Volume 1

An essay on the history and reality of apparitions. Being an account of what they are, and what they are not; whence they come, and whence they come not. As also how we may distinguish between the apparitions of good and evil spirits and how we ought to behave to them. With a great variety of surprizing and diverting examples, never publish'd before / [Anon].

  • Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
Date:
M DCC XXVII
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history and reality of apparitions. Being an account of what they are, and what they are not; whence they come, and whence they come not. As also how we may distinguish between the apparitions of good and evil spirits and how we ought to behave to them. With a great variety of surprizing and diverting examples, never publish'd before / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    80/430 (page 60)
    for us, they can and frequently do affume human Shape, andicome to us, talk to us, and converfe intimately with us in Apparition and by Voice, — nay even in Dialogue, Queftion and Anfwer, as they fee Occafion. of a oed THis converfing in Apparition, is what we call Walking; and when any fuch thing is feen, we fay — a Spirit walks, or haunts fuch.a Places and;tho’ this is a mighty terrible thing in the vulgar Appearance, and the People, when. thefe things appear to- appears by the Confequence. Ai |luave heard of a Man who travell’d four Years thro’? moft of the Northern Countries of | Europe with the Devil; if all thofe Spectres or Ap- paritions are Devils, which I muft not grant; nor was this Spectre fo infincere as to -conceal it felf all the while from him, but difcover’djto him that he was but an Apparition, without Body, Subftance, or any thing but Shape. a Ir the Account I have of this Apparition be true, and I have had it by me many Years, he did farts and over Mountains, over frozen Lakes, and little Seas _cover’d with Snow; he: diverted him with Difcourfes of various Subjects,, always iffuing for his Good, and for the Encreafe of Knowledge: He went with him over the Sea from Jreland to the Coaft of Norway: He procur’d Winds for him, without buying thei of Witches and Laplanders: He did not raife Storms for him, becaufe being a Traveller and upon a Voyage, he had no Occafion of them; but he foretold Storms punctually and exactly, prevented the Ship’s putting out to Sea when Storms were approaching; found the Ship’s Boat and Anchors, when the firft was driven away in the Night, and the fecond weigh’d and run a- way