"of a man, was placed in a water-dish, "and covered with another plate, there appeared next morning, in the mass, "figures of men fixed to the cross.”

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Another philosopher relates, that, when - fresh earth from a church-yard was put into an oblong plate, after the performance of certain ceremonies, a thousand spectres were visible in it.

During the sixteenth century, preparations from the human skull were favourite remedies: the moss which was found on skulls long-interred, and the bones reduced to powder, were often prescribed. In a very respectable work, WEPFER'S Historia Apoplecticorum, there is a dissertation on this subject, by Dr. Emanuel Kænig,* in which he asserts, that on those nights when the human skull was pounded in the apothecary's

*Wepfer. Histor. Apoplectic. p. 459.

house, the family was alarmed by unusual noises, by clappings of the doors and windows, by groans, and other indications that the spirits of the dead were abroad.

I have never found that any effects of this kind were attributed to the MUMIA, a favourite remedy of the same period: that is, the flesh of mummies, which were imported from Alexandria, and which was swallowed in the form of pills or boluses, by the noble and rich, in Europe. The medical writings of that time are full of accounts of this horrible and useless practice, which was at length discontinued, when it was found that the Alexandrians, instead of disinterring the embalmed mummies of the ancient Egyptians, contented themselves with exporting the putrid carcases of Jews, to which they had easier access.*

* Garmann de Cadaverum Mumiis. Tit. ii. p. 1042, 3.

Lib. iii.

In this manner was anthropophagy sanctioned by physicians, even as late as the reign of Louis XIV. while some writers affected to doubt, whether the practice had ever existed.

§ III.

From the principles which I have established, the reader will easily proceed with me, to account for the most imposing relations of apparitions.

I have shewn that a morbid disposition of the brain is capable of producing spectral impressions, without any external prototypes. The religion of the ancients, which peopled all parts of nature with deities of different ranks, exposed them, in a peculiar manner, to delusions of the imagination; and I have had occasion, in another essay,*

* On Genius.

to mention the influence which the doctrines of Plato have exerted, in this respect, even since the establishment of christianity. From recalling images by an art of memory, the transition is direct to beholding spectral objects, which have been floating in the imagination. Yet, even in the most frantic assemblage of this nature, no novelty appears. The spectre may be larger or smaller; it may be compounded of the parts of different animals; but it is always framed from the recollection of familiar, though discordant images.

The simple renewal of the impressions of form or voice, in the case of particular friends, is the most obvious, and most forcible of these recollections. Of this kind, seems to have been the celebrated apparition of Ficinus, to Michael Mercato, mentioned by Baronius.

Those illustrious friends, after a long

discourse on the nature of the soul, had agreed that, whoever of the two should die first, should, if possible, appear to his surviving friend, and inform him of his condition in the other world.*

A short time afterwards, says Baronius, it happened, that while Michael Mercato the elder was studying philosophy, early in the morning, he suddenly heard the noise of a horse galloping in the street, which stopped at his door, and the voice of his friend Ficinus was heard, exclaiming, O Michael! O Michael! those things are true. tonished at this address, Mercato rose and looked out of the window, where

As

* De Apparitionibus mortuorum, Vivis ex Pactó factis. Lips. 1709.

+ Baronii Annales.-This story was told to Baronius, by the grandson of Mercato, who was Proto-nothary of the church, and a man of the greatest probity, as well as of general knowledge,

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