The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III.: 1791-1804Paine, Thomas
History
The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III.: 1791-1804
Paine, Thomas
Political science
About the year 1766, I was in Lincolnshire, in England, and on a visit
at the house of a widow lady, Mrs. E____, at a small village in the fens
of that county. It was in summer; and one evening after supper, Mrs.
E____ and myself went to take a turn in the garden. It was about eleven
o'clock, and to avoid the night air of the fens, we were walking in a
bower, shaded over with hazel bushes. On a sudden, she screamed out,
and cried "Lord, look, look!" I cast my eyes through the openings of the
hazel bushes in the direction she was looking, and saw a white shapeless
figure, without head or arms, moving along one of the walks at some
distance from us. I quitted Mrs. E______, and went after it. When I got
into the walk where the figure was, and was following it, it took up
another walk. There was a holly bush in the corner of the two walks,
which, it being night, I did not observe; and as I continued to step
forward, the holly bush came in a straight line between me and the
figure, and I lost sight of it; and as I passed along one walk, and the
figure the other, the holly bush still continued to intercept the view,
so as to give the appearance that the figure had vanished. When I came
to the corner of the two walks, I caught sight of it again, and coming
up with it, I reached out my hand to touch it; and in the act of doing
this, the idea struck me, will my hand pass through the air, or shall I
feel any thing? Less than a moment would decide this, and my hand rested
on the shoulder of a human figure. I spoke, but do not recollect what I
said. It answered in a low voice, "Pray let me alone." I then knew who
it was. It was a young lady who was on a visit to Mrs. E------, and who,
when we sat down to supper, said she found herself extremely ill, and
would go to bed. I called to Mrs. E------, who came, and I said to her,
"It is Miss N------." Mrs. E------ said, "My God, I hope you are not
going to do yourself any hurt;" for Mrs. E------ suspected something.
She replied with pathetic melancholy, "Life has not one pleasure for
me." We got her into the house, and Mrs. E------ took her to sleep with
her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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