Cock Lane
stories. Occasionally an impostor is caught, as at Brightling, in
1659. Mr. Joseph Bennet, a minister in that town, wrote an account
of the affair, published in Increase Mather's Remarkable
Providences. 'Several things were thrown by an invisible hand,'
including crabs! 'Yet there was a seeming blur cast, though not on
the whole, yet upon some part of it, for their servant girl was at
last found throwing some things.' She averred that an old woman had
bidden her do so, saying that 'her master and dame were bewitched,
and that they should hear a great fluttering about their house for
the space of two days'. This Cock Lane phenomenon, however, is not
reported to have occurred. The most credulous will admit that the
maid is enough to account for the Brightling manifestations; some of
the others are more puzzling and remain in the region of the
unexplained.

APPARITIONS, GHOSTS, AND HALLUCINATIONS.

Apparitions appear. Apparitions are not necessarily Ghosts.
Superstition, Common-sense, and Science. Hallucinations: their
kinds, and causes. Aristotle. Mr. Gurney's definition. Various
sources of Hallucination, external and internal. The Organ of
Sense. The Sensory Centre. The Higher Tracts of the Brain. Nature
of Evidence. Dr. Hibbert. Claverhouse. Lady Lee. Dr. Donne. Dr.
Hibbert's complaint of want of evidence. His neglect of
contemporary cases. Criticism of his tales. The question of
coincidental Hallucinations. The Calculus of Probabilities: M.
Richet, MM. Binet et Fere; their Conclusions. A step beyond
Hibbert. Examples of empty and unexciting Wraiths. Our ignorance
of causes of Solitary Hallucinations. The theory of 'Telepathy'.
Savage metaphysics of M. d'Assier. Breakdown of theory of
Telepathy, when hallucinatory figure causes changes in physical
objects. Animals as Ghost-seers: difficult to explain this by
Telepathy. Strange case of a cat. General propriety and lack of
superstition in cats. The Beresford Ghost, well-meaning but
probably mythical. Mrs. Henry Sidgwick: her severity as regards
conscientious Ghosts. Case of Mr. Harry. Case of Miss Morton. A
difficult case. Examples in favour of old-fashioned theory of
Ghosts. Contradictory cases. Perplexities of the anxious inquirer.

Only one thing is certain about apparitions, namely this, that they
do appear. They really are perceived. Now, as popular language
confuses apparitions with ghosts, this