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Creation, and who, in the beautiful Language of the Pfalms, feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him. I like this Retirement the better, because of an ill Report it lies under of being haunted; for which Reason (as I have been told in the Family) no living Creature ever walks in it befides the Chaplain. My good Friend the Butler defired me with a very grave Face not to venture my felf in it after Sun-fet, for that one of the Footmen had been almost frighted out of his Wits by a Spirit that appeared to him in the Shape of a black Horfe without an Head; to which he added, that about a Month ago one of the Maids coming home late that way with a Pail of Milk upon her Head, heard fuch a Ruftling among the

Bushes that fhe let it fall.

I was taking a Walk in this Place laft Night between the Hours of Nine and Ten, and could not but fancy it one of the moft proper Scenes in the World for a Ghost to appear in. The Ruins of the Abby are fcattered up and down on every Side, and half covered with Ivy and Elder Bushes, the Harbours of several solitary Birds which feldom make their Appearance till the Dusk of the Evening. The Place was formerly a Church-yard, and has ftill feveral Marks in it of Graves and Burying Places. There is fuch an Eccho among the old Ruins and Vaults that if you ftamp but a little louder than ordinary you hear the Sound repeated. At the fame time the Walk of Elms, with the croaking of the Ravens which from time to time are heard from the Tops of them, looks exceeding folemn and venerable. These Objects naturally raise Serioufnefs and Attention; and when Night heightens the Awfulness of the Place, and pours out her fupernumerary Horrors upon every thing in it, I do not at all wonder that weak Minds fill it with Spectres and Apparitions,

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Mr. LOCKE, in his Chapter of the Affociation of Ideas, has very curious Remarks to fhew how by the Prejudice of Education one Idea often introduces into the Mind a whole Set that bear no Refemblance to one another in the Nature of things. Among feveral Examples of this Kind, he produces the following Inftance. The Ideas of Goblins and Sprights have really no more to do with Darkness than Light: Yet let but a foolish Maid inculcate thefe often on the Mind of a Child, and raise them there toge

ther,

ther, poffibly be fhall never be able to separate them again fo long as he lives; but Darkness fhall ever afterward bring. with it thofe frightful Ideas, and they shall be so joined, thai he can no more bear the one than the other.

AS I was walking in this Solitude, where the Dusk of the Evening confpired with fo many other Occafions of Terrour, 1 obferved a Cow grazing not far from me, which an Imagination that is apt to fiartle might easily have conftrued into a black Horfe without an Head: And I dare fay the poor Footman lost his Wits upon some such trivial Occafion.

MY Friend Sir ROGER has often told me with a great deal of Mirth, that at his first coming to his Estate he found three Parts of his House altogether useless; that the best Room in it had the Reputation of being haunted, and by that means was locked up; that Noifes had been heard in his long Gallery, fo that he could not get a Servant to enter it after Eight a Clock at Night; that the Door of one of his Chambers was nailed up, because there went a Story in the Family that a Butler had formerly hanged himfelf in it; and that his Mother, who lived to a great Age, had fhut up half the Rooms in the House, in which either a Husband, a Son, or Daughter had died. The Knight feeing his Habitation reduced to fo fmall a Compafs, and himself in a manner fhut out of his own Houfe, upon the Death of his Mother ordered all the Apartments to be flung open, and exorcifed by his Chaplain, who lay in every Room one after another, and by that Means diffipated the Fears which had so long reigned in the Family.

I fhould not have been thus particular upon these ridiculous Horrours, did not I find them so very much prevail in all Parts of the Country. At the fame Time I think a Perfon who is thus terrified with the Imagination of Ghofts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Hiftorians facred and prophane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditi ons of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless: Could not I give my felf up to this general Teftimony of Mankind, I fhould to the Relations of particular Perfons who are now living, and whom I cannot distrust in other Matters of Fact. I might here

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add, that not only the Hiftorians, to whom we may join the Poets, but likewife the Philofophers of Antiquity have favoured this Opinion. Lucretius himself, though by the Courfe of his Philofophy he was obliged to maintain that the Soul did not exift feparate 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 fo preffed 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 abfurd unphilofophical Notions that was ever started. He tells us, That the Surfaces of all Bodies are perpetually Aying off from their refpective Bodies, one after another; and that thefe Surfaces or thin Cafes that included each other whilst they were joined in the Body like the Coats of an Onion, are fometimes feen entire when they are feparated from it; by which means we often behold the Shapes and Shadows of Perfons who are either dead or abfent.

I fhall difmifs this Paper with a Story out of Jofephus, not fo much for the fake of the Story it felf, as for the moral Reflections with which the Author concludes it, and which I fhall here fet down in his own Words. Glaphyra the Daughter of King Archelaus, after the Death of her two firft Husbands (being married to a third, who was Brother to her firft Husband, and fo < paffionately in Love with her that he turned off his former Wife to make Room for this Marriage) had a very odd kind of Dream. She fancied that the faw her firft Husband coming towards her, and that the embraced him with great Tenderness; when in the midst of the Pleafure which the expreffed at the Sight of him, he reproached her after the following manner: Glaphyra, fays he, thou haft made good the old Saying, That Women are not to be trufted. Was not I the Husband of thy Virginity? Have I not Children by thee? How couldst thou forget our Loves fo far as to enter into a fecond Marriage, and after that into a third, nay to take for thy Husband a Man who has fo fhamelefly crept into the Bed of his Brother? However, for the Sake of our paffed Loves, I fhall free thee from thy prefent Reproach, and make thee mine for ever. Gla

Sphyra

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phyra told this Dream to feveral Women of her Acquaintance, and died foon after. I thought this Story might not be impertinent in this Place, wherein I fpeak of thofe Kings: Befides that, the Example deferves to be taken Notice of, as it contains a moft certain Proof of the Immortality of the Soul, and of Divine Providence. If any Man thinks thefe Facts incredible, let him enjoy his Opinion to himself, but let him not endeavour to disturb the Belief of others, who by In'ftances of this Nature are excited to the Study of Vir

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Saturday, July 7.

Inter Silvas Academi querere Verum.

Hor.

HE Courfe of my laft Speculation led me infenfibly into a Subject upon which I always meditate with great Delight, 1 mean the Immortality of the Soul. I was Yefterday walking alone in one of my Friend's Woods, and loft my felf in it very agreeably, as I was running over in my Mind the feveral Arguments that eftablish this great Point, which is the Balis of Morality, and the Source of all the pleafing Hopes and fecret Joys that can arife in the Heart of a reafonable Creature. I confidered thofe feveral Proofs drawn,

FIRST, From the Nature of the Soul it felf, and parti cularly its Immateriality; which tho' not abfolutely neceffary to the Eternity of its Duration, has, I think, been evinced to almost a Demonstration.

SECONDLY, From its Paffions and Sentiments, as particularly from its Love of Existence, its Horrour of Annihilation, and its Hopes of Immortality, with that fecret Satisfaction which it finds in the Practice of Virtue, and that Uneafinefs which follows in it upon the Commiffion of Vice.

THIRDLY, From the Nature of the Supreme Being, whofe Juftice, Goodness, Wifdom and Veracity are all concerned in this great Point.

BUT

BUT among these and other excellent Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul, there is one drawn from the perpetual Progrefs of the Soul to its Perfection, without a Poffibility of ever arriving at it; which is a Hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved by others who have written on this Subject, tho' it feems to me to carry a great Weight with it. How can it enter into the Thoughts of Man, that the Soul, which is capable of fuch immenfe Perfections, and of receiving new Improvements to all Eternity, fhall fall away into nothing almoft as foon as it is created? Are fuch Abilities made for no Purpose? A Brute arrives at a point of Perfection that he can never país: In a few Years he has all the Endowments he is capable of, and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the fame thing he is at prefent. Were a human Soul thus at a ftand in her Accom plishments, were her Faculties to be full blown, and incapable of further Enlargements, I could imagine it might fall away infenfibly, and drop at once into a State of Annihilation. But can we believe a thinking Being that is in a perpetual Progrefs of Improvements, and travelling on from Perfection to Perfection, after having just looked abroad into the Works of its Creator, and made a few Discoveries of his infinite Goodness, Wisdom and Power, muft perifh at her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her Enquiries?

A Man, confidered in his present State, feems only fent into the World to propagate his Kind. He provides himfelf with a Succeffor, and immediately quits his Poft to make room for him.

-hares,

Hæredem alterius, velut unda fupervenit undam,

He does not seem born to enjoy Life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not furprizing to confider in Animals, which are formed for our Ufe, and can finish their Bufinefs in a fhort Life. The Silk-worm, after having Spun her Task, lays her Eggs and dies. But a Man can never have taken in his full measure of Knowledge, has not time to fubdue his Paffions, establish his Soul in Virtue, and come up to the Perfection of his Nature, before he is hurried off the Stage. Would an infinitely wife Be

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