“Scores of people there were ready to testify on oath that the old house was haunted by ghosts, who strode grimly and silently through the solemn, stately halls of that massive island castle. But it generally happened that the witnesses of these spectral visitants had neither time nor inclination to cultivate their acquaintance--save one, an apothecary named Banker, who cursed and swore at one of them on a certain occasion, whereupon the ghost slapped his face, and completely turned and withered his lower jaw by way of punishment for the _leze majeste_. With this exception, those who met one of these ghosts, invariably had urgent business in an opposite direction, and it was quite surprising with what wonderful speed lame persons got over the ground whenever a ghost was declared to be around, by those who being born with a ‘caul’ over the face, were thereby endowed with the spectre-seeing faculty; and as such gifted ones could see, I used often to wish I could meet some who had been born with _two_ cauls, so that they might speak to as well as see them. “Some people do not believe in ghosts. I do, ghosts of various kinds. I. It is possible to project an image of one’s self, which image may be seen by another however distant. II. The phantasmal projections of heated fancy--spectral illusion--the results of cerebral fever, as in drunken delirium, opium and other fantasies. III. The spirits of dead men. IV. Spiritual beings from other planets. V. Beings from original worlds, who have not died, but who, nevertheless, are of so fine texture as to defy the material laws which we are compelled to obey, and who, coming under the operation of those that govern disembodied men, are enabled to do all that they do. VI. I believe that human beings, by the action of desperate, wicked wills, frequently call into being spectral harpies--the horrible embodiment of their evil thoughts. These are demons, subsisting so long as their creators are under the domination of the evil. VII. I believe in a similar creation emanating from good thoughts of good people, lovely out-creations of aspiring souls. Remember these seven. This is a clear statement of the Rosicrucian doctrine of the higher order of their temple. In the lower, these seven pass under the names of Gnomes, Dwarfs, Sylphs, Salamanders, Nereiads, Driads and Fays. “One day, when I was about five years old, I returned from school, and found the clayey vestment--the fleshly form of the only friend I ever had, my mother, cold and prone in the arms of icy cold, unrelenting Death. Ah! what a shock was that to my poor little childish heart! She had that morning grown weary of earth, had serenely, trustingly closed her darling eyes, and I was left alone to battle single-handed against four mighty and powerful enemies--Prejudice, Poverty and Organization were three of them. The fourth is almost too terrible, too wild and fanciful to be credited, yet I will state it: THE LEGEND.