concerning the celebrated case of Louise Lateau. The Royal Academy of Belgium, at the close of the year 1870, appointed a commission to investi- gate her case with a view if possible of detecting fraud ; and failing that, of explaining the strange phenomena. The Report of the Commission was received by the Ac-ademy on February 13, 1875, 42 MORE GLIMPSES OF and appeared in the Gazette Hebdomadaire of February 19, and a summary in English in The London Medical Record of March 3, and 17, 1875. The following are the facts formally recorded : ' 'Louise Lateau was visited several times on Fridays before and during the ecstasies, and was submitted to long and minute examinations. ' Though she suffered pain all over her body, and especially in the regions of the stigmata, she lacked entirely the peculiar pains experienced by hysterical subjects. ' With regard to the ecstasies (taking one Fri- day for example) — ' After she received the Blessed Sacrament, at 6 A.M., she remained for half-an-hour in a state of ecstasy, apparently insensible to all outward dis- tractions. I ' In the afternoon, at a quarter-past two, she fell into a fresh ecstasy. The ecstasy comprised three stages or periods : — ' In the first stage Louise was seated upon her chair, her body bending forwards ; her eyes wide > I am indebted for these to the courtesy and kindness of J. M. Davenport, Esq. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 43 open, fixed, turned upwards, and to the right. The pupils were dilated, and light did not at first cause contraction. Sight appeared annihilated ; neverthe- less, there was a slight winking of the eyes when the finger was sharply applied to them. She was insensible to all irritations, prickings, and pinch- ings ; the strongest electric current did not provoke any reflex movement. 'The hearing was closed toordinary excitements. The region of the stigmata, painful up to that time, could be pressed, pinched, and rubbed vigorously without causing any manifestation of pain. In the second stage the girl fell on her knees, remained about a quarter of an hour in that attitude, then returned to her seat. The third stage was that of prostration. . . . Her arms were extended in the shape of a cross, her feet joined together. During this stage, which lasted an hour and a half, her circulation and respiration underwent various changes. She rose from this position about half- past four, and immediately recovered conscious- ness. Her pains, until then unfelt, returned, and gradually diminished, until they disappeared at half-past eight, when the paroxysm finished, to be reproduced on the following week. 44 MORE GLIMPSES OF ' The Commission reported that the genuineness of the ecstasies is incontestable. ' With regard to the stigmata, the Commission report that blood flowed from different parts of her body : from the forehead, which, when washed and examined with a magnifying glass, showed neither erosions nor scratches ; from wounds three quarters of an inch to one inch long, on the backs and palms of the hands, and the front and soles of the feet, wider in the centre than at the ends (just such a shape, note, as nails would cause), and from a wound between the fifth and sixth ribs on the left side. ' In order to determine whether these bleedings were spontaneous or produced artificially, an ex- periment, far more searching than the glove test of Dr. Lefebre, mentioned in Dr. Day's paper, was tried as follows : — ' The right hand of the stigmatisee was placed at 2 P.M. on Thursday, January 21, 1875 (i.e., some time before the bleeding usually begins), in an apparatus invented for the purpose by M. Warlo- mont (the conductor of the experiments), which consisted of a glass globe, about four inches in diameter, having a neck like an ordinary bottle at THE WORLD UNSEEN. 45 one of its poles, and at the other pole another neck about three inches in diameter. The first neck was closed by a cork, traversed by a bent glass tube not extending beyond the outside surface of the cork. The inside end of the cork, as well as that of the tube, was covered by a wire gauze, not interfering with the ingress of air, but preventing the introduction of any penetrating instrument. The corks and tubes were fixed by several seals. The second neck was covered with a kind of muff or sleeve of india-rubber cloth, fixed to its outer rim by India-rubber cement, and sealed with six seals. The right hand of Louise was introduced into the bottle through the large open- ing, then the india-rubber cloth sleeve was brought down over the arm, which , it covered as far up as the sleeve of the chemise ; it was cemented to the arm by the same adhesive application, then finally closed up by a bandage, nearly an inch wide, brought twice round the arm, and carefully sealed up. This done, all the apparatus was enveloped in a bag of gutta-percha cloth, fixed to the shoulder by two turns of another bandage, sealed with two seals. The india-rubber and gutta-percha cloths would inevitably betray the passage of the finest 46 MORE GLIMPSES OF needle. On Friday the 22nd, at half-past ten o'clock in the morning, M. Warlomont entered Louise Lateau's cell, accompanied by Professor Crocq, of Brussels, who had undertaken to remove the apparatus and declare the result. It was this : " The right hand was closed up in the apparatus which M. Warlomont had fixed on the previous evening. The apparatus was perfectly intact, as we assured ourselves by the most careful examina- tion of the outer envelopes and the seals, not one of which bore the slightest trace of having been tampered with. The sloping portion of the receiver was filled with a small pool of liquid blood, and the back and palm of the hand were covered with clots of blood firmly adhering to the palms. It therefore appeared tJiat t/te effusions of blood did really occur spontaneously, and without the interven- tion of any violent means from without" With re- gard to the fasting (a phenomenon only just be- ginning when Dr. Day wrote his contribution to " Macmillan's Magazine "), Louise Lateau stated to the Commission that for three and a half years (i.e. from March 30, 1871) she had ceased to eat and drink, and that the consequent ex- creta had ceased also. The commission refused THE WORLD UNSEEN. 47 to test the truth of this statement on the following grounds : — ' " Louise Lateau works and expends caloric ; every Friday she loses a certain quantity of blood by the stigmata ; the gases expired by her contain watery vapour and carbonic acid ; her weight has scarcely varied at all since she has been under observation ; therefore she burns carbon which she does not derive from her own organism. Whence, then, does she obtain it ? The answer made by physiology is that she takes food. The abstinence of Louise Lateau, as affirmed, is contrary to the laws of physiology, and consequently, there is no need to prove that it is a fabrication. As it is established that this fact is beyond those laws, it is for those who affirm it to demonstrate its truth. Until then, physiology must hold it to be an apocryphal state- ment." ' This reasoning is based on the assumption that the supernatural and the incredible are convertible terms, — a principle which, if admitted, most ob- viously goes far beyond the case of Louise Lateau.' A wide range of subjects having been considered in this introductory chapter — all bearing on the subject of my volume — it now remains to take 48 THE WORLD UNSEEN. some of those already partly touched upon, together with others not yet considered, more in detail and with some selected method and system, so as to omit none of the events to be recorded, and to lose nothing which is worthy of careful preservation. CHAPTER II. WARNINGS OF COMING DANGER, OR OF DEATH, AND DREAMS ' Seeing that dreams do grow from such divers roots, with so much the more difficulty ought we to believe them ; because it doth not easily appear unto us from what cause they do proceed. Holy men, indeed, by a certain inward spiritual taste, do discern betwixt illusions and true revelations by the very voice or representations of the visions themselves : so that they kivow what they receive from the good spirit, and what they suffer by illusion from the wicked ; and therefore, if our mind be not herein very attentive and vigilant, it falleth into many vanities through the deceit of the wicked spirit, who sometimes useth to foretell many true things, that, in the end, he may, by some falsehood, ensnare our souls.' — The Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, Book iv. chap. xlix. CHAPTER II. WARNINGS OF COMING DANGER, OR OF DEATH, AND DREAMS. ^ISTORY, literature, and the experience of thousands of all nations and periods, declare the reality of what are known as ' impressions,' warnings, (which, save by a belief in the Supernatural, can neither be explained nor explained away,) and dreams. People have frequently received some occult hint of danger, approaching change or death — a hint which, though often slight, could not be wholly disregarded and was sometimes attended to : and so brought a blessing, or an advantage, to those who had received the impression, or dreamt the dream. ' Of the several examples of warnings by dreams, 52 MORE GLIMPSES OF or otherwise, which follow, some are of a remote, others of a recent period. They have been selected either because of their remarkable character, be- cause they stand on a solid historical foundation, or because the evidence for them is at once suf- ficient and abundant. The first is taken from Isaac Walton's well- known ' Life of Dr. John Donne : ' — ' At this time of Mr. Donne's and his wife's living in Sir Robert's house, the Lord Hay was, by King James, sent upon a glorious embassy to the then French King, Henry the Fourth ; and Sir Robert put on a sud- den resolution to accompany him to the French court, and to be present at his audience there. And Sir Robert put on as sudden a resolution, to solicit Mr. Donne to be his companion in that journey. And this desire was suddenly made known to his wife, who was then with child, and otherwise under so dangerous a habit of body, as to her health, that she professed an unwillingness to allow him any absence from her ; saying her divining soul boded her some ill in his absence : and therefore desired him not to leave her. This made Mr. Donne lay aside all thoughts of the journey, and -really to resolve against it. But Sir THE WORLD UNSEEN. 53 Robert became restless in his persuasions for it, and Mr. Donne was so generous as to think he had sold his liberty, when he received so many charitable kindnesses from him, and told his wife so : who did therefore, with an unwilling willingness, give a faint consent to the journey, which was proposed to be but for two months Within a few days after this resolve, the ambassador. Sir Robert and Mr. Donne, left London, and were the twelfth day got all safe to Paris. Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone in that room, in which Sir Robert and he, and some other friends, had dined together. To this place Sir Robert returned within half an hour ; and as he left, so he found, Mr. Donne alone : but in such an ecstasy, and so altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him ; insomuch that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare what had befallen him in the short time of his absence. To which Mr. Donne .... after a long and per- plexed pause, did at last say, " I have seen a dread- ful vision since I saw you : I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms : this I have seen since I saw you.' 54 MORE GLIMPSES OF To which Sir Robert replied, " Sure, sir, you have slept since I saw you ; and this is the result of some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now awake." To which Mr. Donne's reply was, " I cannot be surer that I now live, than that I have not slept since I saw you : and am as sure, that at her second appearing, she stooped, and looked me in the face, and vanished. ' Rest and sleep had not altered Mr. Donne's opinion the next day : for he then affirmed this vision with a more deliberate and so confirmed a confidence, that he inclined Sir Robert to a faint belief that the vision was true. ' It is truly said that desire and doubt have no rest ; and it proved so with Sir Robert ; for he immediately sent a servant to Drewry-house, with a charge to hasten back, and bring him word, whether Mrs. Donne were alive, and if alive, in what condition she was as to her health. The twelfth day the messenger returned with this account — that he found and left Mrs. Donne very sad, and sick in her bed ; and that, after a long and dangerous labour, she had been delivered of a dead child. And, upon examination, the occurrence proved to be the same day, and about the very THE WORLD UNSEEN. 55 hour that Mr. Donne affirmed he saw her pass by him in his chamber. ' That there may be many pious and learned men, that beheve our merciful God hath assigned to every man a particular guardian angel, to be his constant monitor ; and to attend him in all his dangers, both of body and soul. And the opinion that every man hath his particular angel may gain some authority by the relation of St. Peter's miraculous deliverance out of prison, not by many, but by one angel. And this belief may yet gain more credit, by the reader's considering, that when Peter after his enlargement knocked at the door of Mary, the mother of John, and Rhode, the maid- servant, being surprised with joy that Peter was there, did not let him in, but ran in haste, and told the disciples, who were then and there met to- gether, that Peter was at the door ; and they, not believing it, said she was mad : yet, when she again affirmed it, though they then believed it not, yet they concluded, and said, " It is his angel." pp. 6, 7. ' ' 'Life of Dr. John Donne,' written by Izaak Walton London : Ingram, Cook and Co., 1853. S6 MORE GLIMPSES OF A second curious warning, by which a physician was ineffectually warned of coming, death, is re- corded by a writer of shrewdness and experience, to whom little justice has yet been done for the care with which he gathered up several various and interesting supernatural facts, and left them on record : — ' Mr. Cotton Mather, in his "Ecclesiastical His- tory of New England " (pp. 239-240), writes thus : — ' Within a fortnight of my writing this, a physician, who sojourned within a furlong of my house, for three nights together, was miserably disturbed with dreams of his being drowned, and, on the third of these nights, his dreams were so troublesome, that he was cast into extreme sweats, by struggling under the imaginary waters. With the sweats yet upon him, he came down from his chamber, telling the ppople of the family what it was had so discomposed him. Immediately there came two fiiends, that asked him to go a little way with them in a boat upon the water. He was at first afraid of gratifying them in it, but being very calm weather, he recollected himself; why should I mind my dreams, or distrust divine Providence ? He went with them, and before night, by a thunder- THE WORLD UNSEEN. 57 Storm coming up, they were all three drowned. Mr. Mather say3 he enquired into the truth of this relation, just as he writ it, and could assert it.' A somewhat trivial circumstance, and yet one not altogether devoid of interest, may here reason- ably follow. It recounts a dream by Gassendi, in the ' Life of Peireskius,' written by himself : — 'In his return. Anno 1610, in the beginning of May, from Montpellier to Nismes, he had in his company one James Rainer, a citizen of Aix, who was wont to lodge in the same chamber with him, and now did so in an inn on the road. As Peireskius slept, Rainer observed he muttered somewhat to himself, after an unusual manner ; whereupon Rainer awakened him, and asked him what was the matter. Oh ! said he, from what a grateful and pleasant dream have you roused me ! Rainer asking him what it was, — I was dreaming said he, that I was at Nismes, and that a goldsmith offered me a golden medal of Julius Caesar, for four crowns, and I was upon paying him this money for it, when upon your unseasonable awaking me, both goldsmith and medal vanished. They went to Nismes, and being there, Peireskius took a turn in the city till dinner was ready, and by a won- S8 MORE GLIMPSES OF derful chance, he happened on a goldsmith's shop, and asked the goldsmith whether he had any rarity to show him. He told him he had a Julius Caesar of gold. He asked him the price, and was answered four crowns, which he presently paid him, and taking the medal, by an admirable hit of fortune he fulfilled his dream." (P. 225,) A remarkable warning of death is also recorded in Dunkin's ' Antiquities of Oxfordshire,' from the pen of the Reverend Dr. Walker, sometime Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, to the Reverend T. Offley. Only the facts, not the exact words in which they are set forth in Dr. Walker's Letter, are here given : — It seems that a certain Mr. Shaw, sometime Vicar of Souldern in Oxfordshire, as he was reading at midnight in his study about the end of July, in a certain year, saw all at once the appari- tion of his departed friend Mr. Naylor, also a Fellow of St. John's College, stand before him in the ordinary dress which he had commonly worn. This Mr. Naylor had, it appears, died some two or three years previously. Mr. Shaw, from the nar- rative of Dr. Walker, does not seem to have been at all alarmed ; for, with singular presence of mind, he requested the apparition to be seated, and, in THE WORLD UNSEEN. 59 due course, put several searching questions to him concerning the future state, as well as concerning those who were there. On most of these the spirit was silent. But amongst other utterances, the apparition declared that their mutual friend, Mr. Orchard, then living, should shortly die, and pass away from the earth, and that Mr. Shaw himself should not be long in following. Other names were likewise mentioned, and other revelations made ; but of these a discreet and due silence was observed. In reply to a request from Mr. Shaw that the apparition should visit him once again, it was intimated that such would be impossible, for that he had but the space of three days allotted to him for his return to the earth, and further or longer he was not allowed to go. On this Mr. Shaw ejaculated, 'Fiat Domini Voluntas!' and then the apparition vanished. Within a week of this visitation, as the record in question declares, Mr. Orchard was surely enough summoned away by his Maker, and in due course the Vicar of Souldern likewise passed from sight and ken, as had been predicted by the spectrum. Mr. Shaw died of apoplexy in the read- ing-desk of the church of which he was Rector. 6o MORE GLIMPSES OF The person to whom Mr. Shaw had narrated the account of the apparition, viz., Mr. Grove, a gentleman by no means given to over-credulity, had in his turn mentioned the subject to Dr. Balderston", then the Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Cambridge ; and though this had taken place after Mr. Orchard's decease, it had been mentioned and made the subject of conversation some time before Mr. Shaw's sudden and unex- pected death, — a fact worthy of note as enabling independent persons to judge of the reality of the apparition and the correctness of its predictions and warning. The following account of the spectral appear- ance of a woman to Lady Fanshawe, in the seven- teenth century, may be suitably given here. The tradition in the family is reported to bear out the truth of the narrative most completely : — ' From thence (Limerick) we went to the Lady Honor O'Brien's, a lady that went for a maid, but few believed it ; she was the youngest daughter of the Earl of Thomond. There we stayed three nights, the first of which I was surprised by being laid in a chamber, when, about one o'clock, I heard a voice that wakened me. I drew the cur- THE WORLD UNSEEN. 6i tain, and in the casement of the window, I saw, by the light of the moon, a woman leaning into the window, through the casement, in white, with red hair and pale ghastly complexion : she spoke loud, and in a tone I had never heard, thrice, " A horse ! " and then, with a sigh more like the wind than breath, she vanished, and to me her body looked more like a thick cloud than substance. I was so much frightened, that my hair stood on end, and my night clothes fell off. I pulled and pinched your father, who never woke during the disorder I was in ; but at last was much surprised to see me in this fright, and more so when I re- lated the story and showed him the window open. Neither of us slept any more that night, but he entertained me with telling me how much more these apparitions were usual in this country than in England : and we concluded the cause to be the great superstition of the Irish, and the want of that knowing faith, which should defend them from the power of the Devil, which he exercises among them very much. About five o'clock the lady of the house came to see us, saying she had not been in bed all night, because a cousin O'Brien of her's, whose ancestors had owned that house, had desired 62 MORE GLIMPSES OF her to stay with him in his chamber, and that he died at two o'clock, and she said, " I wish you to have had no disturbance, for 'tis the custom of the place, that, when any of the family are dying, the shape of a woman appears in the window every night till he is dead. This woman was many ages ago got with child by the owner of this place, who murdered her in his garden, and flung her into the river under the window, but truly I thought not of it when I lodged you here, it being the best room in the house." We made little reply to her speech, but disposed ourselves to be gone sud- denly.' » The following case, which has already been published, though not with the exactness of detail which characterises the record of it given below, belongs to a type of examples by no means uncommon, but valuable as a well-authenticated instance of the Supernatural : — 'About the year 1731,' wrote Lady Clerk of Penecuick,'' ' my father, Joseph D'Acre, Esq., of Kirk ' ' Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, wife of Sir Richard Fan- shawe, Bart., Ambassador from Charles II. to the Courts of Portugal and Madrid. Written by Herself,' pp. 92, 93. London : 1830. '' The Editor is courteously informed ty a connection of THE WORLD UNSEEN. 63 Linton, in the county of Cumberland, then a youth, came to Edinburgh to attend the classes, having the advantage of an uncle in the regiment then in the Castle ; and remained under the protection of his uncle and aunt, Major and Mrs. Griffiths, during the winter. When spring arrived, Mr. D'Acre and three or four young gentlemen from England (his intimates) made parties to visit all the neighbour- ing places about Edinburgh, Roslyn, Arthur's Seat, Craigmillar, &c. ' Coming home one evening from some of these places, Mr. D'Acre ' said, " We have made a party the family, that this lady, Mary D'Acre, was born in 1745, just when the troops of Prince Charles Edward entered Cariisle. When it was known to the colonel of the Highland party that the birth in question had so recently taken place, not only did he carefully restrain his men from the slightest molestation to the family, but, with his own hands, pinned on the infant's breast a white cockade or rosette. Lady Clerk, who lived to a great age, was on intimate terms with Sir Walter Scott ; and, when King George IV. visited Edinburgh, she presented His Majesty with a valuable souvenir of the illustrious Stuart Prince. ' Mary D'Acre, afterwards Lady Clerk of Penecuick, daughter of Mr. D'Acre referred to above, was the writer of the above. She asserts, ' I have often heard this story from my father, who always added, after having told it, " It has not made me superstitious : but with awful gratitude I can never forget that my life, under God, was saved by a dream ! '" 64 MORE GLIMPSES OF to go a-fishing to Inchkeith to-morrow, if the morn- ing is fine, and have bespoke our boat. We shall be off at six." ' No objection being made, they separated for the night. ' Mrs. Griffiths had not been long asleep, till she screamed out in the most violent agitated manner, " The boat is sinking : save, O save them ! " ' The Major awakened her, and said " Were you uneasy beforehand about the fishing party .' " ' " Oh no," she replied, " I had not once thought of it." ' She then composed herself, and soon fell asleep. In about another hour, she cried out in a dreadful fright, " I see the boat is going down." ' The Major again awoke her, and she said, " It has no doubt been owing to the other dream I had : for I feel no uneasiness about it." ' After some conversation they both fell sound asleep again ; but no rest could be obtained for her. In the most extreme agony she screamed, " They are gone : the boat is sunk ! " ' When the Major awakened her she said, " Now I cannot rest, Mr. D'Acre must not go. For I feel sure that if he should go I should be miserable THE WORLD UNSEEN. 65 till his return. The thoughts of it would almost kill me." ' She instantly rose, threw on her dressing gown, went to his bedside, (for his room was next to their own,) and with great difficulty secured from him a promise to remain at home. '"But what am I to say to my young friends whom I was to meet at Leith at six o'clock ? " he asked. ' " With great truth you may say that your aunt is ill," she replied. " For so I certainly am at pre- sent Consider that you are an only son, under our protection ; and should anything happen to you, it would be my death." ' Mr. D'Acre immediately wrote a note to his friends, saying that he was prevented joining them ; and sent his servant with it to Leith. ' The morning dawned most beautifully, and continued fair for some hours, until all of a sudden a violent storm arose, and, in an instant, the boat and all who were in it, save one experienced swim- mer, went to the bottom, nor was any part of it ' This event is found chronicled in a small serial entitled the Caledonian Mercury of August 12, 1734. It appears that 66 MORE GLIMPSES OF A remarkable story of a thrice-repeated warn- ing of coming disaster was told by some of the French emigrant priests, who, driven from their home and country, during the French Revolution, settled at Thame, in Oxfordshire, about 1798, where some of them afterwards died. It came to me through a lady there, the daughter of an attorney,' now dead : — A certain French nobleman, the Chevalier de Jancour of Burgundy, had a son who was brought up to the military profession. Before formally entering the school, appointed for those of the nobility who were preparing for such a position, this son was sent on a visit to his uncle at his cha- teau. In due course he was conducted to his sleep- five persons of respectable positions in life, including Patrick Cuming, a merchant, John Campbell, a ship-master, together with tv/o youths, sons of gentlemen, went out in a boat attended by some sailors into the Frith of Forth to fish. A severe storm arose, the boat was suddenly overturned owing to the negligence of one of the sailors, as is recorded, and all were drowned except the captain, Campbell, who, more dead than alive, was taken up by the people in a boat after he had been five hours in the water. 1 The late Miss Harriet Prickett, of Thame, who received it from the Count Haslang, a resident in that town in the latter part of the last century — a French nobleman well known to the Editor's grandfather. THE WORLD UNSEEN. 67 ing apartment, an ancient room superbly furnished and hung with tapestry representing the martial deeds and political services of certain of his most renowned ancestors.. One member of the family who had occupied a high position in the French Church, robed as a pontiff, was represented amongst others on the tapestry which recorded their deeds. The youth who had retired to bed left a dim lamp, suspended from the ceiling; alight. For a while he lay gazing at the forms and figures thus and there represented, and pondering over their exploits and reputation. Suddenly the figure of his ancestor, the pontiff, appeared to him to move and shift his place, and then coming out of the canvass, as it seemed, crossed the chamber, stood at the foot of the bed, and spoke, or seemed to speak. The figure, in a deep and mournful voice, told him that the sins and wickedness of the French people had become so odious and hateful in the sight of God, that the arm of the Almighty would be lifted for a dire and sore punishment ere long. And it gave him a special secret token by which 68 MORE GLIMPSES OF he might know the period of such visitation, when it should happen, and by flight escape. The figure then retired, walked back to the tapestry, as it were, and seemed to place itself in the exact position which it had previously occu- pied. Overcome with awe and astonishment, the alarmed youth rang the bell ; to which a man- servant in due course gave answer. Not wishing to confide the extraordinary revelation to this servant, the youth pleaded indisposition, when an attendant was appointed to sleep in an adjoining ante-room that night. In the morning the boy's uncle, remarking his pallor, confusion, and depression, insisted on know- ing the cause thereof : which, at length, was faith- fully, carefully, and dutifully recounted. The uncle was all the more astonished, and his extraordinary curiosity excited, because an exactly similar occurrence had happened to his own father, in that very room. He, too had seen an apparition of his collateral ancestor, the prelate, in the same apartment ; had heard, or appeared to hear, a very solemn warning from his lips ; had received a similar token of coming danger, and had THE WORLD UNSEEN. 69 been deeply impressed by the revelation. This appearance thus made the third warning. This supernatural intervention was so duly and properly regarded by those who had received it ; the token of approaching disaster was said to have been so remarkable and unmistakable, that, when it appeared, its purport was undoubted, so that the whole family because of it were thus pro- videntially protected from the demoniacal madness of the Revolution, and by self-expatriation escaped those miseries, horrors, and deaths, which poor France, and more especially her ancient nobility, then so universally experienced; Another well-authenticated example is thus narrated : — One night in the depth of winter, when the cold was great and the snow deep, a gentleman in California ' dreamed that he saw a company of travellers far up in the flats and table-lands of the mountains. They had lost their way, apparently, and were struggling sorely with cold and storm and pelting snow, with no protection whatsoever ' I am informed that a version of this remarkable incident is given in an American work. Nature and the Supernatural, by Dr. Bushnell. 70 MORE GLIMPSES OF against the weather. Some of them, as it seemed to him, were gathering leaves in order to light a fire. He awoke, and thinking it only an ordinary- dream, soon went to sleep again. The dream returned with increased force and greater vividness : so much greater was the impression made that he rose and dressed himself. When dressed he did not know exactly what to do, for it was the hour of midnight ; so, with a resolve to act as soon as the day broke, he again lay down to sleep. The dream came back a third time, with equal force and power, so that in the morning he at once sought a person reputed to be well acquainted with the locality, who, when he heard it described, at once recognized it, remarking that he knew the place well. The dreamer of the dream, who was a gentle- man of substance, at once began to take measures for going to the spot in question. People jeered at him, and regarded him as a little demented ; but he was resolute and not to be turned aside from his purpose, either by jeers or safe counsel. The people selected for the task, under the direction of the person so well acquainted with the THE WORLD UNSEEH. 71 mountain passes, set off on their expedition, and in due course reached the spot, which to the dreamer had been so clearly present. There, to their no small astonishment, they found a suffering party of travellers, sadly overcome by weakness, cold, and exposure, some of whom would have certainly died had the relief provided not come at the very time at which, because of the dream, it had been so chari- tably despatched. I will now give an unusually remarkable example of a double warning to a particular person, of which no less than two independent persons (one of whom was unable to see what two others beheld) were actual eye and ear witnesses. It stands thus :— ' In the year 1856 we were residing in a rented house in one of the midland counties, with our family and servants, near which temporary resi- dence my husband, an officer in the army, had a command. For reasons upon which I need not enter, a change of position and locality had been much pressed upon the authorities in London, on my husband's behalf, which, after the expiration of some time, was determined on by them ; and we found ourselves likely to go to Scotland, the exact change for which my husband's friends had asked. ■J2 MORE GLIMPSES OF and which we each desired, for it was not far from the home of some of those who were very near and dear to us. ' As there was considerable difficulty in obtaining a suitable and sufficiently convenient house at the place where we wished to reside, my husband went on to Scotland a month before it was intended to take me and our family. I therefore remained with our household in England. With the excep- tion of my children and servants, I was quite alone. Our hired residence, surrounded by considerable grounds and plantations, and situated on the slope of a hill, was quite isolated. No other abode was nearer than a quarter of a mile ; and that was the lodge where our gardener resided. Our drawing- room was on the first floor, outside of the windows of which rose a balcony of iron and wood, connect- ing this room with my bedroom (which adjoined it), and my husband's dressing-room, which was furthest off, all of which rooms, by glazed doors, opened on to the balcony in question. ' One evening, between nine and ten o'clock, in the month of September, I was seated in the draw- ing-room. My maid had brought me some coffee, and was arranging my work-table and books prior THE WORLD UNSEEN. 73 to my retiring to bed, when I arose mechanically and walked out on to the balcony through the open door, as was often my custom, to look at the beautiful landscape in the mopnlight. The moon was up, and the whole of the valley below was bright, almost as bright as in the day. Greensward and brook, wood and copse, were seen in the dis- tance ; with a large dark mass of stately elms, below which a cluster of Scotch pines stood to the right. The stillness was marked and almost un- usual ; the landscape lovely. ' Suddenly, turning my eyes to the left along the balcony, I beheld all at once the figures of two men, dressed as mutes at a funeral, with hatbands, scarves and cross-poles covered with black silk, standing at the glass door of my husband's dressing- room. They did not seem in the least degree spectral, but too truly and too perfectly real. For a brief moment this was my certain impression ; but on looking steadily at their forms for a few seconds, they began to have a less substantial, and a more transparent and cloudy appearance. Awe- stricken and overcome, I fell back through the drawing-room window, with a shriek and a stagger, into a chair. My maid, who was still in the room. 74 MORE GLIMPSES OP rushed forward to my aid ; and for a few seconds, I believe that I entirely lost my consciousness. On recovering myself partially, but wholly unable to speak many consecutive words, I cried out to her, pointing in the direction of the figures, " Look there — there ! " ' She looked out on to the balcony, and there beheld the two gloomy forms as vividly and keenly as myself It was a surprise and a shock to us both. ' She rang for the man-servant, who, coming up, was at once asked if he could see anyone or any- thing outside his master's dressing-room door on the balcony. ' Looking in the direction indicated, he replied that he could not. " There is no one and nothing there." ' " Don't you see those two funeral men } " ear- nestly asked the maid. ' " There are no men there," he answered ; at the same time that he walked out, and approached the spot where the figures we still beheld stood. ' I and the maid watched him as he boldly walked up to the door, into the room, and actually , passed through the spectral forms which still stood THE WORLD UNSEEN. 75 there. They did not swerve, they did not stir. The dressing-room was as usual, the man asserted. No mortal was there. The man-servant maintained that both the maid and I were dreaming. ' For a while, the figures seemed to both of us as solid and lifelike as possible. There they stood in the clear moonlight, erect, weird, motionless, and spectral. In a short time they began to grow less distinct, and as it were, cloudy and dim, in their lower parts, but yet, as manifest as ever in the upper ; and then, in about a quarter of an hour, they had utterly faded away. ' I was overcome and puzzled to a degree which I cannot describe and could not measure. The thought of my husband's safety — for which 1 prayed — smote me at once, and was constantly before me, and yet at the same time I felt a weight of sorrow and a foreboding of loss which so com- pletely took possession of me, that I could neither talk nor cry. Tears would have been a relief ; but they did not and would not come. ' Within an hour, my maid occupying a sofa in my bedroom, I had been induced to retire to rest ; almost glad to be convinced at one minute by the arguments of the man-servant that what I had seen 76 MORE GLIMPSES OF was the result of my imagination, and yet utterly unable either to get rid of the pressing load of anxiety on my mind, or to secure sleep. 'A night-light burned in my room ; and from time to time a few commonplace words had been spoken between myself and my maid. The time passed slowly. Midnight had come ; I think I was dozing. ' All of a sudden we heard a loud and startling krigck at the principal entrance of the house ; so sudden, so loud, and so startling, that the man- servant, who slept on the ground floor, suddenly awakened, speedily rushed to the front door. ' He opened it as quickly as possible. But as he solemnly and affrightedly affirmed, there was no one there, and no sign of anyone, as he told me at my bedroom door. The moon was still up ; my maid and I looked out once again on to the balcony : the landscape was clear. Not a sign. Not a sound. All was still. "These things," said I to myself, "are some blessed angel's warning of a coming calamity," and this thought (for I had always believed in angelic intervention) was upon me throughout the rest of the night. I did not begin to sleep until the morning had broken, and the sparrows were twittering on the roof But con- THE WORLD UNSEEN. 77 stantly I commended myself to God the Blessed Trinity in prayer. 'On the following evening, my husband's brother came to announce the overwhelming tidings that my children were orphans and that I was a widow. * My husband had died almost suddenly of heart- disease, at his temporary residence in the north of Scotland on the very night in question ; and these strange warnings for eye and ear were no doubt mercifully sent to me to break the severity of the shock which news of a sudden death must have given. Here is the finger of God. How often afterwards, and how fervently, have I prayed to God in the beautiful words of the collect for St. Michael's Day in the " Book of Common Prayer," "As Thy Holy Angels al