Introduction

At every epoch in the history of man - in the most opposite latitudes - under the most diverse governments - among all religions - we constantly find the same belief in ghosts and apparitions. How has so universal an opinion been established? Its source must evidently be sought in physical organization. In fact, if we study man in a physiological point of view, we perceive that he is governed by an irresistible desire for the unknown, which most generally exhibits itself in a love for the marvellous. The savage, who dreams of the Great Spirit, and of boundless hunting-grounds - the man of the Middle Ages, who kneels on the threshold of the purgatory of St. Patrick - the Arab, who wanders amid the enchanted palaces of the Thousand and One Nights - the Indian, who is absorbed in the incarnations of Brahma - the inhabitant of the civilized world, who, while professing to believe nothing, secretly consults a pythoness, or asks of magnetism what it cannot give - all obey this one desire to believe in something.

On a superficial view, we are surprised that opinions which so strongly resemble each other should have acquired so much power, and are tempted to inquire whether we are made up of error, the puppets of illusions; but looking deeper into the question, we perceive that they are but a deviation from the two great laws . of our existence - the knowledge of God, and of ourselves.

History and tradition agree on this point, that man came from the hands of his Creator pure, but free. Whilst reason guided him, error and superstition slept; but as soon as the abuse of liberty produced a forgetfulness of his origin, and of its inten-2 tion, his passions, no longer restrained, misled him; his mind became more and more bewildered. On the one side, tormented by the recollection of the point whence he started; on the other, led away by imagination, he plunged into a world of chimeras.

Imagination unceasingly strives to break the links which enchain her to reason; when that is accomplished, there are no fables, no strange beliefs, no singular illusions, no wild dreams that she will not disseminate. Bacon says we would rather believe than examine; and this disposition is powerfully shown in the infancy of the human mind. Few epochs have been so favorable to the triumphs of the imagination, as the Middle Ages; all kinds of fantastic creations seem there to have assembled. The air is filled with strange birds - the earth is overrun with terrible animals - the seas are peopled with monstrous fish; beyond the limits of the known world, are beautiful countries, new terrestrial paradises. Such beliefs, developed amidst the incursions of barbarians, the devastations of the earth, and the terrors of the end of the world, suggested the idea of an invisible power, which nothing could resist. Thus prepared, people listened with avidity to histories of spirits, and of sorcerers, the reciter frightening himself no less than his auditors. The explanation given by Malebranche, of the manner in which such opinions obtained credit, appears so just that it naturally merits a place here. A herdsman relates the adventures of the Sabbath, after supper, to his wife and his children. His imagination being somewhat exalted by the fumes of wine, he speaks with force and animation. Doubtless, the wife and children tremble with fear, convinced of the truth of all they have heard. It may be a husband, or a father, who speaks of what he has seen, of what he has done; they love and respect, why should they not believe him? These recitals, deeply graven on their memories, accumulate; their fears have passed away, but their convictions remain; finally, curiosity overcomes them. They anoint themselves; they go to rest; in their dreams they see the ceremonies of the Sabbath.* On rising, they relate their visions; they are resolved on belief, and he whose imagination is most vivid soon arranges the fanciful history of the Sabbath. Here we have at once sorcerers created by the herdsman, and they will make a host of others, unless fear prevents their reciting similar stories.

* The fact of the ointment is here verified.

Such, in fact, is the origin of a multitude of errors. Once admitted, they are repeated, then systematized, then reduced to doctrines, which are introduced into the mind amongst its earliest ideas, bring into subjection the finest understandings, and persist for ages, until reason, reasserting her rights, drives back imagination within proper limits.

When entire nations accept erroneous ideas as facts, and teach them by lessons, books, pictures, sculptures - in a word, by all the surroundings of social life - they become such that no one can overcome them without divine aid. The great men of the age partake to a certain extent of the opinions and prejudices of their contemporaries; but these false notions have no effect on their conduct The representatives of a necessary and useful idea - its incarnation, if I may so express myself - their mission is providential. They are driven by an irresistible impulse to do as they do, and their actions assert the development of the highest faculties of the human mind.

Let us apply these principles to the subject of our work, with the aid of some ideas borrowed from psychology. The outward world affects us, it invades all the senses, peoples the brain with millions of images, which an emotion, a passion, an abstraction, can suddenly reproduce with all their variety and diversity of coloring. Hence the desire that all have to feast on images. These pictured reminiscences, which impress us in two different modes, according to which they appear to us false or real, constitute the phenomena of hallucinations. But the senses are not the only sources of our ideas: some are derived from the soul, from God; these are general ideas, pure perceptions, which cannot be pictured; they only enter the region of hallucination by an overwrought abstraction; the form under which they are presented is but the result of the imperfection of our nature; the spirituality of man is not thereby affected.