of the dead, in which we have discussed the subject of Spectres produced by recollected impressions occurring with an undue degree of strength. 2. The very remarkable Coincidences which often take place between certain apparent predictions and corresponding future events, which seem to have been either actually foretold by a secret power of foresight, or to be connected with particular omens. See November 23d. 3. The consciousness which every reflection must furnish of the real existence of elementary powers, over which we have no control, and of existences beyond our comprehension; as for example, that of infinite Space, of eternal Time, the original Cause of all things, and the great and awful changes that may take place in our minds at death! To which we may add the natural effect of obscurity, the gloom of impenetrable forests, the presence of unusual phenomena whose causes lie hid-and the wilful impositions on credulity, which the cunning often use to mislead and subdue the unwary. To develope each of the above principal causes which excite our mystifying faculty, namely, spectral visions, remarkable coincidences, the consideration of hidden powers, and imposture, would fill a volume of itself; we shall, therefore, finish by amusing the reader with a few of its effects, regarded as subjects of antiquarian curiosity. Of Spectres.-The belief in spectres or ghosts of the dead seems to have been as universal almost as that of the existence of the soul-see November 2. The hallucinations, or morbid activity of the organs of vision and their cerebral appendages, having produced spectres of objects as strong as they had been previously excited by external objects, the faculty of supernaturality soon ascribed them to the reanimation of departed persons, and hence the whole host of hobgoblins with which every ancient village used to teem. The churchyards were all haunted. Every common had a circle of fairies belonging to it, and there was scarcely a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit. Hence says Gay : Those Tales of vulgar Sprites Shakespeare's ghosts excel all others. The terrible indeed is his forte. How fearful is that description of the dead time of night, the season of their perambulation! 'Tis now the very witching time of night, When Churchyards yawn, and Hell itself breathes out According to the ancients Charon was forbid to ferry over the ghosts of unburied persons, but they wandered up and down the banks of the river Styx for a hundred years, after which they were admitted to a passage, as is mentioned by Virgil: Haec omnis quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est. Sometimes ghosts appear in consequence of an agreement made whilst the parties lived.* Dr. Ferriar relates a curious case of a person, of philosophical character and quite devoid of superstition, who saw spectres by whom he was continually haunted, but who knew at the same time that they were not real, but depended on some morbid state of the brain. This disease originated in violent agitations of mind, and it yielded in time to medical treatment. Before these phantoms appeared he used to feel a peculiar and indescribable sensation. See the narrative appended to October 2d and 20th of our Calendar. Witches were another source of popular superstition: even as late as the beginning of last century old women were burnt for being witches in this country; and the belief in their power to charm or bewitch has been almost universal from time immemorial. Shakespeare has admirably depicted them in Macbeth. The remains of the belief in witches are still to be seen on our cottage doors, where horseshoes are nailed up to prevent their entrance. But the subject of sorcery, magic, and witchcraft, is too extensive to be treated of in full here: its history presents a fearful memorial of human frailty, and shows the danger of believing in things which cannot be demonstrated by an appeal to the senses. See Dr. Gall's book Sur l'Origine des Fonctions Morales, &c. Paris, 1822, under the article Organe de Vénération. Omens. Another abuse of the faculty of mysterizing, above described, is manifested in a disposition that certain individuals show to attach a supernatural importance to many natural events, and consider them as presages of future See Ferriar's Theory of Apparitions, 1803-Somatopsychonoologia, London, 1822-Glanville of Witches-Armstrong on Apparitions, London, 1823, &e. good or evil: these sort of omens are endless in their number and variety of application, and many of them are to be found discussed in the works of Browne, Bourne, and Brand, who wrote on vulgar errors and popular antiquities. We shall consider these superstitions in our appendage to the notation of Fortuna Muliebris, December the 1st, which see, where we shall endeavour to trace many omens to a physical origin, and to the misconceptions of certain natural phenomena. See also our account of Weather Omens, October 9. Sorcery, Magic, and Necromancy, and the belief in false prophecies and in pretended and spurious miracles, as well as credulity and mystifying in general, result from the same peculiarity of organization in the brain, aided variously by disease, by accidental coincidences, and by prejudices in infancy. September 27. SS. Cosmas and Damian Martyrs. SS. Elzear and Delphina. CHRONOLOGY.-William Rufus, the second King of England of the Norman line, is recorded to have been crowned today at Westminster. Fortunae Reduci.-Rom. Cal. POMONA. Grapes now begin to ripen in the North of France, England, Flanders, and other countries, having the same isothermal line. In Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the South of France and Germany, they are ripe nearly a month sooner. Those who have travelled in these countries will scarcely forget the exquisite taste and splendid appearance of the Chasselas de Fontainebleau, or the Muscats of Avignon; the former selling at Paris for fivepence a pound, and the latter, although 400 miles from the capital, at three halfpence a hatful. The common grapes, such as men, women, and children, usually eat in France, are sold for four sous the pound. "Walnuts are now added to our social pleasures; for what is more interesting than the after dinner Sweet Wine and Walnuts of a small friendly party? Will our readers hear some anecdotes of our favourite fruit? We think the ladies, who amuse themselves so prettily in preparing them whole for mastication, will not object. This excellent fruit, then, as we are told, originated in the sunny vales of Persia. Nuts were strewed anciently in all the avenues leading to the nuptial apartment before the passing bride; and the ceremony of strewing the Nuts, nuces spargere, was the conclusion of the weddingday. Sparge Marite nuces tibi deserit Hesperus Oetan. Nuts are very useful under different points of view; the threefold advantage which they possess of giving light, warmth, and food, has been combined by Ovid in the following distich: Nux vigilat, recreat, nutrit, prelo, igne, manuque, Pressa, perusta, crepans, luce, calore, cibo. This poet, in his poem entitled Nur, has also taken notice of the various insults which the Walnut tree receives at the hands of travellers on the highway; and Boileau says, Ep. vi. speaking of the river Seine: Tous ses bords sont couverts de saules non plantés, FLORA. The following plants still blow in profusion:- Nasturtiums, China Asters, Marigolds, Sweet Peas, Mignionette, Golden Rod, Stocks, Tangier Pea, Holyhock, Michaelmas Daisy, Saffron Crocus sativus, and Ivy Hedera helix. Among the maritime plants may be named, the Marsh Glasswort Salicornia herbacea, and the Sea Stork's Bill Erodium maritimum, on sandy shores; and the officinal Marshmallow Althaea officinalis, in salt marshes. The Marigold is said to close its flowers against rain, but this is more conspicuous in the Rainy Marigold Calendula pluvialis. Poet Carew thus notices this plant: Mark how the bashful morn in vain Sunflowers are still abundant, and, like Holyhocks, stand up very loftily above the rest of the inhabitants of the garden. The Annual Sunflower Helianthus annuus is a native of Mexico. The Perennial Helianthus multiflorus comes from Virginia, as does the Red Sunflower. Several of the Sunflowers are natives of Canada, where they are much admired and cultivated by the inhabitants, in gardens, for their beauty: in the United States they sow whole acres of land with them, for the purpose of preparing oil from their seeds, of which they produce an immense number. This oil is very pure, fit for salads, and for all the purposes of Florence oil. Thomson maintains the popular notion that the Sunflower turns ever towards the Sun : Who can unpitying see the flowery race, Shed by the morn, their newflushed bloom resign, But one, the lofty follower of the Sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves, Moore has taken advantage of the same idea, in the words of one of his Irish melodies : : As the Sunflower turns to her god when he sets The same look which she turned when he rose. Clare gives a natural picture of the Sunflower in the following description of the floral ornaments of a rustic cottage: Where rustic taste at leisure trimly weaves The Rose and straggling Woodbine to the eaves,- Peep through the diamond panes their golden heads. Village Minstrel, &c. vol. ii. p. 80. The size and splendour of this flower make it very conspicuous, and some have accused it of being gaudy, although constant in the one golden colour of its attire: gaudiness, however, is a quality which may be pardoned in a flower. In Maturin's Universe, p. 55, we read: Where Tulip, Lily, or the purple Bell The Sunflower was formerly called Marygold also, as the Marygold was termed Sunflower. Gerarde styles it the Sun Marygold. There is another genus producing the same kind of flowers, only smaller, usually called the Willowleaved Sunflower. Their botanical name is Elicampane Inula Helenium, supposing them to have sprung from the tears of Helen the wife of Menelaus: it has not been clearly ascertained upon what occasion. Drummond speaks of this flower in his lines on the death of Prince Henry : Queen of the fields, whose blush makes blush the morn, O Hyacinth, for ay your Ai keep still, Nay with more marks of woe your leaves now fill! See an interesting work entitled Flora Domestica, Lond. 1823. |