The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell : $b a gentleman, who, tho' deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune
General
The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell : $b a gentleman, who, tho' deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune
Campbell, Duncan, 1680?-1730; Deaf people -- Great Britain -- Biography; Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Prophets -- Great Britain -- Biography
He answers, the people of these isles, and particularly the seers, are
very temperate, and their diet is simple and moderate in quantity and
quality; so that their brains are not, in all probability, disordered by
undigested fumes of meat or drink. Both sexes are free from hysteric
fits, convulsions, and several other distempers of that sort. There are
no madmen among them, nor any instance of self-murder. It is observed
among them, that a man drunk, never has a vision of the second-sight;
and he that is a visionary would discover himself in other things as
well as in that; nor are such as have the second-sight, judged to be
visionaries by any of their friends or acquaintance.
Secondly, it is objected, that there are none among the learned able to
oblige the world with a satisfactory account of these visions; therefore
they are not to be believed.
He answers, if everything of which the learned are not able to give a
satisfactory account, shall be condemned as false and impossible, we
shall find many other things, generally believed, which must be rejected
as such.
Thirdly, it is objected, that the seers are impostors, and the people
who believe them are credulous, and easy to be imposed upon.
He answers, the seers are generally illiterate, and well-meaning people,
and altogether void of design; nor could he ever learn that any of them
made the least gain of it; neither is it reputable among them to have
that faculty; beside, the people of the Isles are not so credulous as to
believe an impossibility, before the thing foretold be accomplished; but
when it actually comes to pass, afterwards it is not in their power to
deny it, without offering violence to their senses and reason; beside,
if the seers were deceivers, can it be reasonable to imagine that all
the islanders, who have not the second-sight, should combine together
and offer violence to their understandings and senses, to force
themselves to believe a lie from age to age? There are several persons
among them, whose birth and education raise them above the suspicion of
concurring with an imposture merely to gratify an illiterate and
contemptible sort of persons. Nor can a reasonable man believe, that
children, horses, and cows, could be engaged in a combination to
persuade the world of the reality of a second-sight.
Every vision that is seen comes exactly to pass according to the rules
of observation, though novices and heedless persons do not always judge
by those rules; concerning which he gives instances.
There are visions seen by several persons, in whose days they are not
accomplished; and this is one of the reasons why some things have been
seen, that are said never to have come to pass; and there are also
several visions seen, which are not understood till they are
accomplished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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