ing. Both his conversion and visions were utterly forgotten, and not until many years later did he enter upon a religious life.
Fifth. A consideration of great weight is this: the Catholic Church confers great honor upon the Holy Virgin; Protestants seldom make any reference to her. Trained as the former are to supplicate the sympathy and prayers of the mother of our Lord, I am informed by devout priests and by physicians that when they have visions of any kind she generally appears in the foreground. Among the visions which dying Protestants have been supposed to see I have heard of only two in which the Virgin figured, and these were seen by persons trained in their youth as Catholics.
APPARITIONS
The passage most frequently quoted on the subject of apparitions is that which Dr. Johnson, in "Rasselas," puts into the mouth of the sage Imlac:
All authorities agree that Dr. Johnson was superstitious and credulous, and this passage when critically examined does not seem to be entitled to the weight which its clearness of statement and his great name