Apparitions; Dreams; Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Parapsychology -- Early works to 1900
I have slightly sketched these illustrations, and I presume to term them
prophecies. There are others so complex, yet so complete in every part,
as to convert, I might hope, even the unbelief of Evelyn. To the
relations of Sir Walter and Dr. Abercrombie, I will add one from
Moreton, in his “Essay on Apparitions:” “The Reverend D. Scott, of Broad
Street, was sitting alone in his study. On a sudden the phantom of an
old gentleman, dressed in a black velvet gown, and full bottom wig,
entered, and sat himself down in a chair opposite to the doctor. The
visitor informed him of a dilemma in which his grandson, who lived in
the west country, was placed, by the suit of his nephew for the recovery
of an estate. This suit would be successful, unless a deed of conveyance
was found, which had been hidden in an old chest in a loft of the house.
On his arrival at this house, he learned that his grandson had dreamed
of this visit, and that his grandfather was coming to aid him in the
search. The deed was found in a false bottom of the old chest, as the
vision had promised.”
In a letter of Philip, the second Earl of Chesterfield, is told the
following strange story, which, although not a prophecy, cannot be
within the pale of our philosophy. “On a morning in 1652, the earl saw a
thing in white, like a standing sheet, within a yard of his bedside. He
attempted to catch it, but it slid to the foot of the bed, and he saw it
no more. His thoughts turned to his lady, who was then at Networth, with
her father, the Earl of Northumberland. On his arrival at Networth, a
footman met him on the stairs, with a packet directed to him from his
wife, whom he found with Lady Essex her sister, and Mrs. Ramsey. He was
asked why he returned so suddenly. He told his motive; and on perusing
the letters in the packet, he found that his lady had written to him
requesting his return, for she had seen a thing in white, with a black
face, by her bedside. These apparitions were seen by the earl and
countess, _at the same moment_, when they were forty miles asunder.”
The miraculous spirit which the influence of Joan of Arc infused into
the desponding hearts of the French army, is writ on the page of
history. Before her proposition for the inauguration of Charles VII. at
Rheims, she heard a celestial voice in her prayer, “Fille, va, va! je
seray à ton ayde—va!” and her revelation of secrets to the king, which
he thought were locked within his own bosom, raised in the court
implicit belief in her inspiration.
And now, Evelyn, I ask you,
“Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer cloud,
Without our special wonder?”——
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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