LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS,

VI.-RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS : THE POSSESSED: WITCHCRAFT,

DEAR ARCHY,—The subjects about being themselves the subjects of them, which I propose writing to you to- of escaping the persuasion that they day are, delusions of a religious nature; mark the immediate agency of the

- the idea of being possessed, - the Holy Spirit ? Or, to take ordinarily grounds of the belief in witchcraft. informed and sober-minded people, With so much before me, I have no —what would they think at seeing room to waste. So, of the first, first. mixed up with this hysteric disturb

The powerful hold which the feeling ance, distinct proofs of extraordinary of religion takes on our nature, at perceptive and anticipatory powers, once attests the truth of the senti- such as occasionally manifest themment, and warns us to be on our guard selves as parts of trance,' to the raagainst fanatical excesses. No sub- tional explanation of which they might ject can safely be permitted to have not have the key ? exclusive possession of our thoughts, In the preceding letter, I have least of all the most absorbing and already exemplified, by the case of exciting of any.

Henry Engelbrecht, the occurrence “ So-it will make us mad."

of visions of hell and heaven during

the deepest state of trance. No doubt It is evident that, with the majority, the poor ascetic implicitly believed his Providence has designed that worldly whole life the reality of the scenes to cares should largely and wholesomely which his imagination had transported employ the mind, and prevent inordi- him. nate craving after an indulgence in In a letter from the Earl of Shrewsspiritual stimulation; while minds of bury to Ambrose Mark Phillips, Esq., the highest order are diverted, by the published in 1841, a very interesting active duties of philanthropy, from account is given of two young women any perilous excess of religous con- who had lain for months or years in templation.

a state of religious beatitude. Their Under the influence of constant and condition, when they were exhibited, concentrated religious thought, not appears to have been that of halfonly is the reason liable to give way, waking in trance; or, perhaps, a shade which is not our theme-but, alterna- nearer the lightest form of trancetively, the nervous system is apt' to sleep. To increase the force of the fall into many a form of trance, the scene, they appear to have exhibited phenomena of which are mistaken by some degree of trance - perceptive the ignorant for Divine visitation. power. But, without this, the mere The weakest frame sinks into an in- aspect of such persons is wonderfully sensibility profound as death, in which imposing. If the pure spirit of Chrishe has visions of heaven and the tianity finds a bright comment and angels. Another lies, in half-waking illustration in the Madonnas and trance, rapt in celestial contemplation Cherubim of Raffaelle, it seems to and beatitude; others are suddenly shine out in still more truthful vividfixed in cataleptic rigidity; others, ness from the brow of a young person again, are dashed upon the ground in rapt in religious ecstasy. The hands convulsions. The impressive effect clasped in prayer,—the upturned eyes, of these seizures is heightened by their —the expression of humble confidence supervention in the midst of religious and seraphic hope, (displayed, let me exercises, and by the contagious and suggest, on a beautiful face,) constitute sympathetic influence through which a picture of which, having witnessed their spread is accelerated among the it, I can never forget the force. Yet more excitable temperaments and I knew it was only a trance. weaker members of large congrega- knows that village churches are built tions. What chance have ignorant by common mechanics. Yet when we people, witnessing such attacks, or look over an extensive country, and

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the spire from its clump of found them sitting paralysed [he trees rising over each hamlet, or over means cataleptic] on their benches, the distant city its minster tower,- with their work in their hands, the images find an approving harmony unable to get up, or to move at in our feelings, and seem to aid in all. I have seen scores of persons establishing the genuineness and the affected

the same way.

I have truth of the sentiment and the faith seen persons lie in this state fortywhich have reared such expressive eight hours. At such times they are symbols.

unable to converse, and are sometimes In the two cases mentioned in Lord unconscious of what is passing round Shrewsbury's pamphlet, it is, however, them. At the same time they say painful to observe that trick and arti- they are in a happy state of mind." fice had been used to bend them to These persons, it is evident, were the service of Catholicism. The poor thrown into one of the forms of trance women bore on their hands and feet through their minds being powerfully wounds, the supposed spontaneous worked upon ; with which cause the eruption of delineations of the bleeding influence of mutual sympathy with wounds of the crucifix, and, on the what they saw around them, and forehead, the bloody marks of the perhaps some physical agency, co-opecrown of thorns. To convict the im- rated. posture, the blood-stains from the The following extract from the same wounds in the feet ran upwards to- journal portrays another kind of nerwards the toes, to complete a fac- vous seizure, allied to the former, and simile of the orginal, though the poor produced by the same cause, as it was girls were lying on their backs. The manifested at the great revival, some wounds, it is to be hoped, are in- forty years ago, at Kentucky and Tenflicted and kept fresh and active by means employed when the victims 6. The convulsions were commonly are in the insensibility to pain, which called the jerks.' A. writer, (M'Necommonly goes with trance.

man,) quoted by Mr Power, (Essay To comprehend the effects of re- on the Influence of the Imagination ligious excitement operating on masses, over the Nervous System,) gives this we may inspect three pictures, the account of their course and progress :revivals of modern times the fanati- At first appearance these meetings cal delusions of the Cevennes — the exhibited nothing to the spectator behaviour of the Convulsionnaires at but a scene of confusion, that could the grave of the Abbé Paris.

scarcely be put into language. They “I have seen,” says M. Le Roi were generally opened with a sermon, Sunderland, himself a preacher, [Zion's near the close of which there would be Watchman, New York, Oct. 2, 1842,] an unusual outcry, some bursting out

persons often “lose their strength, into loud ejaculations of prayer, &c. as it is called, at camp-meetings, and “The rolling exercise consisted in other places of great religious excite- being cast down in a violent manment; and not pious people alone, but ner, doubled with the head and feet those also who were not professors of together, or stretched in a prostrate religion. In the spring of 1824, while manner, turning swiftly over like a performing pastoral labour in Dennis, dog. Nothing in nature could better Massachusetts, I

than represent the jerks, than for one to twenty people affected in this way. goad another alternately on every Two young men, of the name of Crò- side with a piece of red-hot iron. well, came one day to a prayer meet- The exercise commonly began in the ing. They were quite indifferent. I head, which would fly backwards and conversed with them freely, but they forwards, and from side to side, with showed no signs of penitence. From a quick jolt, which the person would the meeting they went to their shop, naturally labour to suppress, but in (they were shoemakers,) to finish vain. He must necessarily go on as some work before going to the meet- he was stimulated, whether with a ing in the evening. On seating them- violent dash on the ground, and selves they were both struck perfectly bounce from place to place, like a stiff. I was immediately sent for, and foot-ball; or hopping round with head,

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limbs, and trunk, twitching and jolt- but in good French, which hitherto ing in every direction, as if they must she had not used. The theme was an inevitably fly asunder,' &c."

exhortation to obey God rather The following sketch is from Dow's

than man. Sometimes she spoke so Journal. "In the year 1805 he preached quickly as to be hardly intelligible. at Knoxville, Tennessee, before the Āt certain of her pauses, she stopped governor, when some hundred and to collect herself. She accompanied fifty persons, among whom were a her words with gesticulations. Gernumber of Quakers, had the jerks.” lan found her pulse quiet, her arm not

“I have seen all denominations of rigid, but relaxed, as natural. After religions exercised by the jerks, gen- an interval, her countenance put on a tleman and lady, black and white, mocking expression, and she began young and old, without exception. I anew her exhortation, which was now passed a meeting-house, where I ob- mixed with ironical reflections upon served the undergrowth had been cut the Church of Rome. She then sudaway for camp meetings, and from denly stopped, continuing asleep. It fifty to a hundred saplings were left, was in vain they stirred her. When breast high, on purpose for the people her arms were lifted and let go, they who were jerked to hold by. I ob- dropped unconsciously. As several served where they had held on, they now went away, whom her silence had kicked up the earth, as a horse rendered impatient, she said in a low stamping flies."

tone, but just as if she was awake, Every one has heard of the extra- · Why do you go away? Why do not ordinary scenes which took place in you wait till I am ready?” And then the Cevennes at the close of the she delivered another ironical disseventeenth century.

course against the Catholic Church, It was towards the end of the year which she closed with a prayer. 1688 a report was first heard, of a When Boucha, the intendant of the gift of prophecy which had shown district, heard of the performances of itself among the persecuted followers Isabella Vincent, he had her brought of the Reformation, who, in the south before him. She replied to his interof France, had betaken themselves to rogatories, that people had often told the mountains. The first instance her that she preached in her sleep, was said to have occurred in the but that she did not herself believe a family of a glass-dealer, of the name word of it. As the slightness of her of Du Serre, well known as the most person made her appear younger than zealous Calvinist of the neighbour- she really was, the intendant merely hood, which was a solitary spot in sent her to an hospital at Grenoble, Dauphiné, near Mount Peyra. In where, notwithstanding that she was the enlarging circle of enthusiasts, visited by dersons of the Reformed Gabriel Astier and Isabella Vincent persuasion, there was an end of her made themselves first conspicuous. preaching, --she became a Catholic! Isabella, a girl of sixteen years of Gabriel Astier, who had been a age, from Dauphiné, who was in young labourer, likewise from Dauthe service of a peasant, and tended phiné, went in the capacity of a sheep, began in her sleep to preach preacher and prophet into the valley and prophesy, and the Reformers came of Bressac, in the Vivarais. He had from far and near to hear her. An infected his family: his father, mother, advocate, of the name of Gerlan, elder brother, and sweetheart, followed describes the following scene which his example, and took to prophesying. he had witnessed. At his request shie Gabriel, before he preached, used to had admitted him, and a good many fall into a kind of stupor in which he others, after nightfall, to a meeting at lay rigid. After delivering his sermon, a chateau in the neighbourhood. She he would dismiss his auditors with a there disposed herself upon a bed, kiss, and the words : “My brother, or shut her eyes, and went to sleep; in my sister, I impart to you the Holy her sleep she chanted in a low tone Giost.” Many believed that they had the Commandments and a psalm; after thus received the Holy Ghost from a short respite she began to preach in Astier, being taken with the same a louder voice, not in her own dialect, seizure. During the period of the

senses.

discourse, first one, then another, being possessed ? I mean, what were would fall down; some described the symptoms of the affection, and how themselves afterwards as having felt are they properly to be explained ? first a weakness and trembling through The inquiry will throw further light the whole frame, and an impulse to upon the true relations of other pheyawn and stretch their arms, then nomena we have already looked at. they fell convulsed and foaming at We have seen that Schwedenborg the mouth. Others carried the con- thought that he was in constant comtagion home with them, and first ex- munication with the spiritual world; perienced its effects, days, weeks, but felt convinced, and avowed, that months afterwards. They believed though he saw his visitants withnor is it wonderful they did so—that out and around him, they reached they had received the Holy Ghost. him first inwardly, and communicated

Not less curious were the seizures of with his understanding, and thence the Convulsionnaires at the grave of consciously, and outwardly, with his the Abbé Paris, in the year 1727.

But it would be a misappliThese Jansenist visionaries used to cation of the term to say that he was collect in the church-yard of St possessed by these spirits. Médard, round the grave of the de- We remember that Socrates had his posed and deceased Deacon, and be- demon; and it should be mentioned as fore long the reputation of the place a prominent feature in visions genefor working miracles getting about, rally, that their subject soon identifies they fell in troops into convulsions. one particular imaginary being as his

Their state had more analogy to guide and informant, to whom he apthat of the Jerkers already described. plies for what knowledge he wishes. But it was different. They required, · In the most exalted states of tranceto gratify an internal impulse or feel- waking, the guide or demon is coning, that the most violent blows should tinually referred to with profound rebe inflicted upon them at the pit of spect by the entranced person. Now, the stomach. Carré de Montgeron was Socrates, and are patients of the mentions, that being himself an en- class I have alluded to, possessed ? thusiast in the matter, he had inflicted No! the meaning of the term is evithe blows required with an iron in- dently not yet hit. strument, weighing from twenty to Then there are persons who permathirty pounds, with a round head. nently fancy themselves other beings And as a convulsionary lady com- than they are, and act as such. plained that he struck too lightly to In the fifteenth and sixteenth cenrelieve the feeling of depression at her turies, there prevailed in parts of stomach, he gave her sixty blows with Europe a seizure, which was called all his force. It would not do, and the wolf-sickness. Those affected she begged to have the instrument with it held themselves to be wild used by a tall, strong man, who stood beasts, and betook themselves to the by in the crowd. The spasmodic forests. One of these, who was tension of her muscles must have been brought before De Lancre, at Borenormous; for she received one hun- deaux, in the beginning of the sixteenth dred blows, delivered with such force century, was a young man of Besançon. that the wall shook behind her. She He avowed himself to be huntsman of thanked the man for his benevolent the forest lord, his invisible master. aid, and contemptuously censured De He believed, that through the power Montgeron for his weakness, or want of his master, he had been transformed of faith and timidity. It was, indeed, into a wolf; that he hunted in the time for issuing the mandate, which, forest as such, and that he was often as wit read it, ran :

accompanied by a bigger wolf, whom church and of heresy, how there was scenes of the French revolution. After a young man in Königsberg, well an attack of fever and delirium, the educated, the natural son of a priest, complaint regulated itself, and took who had the impression, that he was the form of a daily fit of trance-wakmet near a crucifix in the wayside by ing. When the time for the fit seven angels, who revealed to him approached, she stopped in her conthat he was to represent God the versation, and ceased to answer when Father on earth, to drive all evil out spoken to; she then remained a few of the world, &c. The poor fellow, minutes sitting perfectly still, her eyes after pondering upon this impression fixed on the carpet before her. Then, , a long time, issued a circular com- in evident uneasiness, she began to mencing thus,

move her head backwards and for“We, John Albrecht, Adelgreif, wards, to sigh, and to pass her fingers. Syrdos, Amata, Kanemata, Kilkis, across her eyebrows. "This lasted a Mataldis, Schmalkilimundis, Sabrun- minute, then she raised hereyes, looked dis, Elioris, Overarch High-priest, once or twice around with timidity and and Emperor, Prince of Peace of the embarrassment, then began to talk in whole world, Overarch King of the French; when she would describe all Holy Kingdom of Heaven, Judge of the particulars of her escape from the living and of the dead, God and France, and, assuming the manner of Father, in whose divinity Christ will a French woman, talk purer and better come on the last day to judge the accented French than she had been world, Lord of all Lords, King of all known to be capable of talking before, Kings," &c.

correct her friends when they spoke He was thereupon thrown into pri- incorrectly, but delicately and with a son at Königsberg, regarded as a most comment on the German rudeness of frightful heretic, and every means were laughing at the bad pronunciation of used by the clergy to reclaim him. strangers; and if led herself to speak To all their entreaties, however, he or read German, she used a French listened only with a smile of pity, accent, and spoke it ill; and the “that they should think of reclaiming like. God the Father.” He was then put Now, suppose this lady, instead of to the torture; and as what he endured thus acting, when the paroxysms sumade no alteration in his convictions, pervened, had cast herself on the he was condemned to have his tongue ground, had uttered bad language and torn out with red-hot tongs, to be cut blasphemy, and had worn a sarcastic in four quarters, and then burned under and malignant expression of countethe gallows. He wept bitterly, not nance,-in striking contrast with her at his own fate, but that they should ordinary character and behaviour, and pronounce such a sentence on the alternating with it,—and you have the Deity. The executioner was touched picture and the reality of a person with pity, and entreated him to make possessed." a final l'ecantation. But he persisted A person, "possessed," is one afthat he was God the Father, whether fected with the form of trance-waking they pulled his tongue out by the called double consciousness, with the roots or not; and so he was executed! addition of being deranged when in

The Wehrwolves, and this poor crea- the paroxysm, and then, out of the ture, in what state were they? they suggestions of her own fancy, or were merely insane. Then we must catching at the interpretation put on look further.

her conduct by others, believing herGmelin, in the first volume of his self tenanted by the fiend. Contributions to Anthropology, nar- We may quite allowably heighten rates, that in the year 1789, a Ger- the above picture by supposing that man lady, under his observation, had the person in her trance, in addition daily paroxysms, in which she believed to being mad, might have displayed herself to be, and acted the part of a some of the perceptive powers occaFrench emigrant. She had been in sionally developed in trance; and so distress of mind through the ab- have evinced, in addition to her desence of a person she was attached tomoniacal ferocity, an

suncanny and he was somehow implicated in the knowledge of things and persons. To