Andrew Lang (EN) Cock Lane and Common Sense

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that Mrs. Sidgwick relegates the most meritorious and conscientious class of apparitions.
Let us examine a few instances of the ghost who visibly moves material objects. We take one (already cited)
from Mrs. Sidgwick's own article. {205} In this case a gentleman named John D. Harry scolded his daughters
for saying that they had seen a ghost, with which he himself was perfectly familiar. 'The figure,' a fair woman
draped in white, 'on seven or eight occasions appeared in my bedroom, and twice in the library, and on one
occasion it lifted up the mosquito-curtains, and looked closely into my face'. Now, could a hallucination lift
a mosquito-curtain, or even produce the impression that it did so, while the curtain was really unmoved?
Clearly a hallucination, however artful, and well got up, could do no such thing. Therefore a being a ghost
with very little maidenly reserve haunted the bedroom of Mr. Harry, if he tells a true tale. Again (p. 115), a
lady (on whose veracity I am ready to pledge my all) had doors opened for her frequently, 'as if a hand had
turned the handle'. And once she not only saw the door open, but a grey woman came in. Another witness,
years afterwards, beheld the same figure and the same performance. Once more, Miss A. M.'s mother
followed a ghost, who opened a door and entered a room, where she could not be found when she was wanted
(p. 121). Again, {206} a lady saw a ghost which, 'with one hand, the left, drew back the curtain'. There are
many other cases in which apparitions are seen in houses where mysterious thumps and raps occur, especially
in General Campbell's experience (p. 483). If the apparition gave the thumps then he (or, in this instance, she)
was material, and could produce effects on matter. Indeed, this ghost was seen to take up and lay down some
books, and to tuck in the bed-clothes. Hallucinations (which are all in one's eye or sensory centre, or cerebral
central terminus), cannot draw curtains, or open doors, or pick up books, or tuck in bed-clothes, or cause
thumps not real thumps, hallucinatory thumps are different. Consequently, if the stories are true, some
apparitions are ghosts, real objective entities, filling space. The senses of a hallucinated person may be
deceived as to touch, and as to feeling the breath of a phantasm (a likely story), as well as in sight and
hearing. But a visible ghost which produces changes in the visible world cannot be a hallucination. On the
other hand Dr. Binns, in his Anatomy of Sleep tells us of 'a gentleman who, in a dream, pushed against a door
in a distant house, so that those in the room were scarcely able to resist the pressure'. {207a} Now if this
rather staggering anecdote be true, the spirit of a living man, being able to affect matter, is also, so to speak,
material, and is an actual entity, an astral body. Moreover, Mrs. Frederica Hauffe, when in the magnetic
sleep, 'could rap at a distance'.
These arguments, then, make in favour of the old-fashioned theory of ghosts and wraiths, as things
objectively existing, which is very comforting to a conservative philosopher. Unluckily, just as many, or
more, anecdotes look quite the other way. For instance, General Barter sees, hears, and recognises the dead
Lieutenant B., wearing a beard which he had grown since the general saw him in life. He also sees the
hill-pony ridden by Mr. B., and killed by him a steed with which, in its mortal days, the general had no
acquaintance. This is all very well: a dead pony may have a ghost, like Miss A. B.'s dog which was heard by
one Miss B., and seen by the other, some time after its decease. On mature reflection, as both ladies were
well-known persons of letters, we suppress their names, which would carry the weight of excellent character
and distinguished sense. But Lieutenant B. was also accompanied by two grooms. Now, it is too much to ask
us to believe that he had killed two grooms, as he killed the pony. {207b} Consequently, they, at least, were
hallucinations; so what was Lieutenant B.? When Mr. K., on board the Racoon, saw his dead father lying in
his coffin (p. 461), there was no real coffin there, at all events; and hence, probably, no real dead father's
APPARITIONS, GHOSTS, AND HALLUCINATIONS. 71
Cock Lane and Common-Sense
ghost, only a 'telepathic hallucination'. Miss Rose Morton could never touch the female ghost which she
often chased about the house, nor did this ghost break or displace the threads stretched by Miss Morton across
the stairs down which the apparition walked. Yet its footsteps did make a noise, and the family often heard
the ghost walking downstairs, followed by Miss Morton. Thus this ghost was both material and immaterial,
for surely, only matter can make a noise when in contact with matter. On the whole, if the evidence is worth [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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