It has often occurred to me, that Shakespeare’s character of Hamlet can only be understood, on this principle. He feigns madness, for political purposes, while the poet means to represent his understanding as really, (and unconsciously to himself) unhinged by the cruel circumstances in which he is placed. The horror of the communication made by his father’s spectre; the necessity of belying his attachment to an innocent and deserving object; the certainty of his mother’s guilt; and the supernatural impulse by which he is goaded to an act of assassination, abhorrent to his nature, are causes sufficient to overwhelm and distract a mind previously disposed to ‘weakness and to melancholy,’ and originally full of tenderness and natural affection. By referring to the book, it will be seen that his real insanity is only developed after the mock-play. Then, in place of a systematic conduct, conducive to his purposes, he becomes irresolute, inconsequent, and the plot appears to stand unaccountably still. Instead of striking at his object, he resigns himself to the current of events, and sinks at length, ignobly, under the stream. CHAP. V. _Accessory causes of delusion, regarding spectral impressions--Apparition of Desfontaines--Ghosts at Portnedown Bridge--Lucian’s story of a Split Ghost--Instance of a Ghost in two places at once._ It will readily occur to the reader, that the disposition of the mind to hallucination must sometimes be powerfully aided, and encreased, by peculiar circumstances of time and place. Chance may supply, or artifice may contrive concomitant sounds and objects, which must appal even the most incredulous observer. Even Bayle has doubted, whether the imagination alone can produce spectres, without the assistance of the arts of confederacy. This point, I trust, is now decided. An apparition which made some noise, about the beginning of the last century, that of DESFONTAINES, seems to have originated in a fit of deliquium, connected strongly with the recollection of a friend. It was published in the _Journal de Trevoux_, in 1726, and its outline is as follows. Mr. _Bezuel_, when a school-boy of 15, in 1695, contracted an intimacy with a younger boy, named _Desfontaines_. After talking together of the compacts which have been often made between friends, that in case of death, the spirit of the deceased should revisit the survivor, they agreed to form such a compact together, and they signed it, respectively, with their blood, in 1696. Soon after this transaction, they were separated, by Desfontaines’ removal to Caen.