You believe then in apparitions, said my visitor. MONTESINOS. Even so, Sir. That such things should be, is probable à priori; and I cannot refuse assent to the strong evidence that such* things are, nor to the common consent which has prevailed among all people, every where, in all ages; a belief indeed which is truly catholic, in the widest acceptation of the word. I am, by in * Concerning one of these stories, Boswell relates the following conversation. Johnson had been saying, that Wesley could talk well on any subject. BoswELL. Pray, Sir, what has he made of his story of a ghost? JOHNSON. Why, Sir, he believes it, but not on sufficient evidence. He did not take time enough to examine the girl. It was at Newcastle, where the ghost was said to have appeared to a young woman several times, mentioning something about the right to an old house, advising application to be made to an attorney, which was done; and at the same time saying the attorney would do nothing, which proved to be the fact. This, says John, is a proof that a ghost knows our thoughts. Now (laughing) it is not necessary to know our thoughts to tell that an attorney will sometimes do nothing. Charles Wesley, who is a more stationary man, does not believe the story. I am sorry that John did not take more pains to inquire into the evidence for it. MISS SEWARD (with an incredulous smile). What, Sir! about a ghost? JOHNSON (with solemn vehemence). Yes, Madam: this is a question which, after five thousand years, is yet undecided; a question, whether in theology or philosophy, one of the most important that can come before the human understanding. quiry and conviction, as well as by inclination and feeling, a Christian; life would be intolerable to me if I were not so. But, But, says SaintEvremont," the most devout cannot always command their belief, nor the most impious their incredulity." I acknowledge with Sir Thomas Brown, that " as in philosophy, so in divinity, there are sturdy doubts and boisterous objections, wherewith the unhappiness of our knowledge too nearly acquainteth us;" and I confess with him that these are to be conquered, "not in a martial posture, but on our knees." If then there are moments wherein I, who have satisfied my reason, and possess a firm and assured faith, feel that I have in this opinion a strong hold,..I cannot but perceive that they who have endeavoured to dispossess the people of their old instinctive belief in such things, have done little service to individuals, and much injury to the community. STRANGER. Do you extend this to a belief in witchcraft? MONTESINOS. The common stories of witchcraft confute themselves, as may be seen in all the trials for that offence. Upon this subject I would say with my old friend Charles Lamb, I do not love to credit tales of magic! Heaven's music, which is order, seems unstrung, (The mystery of God) unbeautified, Disordered, marr'd, where such strange things are acted. The only inference which can be drawn from the confession of some of the poor wretches who have suffered upon such charges, is, that they had attempted to commit the crime, and thereby incurred the guilt and deserved the punishment.* Of this indeed there have been recent instances; and in one atrocious case, the criminal escaped, because the statute against the imaginary offence is obsolete, and there exists no law which could reach the real one. STRANGER. He who may wish to show with what absurd perversion the forms and technicalities of law are applied to obstruct the purposes of justice, which they were designed to further, may find excellent examples in England. But leaving this, allow me to ask whether you think all the stories which are related of an intercourse be *Our witches are justly hanged, says Dryden, because they think themselves to be such; and suffer deservedly for believing they did mischief, because they meant it.-Essay of Dramatic Poesy. tween men and beings of a superior order, good or evil, are to be disbelieved like the vulgar tales of witchcraft? MONTESINOS. If you happen, Sir, to have read some of those ballads which I threw off in the high spirits of youth, you may judge what my opinion then was of the grotesque demonology of the monks and middle ages, by the use there made of it. But in the scale of existences there may be as many orders above us, as below. We know there are creatures so minute, that without the aid of our glasses they could never have been discovered; and this fact, if it were not notorious as well as certain, would appear not less incredible to sceptical minds than that there should be beings, which are invisible to us because of their subtlety. That there are such, I am as little able to doubt, as I am to affirm any thing concerning them; but if there are such, why not evil spirits, as well as wicked men? Many travellers who have been conversant with savages have been fully persuaded that their jugglers actually possessed some means of communication with the invisible world, and exercised a supernatural power which they derived from it. And not missionaries only have believed this, and old travellers who lived in ages of credulity, but more recent observers, such as Carver and Bruce, whose testimony is of great weight, and who were neither ignorant, nor weak, nor credulous men. What I have read concerning ordeals, also staggers me; and I am sometimes inclined to think it more possible, that when there has been full faith on all sides, these appeals to divine justice may have been answered by Him who sees the secrets of all hearts, than that modes of trial should have prevailed so long and so generally, from some of which no person could ever have escaped without an interposition of *Providence. Thus it has appeared to me in my calm and unbiassed judgement. Yet I confess I should want faith to make the trial. May it not be, that by such means in dark ages, and among blind nations, the purpose is effected of preserving conscience and the belief of our immortality, without which the life of our life would be extinct? And with regard to the conjurers of the African and 1 * The Rocking Stone placed the decision entirely in the power of the priests; but the ordeal of boiling water, or boiling oil, and some of those in which red hot iron was used, left no means of escape by contrivance, and no possibility of escaping by chance. I think it is Forbes (in his Oriental Memoirs) who mentions a remarkable case at which he was present himself, and where there could have been no collusion. |