Case XXV

One day, in the year 1652, Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, saw something white, like a spread sheet, about a yard from the head of his bed.

He attempted to seize it, but it slid away to the foot, and disappeared. His thoughts immediately turned to his wife, who was at Networth with her father, the Earl of Northumberland. On his arrival at Networth, a servant met him at the foot of the staircase, and gave him a letter from his wife, whom he found in company with Lady Essex, and her sister Mrs. Ramsey. They questioned him on the reason of his sudden return, which he made known, and on reading the letter he found it was to hasten his return, as his wife had seen something white, and a black figure, at her bedside. These apparitions were seen by the earl and countess at the same time, although the two were forty miles apart.*

Case XXVI

A young man of eighteen, quite free from enthusiastic, romantic, or superstitious tendencies, was at Rams-gate for his health. Walking one day in a neighboring village, he entered a church about the close of day, and was struck with terror to see a spectre of his mother, who had died, several months before, of a wasting and painful disease that had excited much pity in her attendants. The figure remained immovable for a considerable time, and stood between him and the wall. Almost fainting, he reached his lodging; the same apparition appearing for several successive nights in his room, he felt so ill that he hastened to return to Paris, where his father lived. At the same time he resolved not to mention the vision to him, fearing to add to his distress for the loss of an adored wife.

Obliged to sleep in his father's room, he was surprised to find a night-lamp burning, which was contrary to their custom, and in direct opposition to their tastes. After several hours of restlessness caused by the light, the son got out of bed to extinguish it. The father immediately woke in great agitation, and desired him to light it again, which he did, very much surprised at his anger, and the fear betrayed on his features. His inquiries as to the cause of his terror were vaguely answered, but with a promise some day to explain it.

* Dendy, op. cti., p. 27.

About a week from this time, the son, being unable to sleep on account of the light, ventured a second time to extinguish it; but his father sprang out of bed, trembling very much, reproached him for his disobedience, and relighted it; when he owned that, whenever he was in the dark, the phantom of his wife appeared, stood immovable, nor vanished until the reintroduction of light. This recital deeply impressed the young man, and, fearing to augment the grief of his father by relating his Ramsgate adventure, he shortly after quitted Paris for a town in the interior about sixty miles off, to see a brother who was there at school, and to whom he had not confided what had happened to him, for fear of ridicule.

He had scarcely exchanged courtesies with the inmates of the house, when the son of the schoolmaster said to him: "Has your brother ever shown any symptoms of insanity? He came down stairs last night undressed, quite out of his mind, declaring that he had seen the ghost of his mother, and dared not return to his room, and he immediately fainted from fear."

Wigan says, if the apparition had been seen by these several persons at the same time, it would favor the opinion of those who maintain that the dead revisit the earth. This argument does not appear to us so irresistible as to Wigan, because, in the case of Lord Chesterfield, the vision appeared to the earl and countess at the same time. As to the apparition appearing successively to three persons, it can be explained by the lively affection they all felt for the deceased, by the distressing circumstances attending her last illness, and by a tendency to reproduce her image on closing the eyes.*