There is no doubt of the influence of climate on hallucinations. The European character is neither that of the Asiatic nor the African. Their expression of countenance, actions, and temperaments differ; their modes of seeing and thinking are no less distinct. There is no doubt that forms of government contribute to impress a special stamp on nations; but we are no less convinced that ideas vary according to the peculiar character of the individual. As a proof of this action of climate, we need only refer to the theological and cosmogonical creations of the North, whose physiognomy is so gigantic, savage, and terrible; to the impressibility of the Laplanders, Ostyaks, and Sa-moeides, and to that world of invisible beings who yet people their solitudes.* In comparing these conceptions with those of the enchanted worlds of Greece and America, there is no one but will recognize a perfect harmony existing between the creations and the character of the respective countries. The influence of climate on the imagination did not escape St. Cyprian, who said that the Christians who suffered martyrdom in Africa were more subject to celestial visions than those who underwent it in other countries of the Roman Empire.†

This question, on which we do not, however, possess sufficient information, is worthy of notice; hereafter, it mm be studied out more completely.

Hallucinations, viewed in regard to situation, present very remarkable differences; the hallucinations of cities are often distinguished from those of the country by very sensible shades. Thus, whilst the personality of passions, the absence of belief, and doubt, will be reflected on the first, on the second a character of ignorance and superstition will be imprinted. The fantastic traditions of the Middle Ages are far from being effaced in Europe. The most civilized countries, France, England, and

* The northern countries have long been regarded as the dwelling-place of demons and magicians. Broc. Essai sur les Races Humaines, considered sous les Rapports Anatomique et Philosophique, 1836, 1 vol. 8vo.

† In Actis Martyram, p. 87.

Germany, could produce volumes. On this subject travellers may be consulted, who have amused themselves with collecting popular traditions; one of them relates the following as a belief of Franche Comte: "On the platform of Haute-Pierre, another Melusina is sometimes seen to pass, a being half woman and half serpent; it is the Vouivre. She has no eyes, but a large carbuncle in her forehead guides her like a brilliant orb, day and night. On bathing in the rivers, she is obliged to lay the carbuncle on the ground, and if she could then be secured, the whole race of genii could be commanded, and all the treasures brought forth from the mountains; but it is an adventure too dangerous to be attempted; for at the least noise, the Vouivre darts from the river, and woe to him whom she encounters."*

The English sailor, a stranger to all other fear, owns the dread with which Old Nick (the devil) inspires him; he looks on him as the author of almost all the various calamities to which his precarious life so constantly exposes him.

The Bar Guest, or Bhar Ghiest, a name under which this spirit is generally known in several districts of England, particularly in Yorkshire, is also called Dobie; it is a local spectre haunting a particular spot, under different shapes, and is, as its name indicates, a divinity of Teutonic origin.†

Solitude is an influence that attaches itself to places. In fact, it seldom fails to produce a sort of hallucination or ecstasy, especially in very imaginative persons. The recitals made in the Eastern deserts, and the faith of the individuals who traverse them, reveal the supremacy of this cause; but it is evident from observation that they vary according to situation, and that the hallucinations of the steppes of the North, are not those of the burning plains of the South.

In pointing out hallucinations caused by physical excitement, we would remind our readers of those which can be produced at will, by attracting the sun on to a plate of glass, and instantly directing the eyes to the darkest corner of the room.

* Xavier Marmier, Souvenirs de Voyages et Traditions Populaires, p. 73.

† On this interesting subject may be consulted Les recits de la muse populaire, par M. Emile Souvestre, Revue des Deux Mondes, t. iii. 850, p. 243, etc. Les visions de la nuit dans les campagnes, par Georges Sand, who has highly commended our work. Illustration, 13th December, 1851. Erreurs et prejuges des Pay sans, par M. J. Laprade. Illustration, No. 453, 454, 455, and 460,1851.

Amongst other facts relative to this experiment, Darwin relates the following: "I covered a piece of paper of four inches square with yellow, and wrote in the middle, in capital letters, in blue, the word BANKS. Sitting down, with my back towards the sun, I gazed intently for a minute on the middle letter, N. Having closed my eyes, and covered them with my hand, I distinctly perceived the word in yellow letters on a blue ground; and then opening my eyes, and looking on a wall about twenty paces distant, I read the word Banks, considerably enlarged, written on the wall in letters of gold.

"A friend of mine had been very attentively examining, with his head lowered, a small engraving of the Virgin and Child. On raising his head, he was surprised to see, at the end of the room, a female figure, of the size of life, with a child in her arms. The first surprise over, he understood the source of the illusion, and remarked that the figure corresponded exactly with that in the engraving. The illusion lasted for two minutes."*

The state of the atmosphere may give rise to singular visions; all who have crossed the deserts and the sea,* know the phenomenon of the mirage. General Daumas has related some curious examples in his translation of the Voyage of the Arab Sid-el-ag-Mohammed. The military, during their campaigns in Africa and Egypt, mostly saw fount!ins, rivers, trees, towns, armies, and fantastic creations, which on their approach changed into burning and arid sands.