The Philosophy of Mystery

Name: The Philosophy of Mystery
Author: Dendy, Walter Cooper

Dendy, Walter Cooper

Apparitions; Dreams; Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Parapsychology -- Early works to 1900

PROPHECY OF SPECTRES.
      Ancient spectral Prophecy—Modern Stories in           18-33
        illustration of prophetic Spectres—Philosophy
        and Poesy of Shakspere—Holy influence of
        Spectral Visitations—Stories of apparently
        special influence of the Deity

                    ILLUSION OF SPECTRES.
      Reasons for early faith in Phantoms—Modern errors     34-51
        regarding classic Superstitions—Shallowness and
        Fallacy of modern Incidents—Explanation of Ghost
        Stories by Coincidence—Incidents in proof of
        Coincidence—Proneness of intellectual Minds to
        credulity and exaggeration—Innocent invention of
        an incident at Bowood

              PHANTASY FROM MENTAL ASSOCIATION.
      Influence of interesting localities—Definition of     52-66
        a Phantom—An intense idea—Demonomania—Stings of
        Conscience—Curious effect of peculiar study or
        intense thought—Darkness and Obscurity—Romance
        of reality—A mysterious incident

              PHANTASY FROM CEREBRAL EXCITEMENT.
      Second Sight—National propensity to the               67-79
        Sight—Romance and Poetry of the
        Mountains—_Morbid_ predisposition to Second
        Sight—Unearthly Visions on the eve of
        Dissolution—Glimpses of Reason in dying Maniacs

              PHANTASY FROM CEREBRAL CONGESTION.
      Phantoms of intellectual Minds—Illusion of            80-88
        Opium—Illustrations of Narcotic Influence

                 POETIC PHANTASY, OR FRENZY.
      Inspiration of Poesy and                             89-100
        Painting—Shakspere—Fuseli—Blake—Philosophy and
        Madness—Illusion of Tasso—Truth of
        Poesy—Splendid illusions at the onset of
        Mania—Melancholy constitution and decay of
        Poetic Minds—Letter of a
        Cheromaniac—Sensibility—Unhappy consequences of
        cherishing Romance—Fragment of John Keats

            PHANTASY FROM SYMPATHY WITH THE BRAIN.
      Philosophy of Moral Causes—Effect of thought and    101-112
        of the function of the Stomach in producing
        physical changes in the Brain—Stories in proof
        of this influence—Illusions from Derangements of
        Vision—Curious cases of ocular Spectra from
        peculiar conditions of the Eye

                 MYSTERIOUS FORMS AND SIGNS.
      Stories of Supernatural Appearances                 113-122

      ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SPECTRAL ILLUSION.
      Credulity—Arrangement of Causes of Spectral         123-140
        Illusion—Illustration of Atmospheric
        Illusions—Natural Phenomena—Fata
        Morgana—Schattenman of the Brocken—Romance of
        unlettered minds

                      ILLUSIONS OF ART.
      Monkish Impostures—Optical Toys—Spontaneous         141-146
        Combustion

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The Philosophy of Mystery

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