FANTASY FROM SYMPATHY WITH THE BRAIN. Philosophy of Moral Causes.-Effect of Thought and of the Function of the Stomach in producing physical Changes in the Brain.-Stories in Proof of this Influence.-Illusions from Derangements of Vision.-Curious Cases of ocular Spectra from peculiar Conditions of the Eye.... Page 104-116 ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SPECTRAL ILLU- SION. Credulity.-Arrangement of Causes of Spectral Illusion.-Illustration of Atmospheric Illusions.-Natural Phenomena.-Fata Morgana.-Schat- tenman of the Brocken.-Romance of unlettered Minds........ 126-144 Elemental Causes.-Impositions at Woodstock.-Tedworth.-Cock Lane.- Subterranean Sounds.-Currents of Air. - Memnon. - Phonic Instru- Classic and Indian Mythology.-Imbodying of a Demon.-Stories Illustra- tive of the Superstitions of Ireland and Cornwall.--Legend of the Change- lings.-Poetry of Nature.-Preadamite Beings..... ...... 168-179 Psychology of the Greeks and of the Moderns.-Essence of Phrenology.- Unconsciousness of Sleep.-Necessity of Slumber.-Malady of Collins.- Somnolency of the Brute and of Savages.-Periods of Sleep.-Sleepless- SUBLIMITY AND IMPERFECTION OF DREAMING. Unconsciousness of the Dream.-Arguments on this Question.-Episode of Ancient Prophetic Dreams.-Stories of modern Prophecies in Dreaming 215-223 Description of Trance.-Legends of Deep Sleepers.-Stories of Modern - 365-376 PREMATURE INTERMENT.-RESUSCITATION. Stories in Illustration.-Romance, Life in Death.-Causes of Resuscitation. TRANSMIGRATION.-ANALYSIS OF TRANCE. State of the Spirit after Death.-Fables of Transmigration.-Superstition in India and England. -Tenacity of Life. -Hybernation.-Sleep of Plants. Its Origin.-Commissions for its Investigation.-Caspar Hauser.-Sensa- tions of Magnetism.-Magnetized Trees.-Operations during Magnetic Trance.-Transference of Senses.-Mineral Traction.-Clairvoyance.- Trance of Santa Theresa.-Prophetess of Prevorst.-Magnetic Aura.- Personal Sympathy.--Socrates.-Fascino.-Prince Hohenlohe 403-429 THE CHALLENGE. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, THERE was a shallop floating on the Wye, among the gray rocks and leafy woods of Chepstow. Within it were two fair girls reclining: the one blending the romantic wildness of a maid of Italy with the exquisite purity of English nature; the other illuming with the devotion of a vestal the classic beauty of a Greek. There was a young and learned bachelor sitting at the helm. Study had stamped an air of thoughtfulness on his brow; yet a smile was ever playing on his lips, as his heart felt the truth and influence of the beautiful life around him. Listen, gentle reader, we pray thy courtesy and thy patience, as a rude, unskilful pen traces the breathed thoughts of these wanderers of the Wye. CASTALY. We have roamed, dear Ida, among the classic lands of the far-off Mediterranean: we have looked from her pinnacles of snow on the silvery gleaminess of Switzerland, and from purple sierras on the sunny splendour of Spain; yet these English meadows, with their fringes of wild bloom, come o'er the heart with all the freshness of an infant's dream. Yon majestic crag of Wyndcliff is flinging its purple shadows athwart the water, and floods of golden glory are streaming through the beech-woods of Piercefield; and see, our little sail, white as the wing of a swan, is wafting us towards Abbey Tintern, along this beautiful valley, where the river almost doubles on itself; meandering among its mead-flowers and its mosses, as loth to leave its luxuriant bed. Listen! the breath of evening is among the trees that dip in the ripple of the Wye their leaves of shivering gold. What a scene for minions of the moon to revel in! Say, shall we charm the lingering hours of this midsummer night among the ivied cloisters of the abbey ? But where is Astrophel, our moon-struck student, who, like Chaucer's scholar, keeps "at his bed's head, A twenty books clothed in black and red, They have not taught him courtesy, or he would not steal away from the light of our eyes to commune with owls and ivy-bushes. Yet we promise him our smile for your sake, Evelyn. Indeed, I am thinking his mysteries will chime in admirably with the solemnity of this lone abbey. We appoint him master of our revels. EVELYN. Let your smile be in pity, fair Castaly, on the illusions of Astrophel. Ensconced in his dark closet, within a charmed ring of black-letter folios, he has wofully warped his studies, and has read himself into the belief that he is a GIFTED SEER. Yet love him, lady, for his virtues; for his history is a very paradox. His heart is melting with charity for the beings of earth, yet his mind is half weaned from their fellowship. At his imminent peril, he leaps into the Isis to save a drowning boy, and the world calls him misanthrope withal. It is the fate indeed of many a cloistered scholar, whose |