f, though by the Course of his Philosophy he was obliged to
maintain that the Soul did not exist separate from the Body, makes no
Doubt of the Reality of Apparitions, and that Men have often appeared
after their Death. This I think very remarkable; he was so pressed
with the Matter of Fact which he could not have the Confidence to
deny, that he was forced to account for it by one of the most absurd
unphilosophical Notions that was ever started. He tells us, That the
Surfaces of all Bodies are perpetually flying off from their
respective Bodies, one after another; and that these Surfaces or thin
Cases that included each other whilst they were joined in the Body
like the Coats of an Onion, are sometimes seen entire when they are
separated from it; by which Means we often behold the Shapes and
Shadows of Persons who are either dead or absent.

_Addison._

SIR ROGER AT CHURCH

I am always very well pleased with a Country _Sunday_; and think, if
keeping holy the Seventh Day were only a human Institution, it would
be the best Method that could have been thought of for the polishing
and civilizing of Mankind. It is certain the Country-People would soon
degenerate into a kind of Savages and Barbarians, were there not such
frequent Returns of a stated Time, in which the whole Village meet
together with their best Faces, and in their cleanliest Habits, to
converse with one another upon indifferent Subjects, hear their Duties
explained to them, and join together in Adoration of the Supreme
Being. _Sunday_ clears away the Rust of the whole Week, not only as it
refreshes in their Minds the Notions of Religion, but as it puts both
the Sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable Forms, and exerting
all such Qualities as are apt to give them a Figure in the Eye of the
Village. A Country-Fellow distinguishes himself as much in the
_Churchyard_, as a Citizen does upon the _Change_; the whole
Parish-Politicks being generally discuss'd in that Place either after
Sermon or before the Bell rings.

My Friend Sir ROGER being a good Churchman, has beautified the Inside
of his Church with several Texts of his own chusing: He has likewise
given a handsome Pulpit-Cloth, and railed in the Communion-Table at
his own Expence. He has often told me, that at his coming to his
Estate he found his Parishioners very irregular; and that in order to
make them kneel and join in the Responses, he gave every one of them a
Hassock and a Common-