s
and witnesses."

Swedenborg entertained the conviction that the world of spirits held
communion with certain favoured persons in this life; and up to the
period of his death, in the year 1772, he pretended to have
intercourse with spirits of celestial origin and those of deceased
men. Swedenborg frequently narrated the wonders of other worlds, and
particularly those of the infernal regions.

There are endless accounts of spirits appearing to men on earth. Here
are a few of them:--Marcus Brutus, one of the murderers of Julius
Caesar, being one night in his tent, saw a monstrous figure coming in
about the third hour of night. Brutus immediately cried out, "What art
thou, a man or a god? and why art thou come hither?" The spectre
answered, "I am thy evil genius; thou shalt see me at Philippi."
Brutus, with feigned calmness, answered, "I will meet thee there."
Disordered, however, in body, and disturbed in mind, Brutus related
the affair to Cassius, who, being of the sect of Epicurus, told Brutus
that what he supposed he saw was nothing more than mere fancy; that
there were no such things as genii or other spirits which could appear
to man; that even if they should appear, they could not assume a human
shape or voice, and had no power over men. Though Brutus was somewhat
encouraged by what Cassius said, he could not entirely overcome his
uneasiness. In the midst of the battle of Philippi, Brutus thought he
saw Julius Caesar, whom he had assassinated, riding to him at full
speed, which so terrified him that he fell upon his own sword. Cassius
also fell there under the hand of his freedman Pindarus.

Pausanius writes that, four hundred years after the battle of
Marathon, there were heard, in the place where it was fought, the
neighing of horses, and the shouts of soldiers animating one another
to the fight. Plutarch also speaks of spectres seen and dreadful
howlings heard in the public baths, where several citizens of
Ch[oe]ronea, his native town, had been murdered. He says that the
inhabitants had been obliged to shut up these baths, but that,
notwithstanding this precaution, great noises continued to be heard,
and dreadful spectres were frequently seen by the neighbours. Plutarch
frequently makes mention of spectres and apparitions; particularly he
says, that, in the famous battle above alluded to, several soldiers
saw the apparition of Theseus fighting for the Greeks and against the
Persians.

It is recorded