normal relations, was withheld from their notice by the physical structure which encompassed them. But if so, it should seem that a deviation from perfect action, that is, a morbid state, is supposed to be necessary for the perception of spiritual objects; and since the state of health is the most perfect state, it follows, that an imperfect, or altered, or diseased condition of the brain, is necessary to the perception of these spiritual beings: so that the point in dispute is granted to a certain extent, or at least, it is resolved into this form, Whether apparitions in general be the creation of a peculiar mode of cerebral irritation ; or whether apparitions being real spiritual existences, this peculiar irritation is necessary to their perception. Now if it be thus granted, that a morbid state must exist, it will surely be much more consonant with reason, and with our experience of the Divine government, that intellectual and sensorial illusions should be the production of irritated brain, rather than that disease should be produced in order to confer an additional power upon the brain, to enlarge its faculties, and to enable it to receive notices, which would in no other way be obtained. If the contrary position were assumed, who is to decide the kind and degree of this morbid state which may be neces sary to confer the requisite additional power? and who is to distinguish between this morbid state and many forms of incipient insanity? That a morbid state exists, is allowed by all; that this state is produced in order to confer the power of supernatural vision, is assumed by the writer of the paper on which I am commenting; that it is in itself the cause of alleged supernatural appearances, is contended for by the present essayist: and the issue is by him securely left to the decision of every unprejudiced mind. That portion of the Sacred History to which the above-mentioned writer refers, (" And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, round about Elisha," 2 Kings vi. 17,) is, throughout, the account of a miraculous interference of the God of Providence for the preservation of his people Israel. But we know that the age of miracles has ceased, and we do not now expect them: any reasoning, therefore, which is founded upon such a presumption, is clearly untenable, and contrary to the usual course of God's moral government of the world. Further, there appears at the present hour to be an irritable dread of scepticism, as connected with this question. Now I believe that a tendency to scepticism exists, but not in the way which has been supposed. The human heart inclines to practical infidelity; it longs to forget its accountability; and it desires to live without God in the world. In this awful state of alienation from God, it will prove a soothing and consolatory reflection, if it can be brought to believe that the existence of spiritual beings can only be perceived during the prevalence of a peculiar mental state, over which it has no kind of influence; because it will naturally say, that other manifestations of mind of a morbid character may be placed to the score of some other mental irritation, equally dependant upon supernatural agency, and equally involuntary; and thus moral responsibility is destroyed; and disbelief of revelation treads very closely upon the footsteps of this fatal delusion. But if man's accountability be upheld, and the supremacy of his own will be maintained, and these supernatural appearances be accounted for as the result of brainular action, after it has been separated from the controul of the presiding mind, by a physiological action, such as sleep, or by a pa thological condition, such as impending disease, he finds no way of escape for himself, and is brought back to the holy law of God which he has broken, and to the consequences which have flowed from its infraction. dividuals so circumstanced, while it estimates as very little worth the explanations of reason and science; and the declared experience, not of those who have never seen apparitions, but of those who, having seen them as much as their more credulous neighbours, have not been deluded into a belief of their reality, but have been enabled to account for them upon physical principles. Surely the voice of reason and reflection, aided by the experience of the great majority of mankind, and supported by the known laws of physical temperament, as they affect the manifestations of mind, deserve an equal share of attention with the clamours of the illiterate, and the representations of the prejudiced few, in whom predominant fear has superseded the sober realities of life, and converted the effects of a morbid brainular condition, into an imaginary creation, which by its hold upon the feelings, and by its powerful appeal to the passions, has carried the mind out of itself, has cast away the anchor of sober reasoning, and has placed it in an ocean of conflicting elements, where it has ceased to be mistress of its own actions, and where it has yielded the helm of thought to the direction and government of the fancy. And when to this part of the argument is added the fact, that the existence and agency of a Supreme Superintending Power, is not called in question, but that His ways ears are Many excellent persons are afraid of the liberality of the day, and of the assumed expansion of intellectual manifestation with which it stands connected. It is with them almost a proof of heterodoxy, if sentiments like the above be avowed; and to impugn the long received opinions as to the reality of apparitions, is placed to the account of a restless desire to be over-wise, and to explain natural phenomena without the intervention of a superintending Providence. But this is unfair, and inconsequential: for, the more intimately we become acquainted with the rationale of the operations of God in the works of nature, the more must the heart be affected with the wisdom, and knowledge, and power, and goodness, and love, displayed in the endless and exquisite contrivances of his infinite mercy; and the more will it rest with confidence on the moral agency of this all-perfect Being, and be prepared to serve him with full purpose of heart, and to receive with meekness and obedience the revelation of his will. On the contrary, it requires the most inordinate stretch of imagination, to believe all the histories of apparitions with which our assailed. Yet if the correctness of one tale be admitted, it will naturally be asked, why not believe all, since all rest upon the same basis, namely, human testimony. This basis, however, unless where the testimony is full, and above the possibility of mistake or error, is not a safe foundation for belief, since it is liable to be acted upon by so many prejudices, that its results are often erroneous, and demand the closest scrutiny. That is a species of spurious charity which affects a great degree of tenderness for the reports of in are justified, surely a very strong case is made out in favour of the hypothesis, that the supposed spiritual agency is for the most part ascribable to the action and operation of physical causes. And yet, such is now the case. The providence of God is universally diffused; and so far as we can trace its ways, we find its actions governed by some fixed principles, and operating through the medium of natural means: therefore we do not expect an interference with the ordinary course by which he governs nature, except upon some occasion which would be of sufficient importance to account for such a deviation. In the moral government of the universe, we find the same employment of moral means. The moral law is promulgated as the will of God for the guidance of his creatures; and grace and strength are promised to those who seek them; the Holy Spirit to those who ask; the power and blessing of the Most High to such as diligently wait upon him in the way of his appointment. Then again, a great reward is promised to the righteous, to those who keep his laws, not as an act of merit, but as they are enabled to do so by the grace and strength vouchsafed in the employment of the prescribed means. The mansions of the blessed are prepared for those who hear the voice of the Great Shepherd, obey and follow him: the crown of glory is given to him that overcometh; the welcome reception of "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," is reserved for those who had given food to the hungry, and drink to the thirsty, and had received the strangers and the houseless, clothed the naked, visited and succoured the sick and the wretched, and had extended aid to every form of misery, not simply to that which obtruded itself upon their notice, but which was by circumstances concealed from view. "Inasmuch as ye have done it," says Christ, "unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Again, those who appear with white robes, with palms in their hands, are they "who have come out of much tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple." God is a God of love, infinite in compassion, and of tender mercy; his invitations and urgent entreaties to sinners to turn unto him are unbounded. But in all these instances an appeal is made to the moral constitution of man's mind. And it is evident, that the Almighty longsuffering Jehovah sees fit to act rather upon the hopes than the fears of his creatures, so that the denunciations of his vengeance are only upon the finally impenitent. Yet no mention is made of supernatural agency; of deviations from the ordinary course of nature or the revealed will of God; or of spiritual influence, except through the medium of moral means, and providential circumstances. It is upon these that the mind should be fixed for the purpose of extracting a lesson of usefulness: here are to be found every where, the traces of a Supreme and Superintending Power of infinite goodness, and wisdom, and mercy; it is here that the ways of God to man are justified, and that he is left without excuse, if he refuses to receive Christ, and to obey his laws; whereas, if the reins be once given to imagination, every kind of alleged supernatural influence must be admitted, every variety of vision, all the Protean forms of dreaming, every supposed apparition, all the voices that have ever been heard, all the chosen offspring of enthusiasm, all the unexplained lights and shades, all the contentions of good and evil spirits for the mastery, and every other creation of superstition must be received as spiritual agents; the mind is lost in the wildest and most unlimited speculation; and, to say the very least, it has no means of judging whether the apparition has been produced to answer a good end, or only to deceive through the malignant influence of the arch-fiend. Besides, so many instances have occurred in which no conceivable good could have been produced, that we are justified, even on this ground, in believing that such supernatural agency, or rather supposed agency, is inconsistent with the ordinary course of God's most perfect Providence, and therefore is not lightly to be believed. When, moreover, a natural explanation can be found, for that which is not conceivable without much difficulty upon any other principle, it is the duty of the Christian, humbly to accept such explanation; especially when it offers a beautiful exposition of how far the spiritual principle is modified in its manifestations, by the debasing influence of that primæval Fall, which separated man from his Maker, and occasioned the loss of the image of God upon his heart, by which he became " very far gone from original righteousness," and "the servant of sin." So far then from impugning the wisdom, restraining the power, or limiting the agency of Omnipotence, by withdrawing it from the shadowy wand of superstition, his perfect knowledge, and his holy operation, are vindicated from the unhallowed creations of mortality; the vagaries of imagination are distinguished from the suggestion of his Spirit; the influence of the Word of God, and of that unwritten Iword which is found in the heart and conscience of every man, is defined and separated from those words, and that influence, which result from a disordered state of the animal fibre. Hope and fear, joy and sorrow, desire and love, obedience and transgression, are snatched from the dominion of supernatural influence, and are placed on a just basis; namely, the grace of God which bringeth salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, revealed to us by his word, and by his providence, and received or rejected by the sinner. In fact, they only impugn the power of Omnipotence who question the agency upon spiritual mind, of its organic medium of manifestation; and who doubt, nay deny, that disorder of this material medium may be, or rather must be, followed by defective, or excessive, or perverted manifestation; who deny in fact, that primary or sympathetic irritation of the brain is insufficient to account for the appearances in question; as if it was not in the power of Almighty God, to make as it hath pleased him an organ for this very purpose, and for the reception and communication of moral cause and effect. Let the humble and sincere Christian constantly lift his heart in adoration and gratitude to that beneficent Creator and Lawgiver, who preserves from disorder a function of such exquisite delicacy, and possessed of such fearful interest. The influence of the nitrousoxigen gas has been alluded to in this discussion, and it has been represented as capable of producing a state of the cerebral system, peculiarly favourable to the production of so-called apparitions. And this is true to a certain extent, inasmuch as it occasions that incipient morbid action which has been shewn to be prolific of spectral visions and imaginings: but the more important truth has not been mentioned; namely, that the effect of this article varies according to the peculiarity of physical temperament, or to the varying condition of that temperament at the moment. Thus it affords an excellent exposition of two principles; first, as to the creation of apparitions, and unreal images, from a cause operating exclusively on the brain and nervous system; and next, that the specific character of these images, arising from the same source of cerebral irritation, will vary according to the expression of predominant constitution; or to its fluctuating state at the time of receiving the morbid stimulus; nay more, that, the peculiar temperament of the individual being given, the precise effect may be calculated beforehand. Now the effect of inhaling the nitrous oxygen gas will differ upon half a dozen specimens of the same creature, man. One shall be outrageously joyous and happy; another shall be excited to the most incredible muscular efforts, till he sinks subdued by exhaustion; a third shall exhibit the common symptoms of intoxication, after the first effects of alcoholic stimulus have passed; a fourth will lose all power of volition and apparent consciousness, will seem abstracted from this world, and will tell of blissful visions; and a fifth will sink into a state of stupid reverie, from which it is impossible to recal him, and from which he wakens in total oblivion of the interval between inhaling the gas, and his return to consciousness; and all these varying effects will have been produced in a few seconds. Moreover, in all these variations of morbid action, there may be, according to the peculiar excitation or depression of the brainular system, the creation of unreal images or apparitions, which shall be presented to the patient with all the energy and vividness of truth. And further, this state is exceedingly transient, and will soon give way to a languid condition arising from the feebleness consequent upon morbid excitement; and presently, to the resumption of the usual mental manifestations. But, if we trace all these effects to the influence of one physical agent operating upon the brain, and if we know that there are others of a similar, though not identical nature, it is not difficult to conceive that there may be other morbid states which will concur in the production of this particular influence. We shall here mention an illustration or two of this position. C. D. had been taking the extract of belladona (deadly nightshade), for a painful affection of the nerves of the face. After a few doses had been exhibited, I was surprised one morning, on finding this lady conducted into the room by her servant, because she could not see the pupil of her eye was dilated to the utmost, the retina paralysed, and natural vision destroyed. Yet in this case, varying forms of exceeding loveliness and beauty in quick and rapid succession, were presented to the mental This effect was contemplation. transient, and soon gave way to appropriate treatment; and moreover, my patient was a lady of great intelligence, and was aware of the cause of these appearances: but had she possessed a contracted mind, or been ignorant or doubtful as to the physical influence under which she laboured, the apparitions would have been pronounced supernatural; and the simplest accidental brainular phenomena would have been dignified with an importance, which ought in justice to be reserved for proper occasions, but which in this case would have been constituted an object of superstitious hope, or fear, or reverence, according to the peculiar physical temperament of the patient, and the coin- .* cident predominance of cheerful, gloomy, or serious modes and habits of thought and action. Finally, let it be remarked, that in proportion as this morbid state subsided, the visions disappeared, and were completely gone when the optic nerve had thoroughly regained its power. E. F., under the influence of stramonium, related to me the delight he had experienced from the cessation of pain, under its soothing agency, but detailed, as a great inconvenience attending its employment, the numberless and grotesque forms and images with which he had been assailed during the night; these having become onerous from their constant repetition, and often disagreeable from their horrible grimaces. A similar effect has been observed - from digitalis, aconite, solanum tuberosum, hyosciamus, opium, and other narcotic medicines. With regard to opium, its influence in the production of unreal images of persons and things, has been well described in the "Confessions of an Opium Eater;" a little pamphlet, which, with much to blame, and much that his fanciful, enthusiastic, and sinister about it, possesses the merit of being for the most part true to nature, and particularly as it respects the unreal world, into which |