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ear, and are less likely than those senses to aid in misleading the imagination. We have seen
the palate, in the case of the porridge-fed lunatic, enter its protest against the acquiescence
of eyes, ears, and touch, in the gay visions which gilded the patient s confinement. The
palate, however, is subject to imposition as well as the other senses. The best and most
acute bon vivant loses his power of discriminating betwixt different kinds of wine, if he is pre-
vented from assisting his palate by the aid of his eyes, that is, if the glasses of each are
administered indiscriminately while he is blindfolded. Nay, we are authorized to believe that
individuals have died in consequence of having supposed themselves to have taken poison,
when, in reality, the draught they had swallowed as such was of an innoxious or restorative
quality. The delusions of the stomach can seldom bear upon our present subject, and are not
otherwise connected with supernatural appearances, than as a good dinner and its accompa-
niments are essential in fitting out a daring Tam of Shanter, who is fittest to encounter them
when the poet s observation is not unlikely to apply
 Inspiring bauld John Barleycorn,
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
Wi tippenny we fear nae evil,
Wi usquebae we ll face the devil.
The swats sae ream d in Tammie s noddle,
Fair play, he caredna deils a bodle!
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Neither has the sense of smell, in its ordinary state, much connexion with our present subject.
Mr. Aubrey tells us, indeed, of an apparition which disappeared with a curious perfume as
well as a most melodious twang; and popular belief ascribes to the presence of infernal spirits
a strong relish of the sulphureous element of which they are inhabitants. Such accompani-
ments, therefore, are usually united with other materials for imposture. If, as a general opinion
assures us, which is not positively discountenanced by Dr. Hibbert, by the inhalation of cer-
tain gases or poisonous herbs, necromancers can dispose a person to believe he sees phan-
toms, it is likely that the nostrils are made to inhale such suffumigation as well as the mouth.
I have now arrived, by a devious path, at the conclusion of this letter, the object of which is to
show from what attributes of our nature, whether mental or corporeal, arises that predisposi-
tion to believe in supernatural occurrences. It is, I think, conclusive that mankind, from a very
early period, have their minds prepared for such events by the consciousness of the exis-
tence of a spiritual world, inferring in the general proposition the undeniable truth that each
man, from the monarch to the beggar, who has once acted his part on the stage, continues to
exist, and may again, even in a disembodied state, if such is the pleasure of Heaven, for
aught that we know to the contrary, be permitted or ordained to mingle amongst those who
yet remain in the body. The abstract possibility of apparitions must be admitted by every one
who believes in a Deity, and His superintending omnipotence. But imagination is apt to
intrude its explanations and inferences founded on inadequate evidence. Sometimes our vio-
lent and inordinate passions, originating in sorrow for our friends, remorse for our crimes, our
eagerness of patriotism, or our deep sense of devotion these or other violent excitements of
a moral character, in the visions of night, or the rapt ecstasy of the day, persuade us that we
witness, with our eyes and ears, an actual instance of that supernatural communication, the
possibility of which cannot be denied. At other times the corporeal organs impose upon the
mind, while the eye and the ear, diseased, deranged, or misled, convey false impressions to
the patient. Very often both the mental delusion and the physical deception exist at the same
time, and men s belief of the phenomena presented to them, however erroneously, by the
senses, is the firmer and more readily granted, that the physical impression corresponded
with the mental excitement.
So many causes acting thus upon each other in various degrees, or sometimes separately, it
must happen early in the infancy of every society that there should occur many apparently
well-authenticated instances of supernatural intercourse, satisfactory enough to authenticate
peculiar examples of the general proposition which is impressed upon us by belief of the
immortality of the soul. These examples of undeniable apparitions (for they are apprehended
to be incontrovertible), fall like the seed of the husbandman into fertile and prepared soil, and
are usually followed by a plentiful crop of superstitious figments, which derive their sources
from circumstances and enactments in sacred and profane history, hastily adopted, and per-
verted from their genuine reading. This shall be the subject of my next letter.
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LETTER II.
Consequences of the Fall on the Communication between Man and the Spiritual World 
Effects of the Flood  Wizards of Pharaoh  Text in Exodus against Witches  The word
Witch is by some said to mean merely Poisoner  Or if in the Holy Text it also means a
Divineress, she must, at any rate, have been a Character very different to be identified with it
 The original, Chasaph, said to mean a person who dealt in Poisons, often a Traffic of
those who dealt with familiar Spirits  But different from the European Witch of the Middle
Ages  Thus a Witch is not accessary to the Temptation of Job  The Witch of the Hebrews
probably did not rank higher than a Divining Woman  Yet it was a Crime deserving the
.
Doom of Death, since it inferred the disowning of Jehovah s Supremacy  Other Texts of
Scripture, in like manner, refer to something corresponding more with a Fortune-teller or
Divining Woman than what is now called a Witch  Example of the Witch of Endor 
Account of her Meeting with Saul  Supposed by some a mere Impostor  By others, a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]