It has been observed that an absolute scepticism on the theme of an invisible world can be maintained only by the aid of Hume's often repeated sophism—that no testimony can be held sufficient to establish an alleged fact, which is at variance with common experience; for it must not be denied that some few instances of the sort alluded to rest upon testimony in itself thoroughly unimpeachable. "At least let indulgence be given to the opinion that those almost universal superstitions which, in every age and nation, have implied the fact of occasional interferences of the dead with the living, ought not to be summarily dismissed as a mere folly of the vulgar, utterly unreal, until our knowledge of the spiritual world is so complete as shall entitle us to affirm that no such interferences can, in the nature of things, ever have taken place. The mere supposition of there being any universal persuasion, which is totally groundless, not only in its form and adjuncts, but in its substance, does some violence to the principles of human reasoning, and is clearly of dangerous consequence."[1] So writes Mr. Isaac Taylor, adding, that whether such and such alleged facts happen to come to us mingled with gross popular errors, or not, is a circumstance of little importance in determining the degree of attention they may deserve—the one question to be considered being this: Is the evidence that sustains them in any degree substantial?[2] He is, indeed, of opinion that almost all instances of alleged supernatural appearances may easily be disposed of, either on the ground of the fears and superstitious impressions of the parties recording them, or on that of the diseased action of the nervous system, which, in certain conditions, generates visual illusions of the most distinct kind;[3] but he contends that no such explanations will meet the many instances, thoroughly well attested, in which the death of a relative, at a distance, has been conveyed, in all its circumstances, to persons during sleep;
- ↑ Physical Theory of Another Life. Chap. xvii.
- ↑ "Shall we allow," he asks, "an objector to put an end to our scientific curiosity on the subject, for instance, of somnambulism, by saying, 'Scores of these accounts have turned out to be exaggerated or totally untrue?'—or, 'This walking in the sleep ought not to be thought possible, or as likely to be permitted by the Benevolent Guardian of human welfare?'" Our business is, first, to obtain a number of distinct, and unimpeschable, and intelligent witnesses; and then, to adjust the results of their testimony, as well as we can, to other parts of our philosophy of human nature.
Mr. Taylor, let us add, gravely conjectures, what we cannot so gravely quote, that, as almost all natural modes of life are open to some degree of irregularity, and admit exceptive cases, so the pressure of the innumerable community of the dead, toward the precincts of life, arising from a yearning after the lost corporeity, or after the expected corporeity, may, in certain cases, actually break through the boundaries that hem in the ethereal crowds, and that so it may happen, as if by trespass, that the dead may, in single instances, infringe upon the ground of common corporeal life. If so, it is inexcusable that the "residuary establishment" of ghosts, though "non-intrusionists," or rather because they are so, should not despatch after the stray ghost the ghost of a "Peeler," armed with special warrant, or whatever is their analogue to our "Habeas corpus."
- ↑ By the way, it was once observed by Coleridge, that in all the best attested stories of ghosts and visions, as in that of Brutus, of Archbishop Cranmer, that of Benvenuto Cellini, recorded by himself, and the vision of Galileo, communicated by him to his favourite pupil Torricelli, the ghost-seers were in a state of cold or chilling damp from without, and from anxiety inwardly. "'Twas bitter cold, and they were sick at heart, and not a mouse stirring." his "Literary Remains" (Notes on Shakspeare).
