An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts and Apparitions, and Popular Superstitions: Also, an Account of the Witchcraft Delusion at Salem, in 1692 — John Shaqi
An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts and Apparitions, and Popular Superstitions: Also, an Account of the Witchcraft Delusion at Salem, in 1692Thacher, James
Philosophy
An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts and Apparitions, and Popular Superstitions: Also, an Account of the Witchcraft Delusion at Salem, in 1692
Thacher, James
Superstition; Witchcraft; Witchcraft -- Massachusetts -- Salem
contemplated it as long as her fears would permit her, before she
exclaimed. She was sure that she recognised every feature of her
friend, and even the pits of the small pox, of which she died, in her
face. And she affirmed that before any tribunal she would have been
willing to make oath to this fact.' 'I have introduced this anecdote,'
says Dr Smith, 'merely to illustrate the power of the imagination by
its reaction on the nervous system, to complete the pictures that any
sudden impulses of the senses, occasioned by surprise or by
superstitious or enthusiastic feeling, have begun to form. It is not a
solitary anecdote of the kind. But I have selected it, because I am
more perfectly possessed of the circumstances, than of many others
that are circulated through certain classes of society. Nor are these
classes always to be found among the most ignorant and credulous.'
Lord Lyttleton was a man of splendid abilities, but degraded himself
by a continued course of profligacy and the basest dissipation. He was
arrested in his career by a sudden and remarkable death, at the age of
thirtyfive in the year 1779. The various narrations that have been
published relative to this singular event concur in most of the
following particulars. Three days previous to his death, being in
perfect health, he was warned in a dream or vision of the event,
which, accordingly, took place without any previous illness. According
to his own account, he awoke from sleep, and saw the image of his
deceased mother, who opened the curtains of his bed and denounced to
him, that in three days he should die. On the sentence being
denounced, he started up in great terror, incoherently saying, 'what!
shall I not live three days?' The reply was, no, you will not live
more than three days, and the apparition instantly vanished. This
alarming vision his lordship related, at breakfast the next morning,
to several women who were his companions. They fell a crying; but he,
although secretly agitated, pretended to disregard the affair, laughed
at their credulous folly, and professed to have no sort of belief, or
apprehension about it. On the third day of the prediction, he invited
Admiral Woolsey and another friend to dine with him, at his country
seat. At dinner, his lordship, appeared more than usually loquacious
and desultory in his conversation, reciting the probable remarks that
would of course be made whenever the news of his death should be
announced. In the evening, perceiving his female companions in a
gloomy mood, he took one of them and danced a minuet with her, then
taking out his watch, said, 'Look you here, it is now nine o'clock,
according to the vision I have but three hours to live, but don't you
mind this, madam; never fear, we'll jocky the ghost, I warrant you.'
At eleven o'clock he retired to bed earlier than usual with him, but
his pretence was, that he had planned for the party to breakfast
early, and spend the day in riding into the country. Admiral Woolsey
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account