was.

He then wandered about, until at length he came to a cottage, and there remained, till with the assistance of day-light and of the cottagers, he found his way home.

Two days after this occurrence, I was summoned in the night to see him, on account of an extraordinary state of insensibility in which. he appeared to be, and of the impossibility of his friends getting him to bed. I found him in a paroxysm of ecstacy, with his Bible in his hands, opened, and too firmly grasped to be relinquished without the use of great violence; his eyes fixed on a particular part of the room, with the utmost intensity of eager desire; his lips quivering in imaginary conversation; his feet cold, though it was a very hot night; and the head greatly heated with an accelerated and excited circulation through its vessels. This state was only the precursor of a regular attack of insanity, which gave way, after a few days, to cupping, leeches, blistering, cold applications to the head, mustard plasters to the feet, the usual medicines, and rational treatment of a mental and moral complexion. And - what do these circumstances prove, if they do not show that these supposed supernatural appearances are the result of disordered action of the brainular system, arising for the most part from the incubation of disease? At least,

we have traced back several instances of the kind to this peculiar condition of the nervous system; and it becomes the objector to show why we may not argue from circumstances which we can fathom, to analogous circumstances, which are beyond the reach of our bounded vision, but which admit of easy explanation upon this principle, while on any other hypothesis they are wholly and entirely inexplicable.

It is related, in the Memoirs of Pastor Oberlin, that there appeared nightly to the family of one of his parishioners the ghost of an ancient knight, who gave information of a treasure hidden in the cellar. Pastor Oberlin was called in his ministerial capacity to witness this appearance. It is needless to add, that he could see nothing: but he very wisely addressed the supposed apparition in a commanding tone, desiring it to delude these poor people no longer; and most prudently introduced into his address the only legitimate means of acquiring riches, by persevering industry. The nocturnal visitor never again appeared; clearly showing that his pastoral influence was enough to supersede the morbid hallucination which had been produced upon several brains, by the agency of that community of feeling and interest which exists

between the different branches of the same

family.

A young man, within the circle of my acquaintance, was severely ill, and suffered large loss of blood. This was succeeded by irregularity in the distribution of that fluid, and the head got an undue proportion; the consequence of which was an excited state of the brain, and what he termed a happiness on religious subjects, which rendered him full of gratitude and hope. This was followed, in a day or two, by his assertion that he had had an extraordinary revelation from God, in which he was called by name in an audible voice, and had received a commission to teach and preach by every means: in fact, a paroxysm of insanity had set in. He burst into a rhapsodical, incoherent prayer; laid his hands on a little girl, and blessed her, as in the character of our Saviour. The instant the Bible is mentioned, he asserts that he no longer needs it, because he has received a special revelation, which supersedes its necessity;-in itself an abundant proof of the patient's delusion, and showing, on the whole, the influence of physical causes in disturbing the manifestations of mind. This patient is just dismissed convalescent from a private lunatic asylum.

CHAPTER XVI.

The same subject continued.—Examination of some popular histories of supernatural visitation;-Lord Tyrone and Lady Beresford;-Lord Lyttleton, &c. &c.

In the prosecution of our argument, we now advance a step further, and we assert, that if these supernatural appearances be considered as the commissioned agents of the Omnipotent to convince the hardened heart, it is quite impossible to resist the conclusion that the same agency has been employed as a weapon against the spread of true religion in the world. But it is impossible to allow that any portion of God's providential arrangements can be directly opposed to his most holy will: therefore an event can never have occurred which would involve this solecism: consequently the apparition cannot be traced to spiritual agency, without involving a tremendous absurdity;

whereas, if it be considered as of bodily origin, though its consequences may have been such as, in the hands of a God of infinite grace, to be sometimes rendered the means of stopping the sinner in his maddening career, all is comprehensible, all is in keeping with the revealed and ordinary methods of God's providence.

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The instance to which I particularly allude, is that of the well-known Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who, while meditating the publication of his work." De Veritate, prout distinguitur a Revelatione verisimili, possibili, et a falso;" and, indeed, while hesitating as to the propriety of publishing, what he knew would attach some considerable odium to its author, prayed thus: "O thou eternal God, Author of the light which now shines upon me, and Giver of all inward illuminations, I do beseech thee, of thy infinite goodness, to pardon a greater request than a sinner ought to make. I am not satisfied enough, whether I shall publish this book, De Veritate: if it be for thy glory, I beseech thee give me some sign from heaven; if not, I shall suppress it." He had no sooner spoken these words, than a loud, though gentle, noise came from the heavens; which so comforted and supported him, that he took his petition