Sketches of the Philosophy of Apparitions: Or, An Attempt to Trace Such Illusions to Their Physical Causes |
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action actual angels apparitions appeared arise attended become blood body called cause CHAPTER connected consciousness considered continued degree of vividness devil dreams effect evident excitement existence explain eyes faint Fancy fear feelings figure frequently ghosts give given going hand heard human ideas illusions illustration images imagination imparted impressions increased induced influence instance intense kind less light living manner means mental mind morbific nature never night notice notion object observed occasion occur operation opinion organs origin painful particular past person phantasms pleasurable present principle produced reason regard remarks rendered renovated result rise says seen sensations sensations and ideas sense shape similar sleep sometimes Soul spectral spectral illusions spectral impressions spirits stage of excitement supposed thing thou thought tion various vision vivifying whole writer
Popular passages
Page 45 - I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil : and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, — As he is very potent with such spirits, — Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds More relative than this: — the play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Page 139 - How oft do they their silver bowers leave, To come to succour us that succour want ! How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting...
Page 190 - It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature ; or that there is no further state to come, unto which this seems progressional, and otherwise made in vain.
Page 461 - HAMLET. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel ? POLONIUS. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. HAMLET. Methinks it is like a weasel. POLONIUS. It is backed like a weasel. HAMLET. Or like a whale? POLONIUS. Very like a whale.
Page 268 - True, I talk of dreams ; Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air, And more inconstant than the wind...
Page 389 - A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer sky...
Page 409 - Arms, and the dusty field, I less admire, And soften strangely in some new desire; Honour burns in me not so fiercely bright, But pale as fires when...
Page 134 - Spirits, when they please, Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh ; but, in what shape they choose, Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Can execute their aery purposes, 430 And works of love or enmity fulfil.
Page 139 - Therefore for spirits, I am so far from denying their existence, that I could easily believe that not only whole countries, but particular persons have their tutelary and guardian angels.
Page 209 - Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions, as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it : and I willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent compliment, which so many that believe the Bible pay to those who do not believe it.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Sketches of the Philosophy of Apparitions: Or, An Attempt to Trace Such Illusions to Their Physical Causes |
| Author | Samuel Hibbert |
| Edition | 2 |
| Publisher | Oliver & Boyd, 1825 |
| Length | 475 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |