* * * This opinion which, perhaps, prevails as
far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by
its truth(!): those that never heard of one another would not
have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience could make
credible."--_Rasselas_, chap. xxx.
[4] When the grammarians could not interpret some word in a
sentence, which they could make without it, they used to
attribute the unfortunate word to a natural redundancy in the
language, and in the same manner all ghost stories could be
solved by referring it to "an exuberance," &c. &c.
During the celebrated Peninsular campaign, as a lady, whose son, a French
officer in Spain, was seated in her room, she was astonished to perceive
the folding doors at the bottom of the apartment slowly open, and disclose
to her eyes, _her son_. He begged her not to be alarmed, and informed her
that he had been just killed by a grape-shot, and even showed her the wound
in his side; the doors closed again and she saw no more. In a few days she
received a letter, which informed her that her son had fallen, after
distinguishing himself in a most gallant manner, and mentioning the time of
his death, which happened at precisely the same moment the apparition was
seen by her! And when I add that the lady was not _at all addicted to
superstition_, the strangeness of the occurrence is considerably increased.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25