LESSON LXVI. Illusions from Artifice. CHAMBERS'S MISCELLANY. In all ages, there have been persons who lived by imposing on the vulgar, and pretending to possess supernatural powers. Others, either through heedlessness or a wanton spirit of mischief, have inflicted scarcely less injury on society by terrifying children and weak-minded persons with tales of ghosts and other spectral appearances. It is not yet a century since London was thrown into a state of extraordinary excitement by the Cock Lane ghost; and as the history of this affair will best illustrate the absurdity of this class of illusions, we may be allowed to add it to our list of apparition anecdotes. About the year 1759, Mr. Kempe, a gentleman from the county of Norfolk, came to reside with the sister of his deceased wife, in the house of a Mr. Parsons, in Cock Lane, near Smithfield. The lady, it appears, slept with a girl, the daughter of Parsons, and complained of being disturbed with very unaccountable noises. From this or some other cause, Mr. Kempe and his sister-in-law removed to another lodging in Bartlett Street. Here, unfortunately, the lady, who passed by the name of Mrs. Kempe, was attacked with small-pox, and died; and on the 2d of February, 1760, her body was interred in a vault in St. John's Church, Clerkenwell. From this event two years elapsed, when a report was propagated that a great knocking and scratching had been heard in the night at the house of Parsons, to the great terror of all the family; all methods employed to discover the cause of it being ineffectual. This noise was always heard under the bed in which lay two children, the eldest of whom had slept with Mrs. Kempe, as already mentioned, during her residence in this house. To find out whence it proceeded, Mr. Parsons ordered the wainscot to be taken down; but the knocking and scratching, instead of ceasing, became more violent than ever. The children were then removed into an upper room, whither they were followed by the same noise, which sometimes continued during the whole night. From these circumstances, it was apprehended that the house was haunted; and the elder child declared that she had, some time before, seen the apparition of a woman, surrounded, as it were, by a blazing light. But the girl was not the only person who was favored with a sight of this luminous lady. A publican in the neighborhood, bringing a pot of beer into the house, about eleven o'clock at night, was so terrified that he let the beer fall, upon seeing on the stairs, as he was looking up, the bright shining figure of a woman, which cast such a light that he could see the dial in the charity school, through a window in that building. The figure passed by him, and beckoned him to follow; but he was too much terrified to obey its directions, ran home as fast as possible, and was taken very ill. About an hour after this, Mr. Parsons himself, having occasion to go into another room, saw the same apparition. As the knocking and scratching only followed the children, the girl who had seen the supposed apparition was interrogated what she thought it was like. She declared it was Mrs. Kempe, who about two years before had lodged in the house. On this information, the circumstances attending Mrs. Kempe's death were recollected, and were pronounced by those who heard them to be of a dark and disagreeable nature. Suspicions were whispered about, tending to inculpate Mr. Kempe; fresh circumstances were brought to light, and it was hinted that the deceased had not died a natural death; that, in fact, she had been poisoned. The knocking and scratching now began to be more vio'ent; they seemed to proceed from underneath the bedstead of the child, who was sometimes thrown into violent fits and agitations. In a word, Parsons gave out that the spirit of Mrs. Kempe had taken possession of the girl. The noises in creased in violence, and several gentlemen were requested to sit up all night in the child's room. On the 13th of January, between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, a respectable clergyman was sent for, who, addressing himself to the supposed spirit, desired that, if any injury had been done to the person who had lived in that house, he might be answered in the affirmative by one single knock; if the contrary, by two knocks. This was immediately answered by one knock. He then asked several questions, which were all very rationally answered in the same way. Crowds now went to hear the ghost; among others, Dr. Johnson, "the Colossus of British literature," who was imposed on like the rest. Many persons, however, would not be duped. Suspecting a trick, with the sanction of the lord mayor they set themselves carefully to watch the movements of the girl. The supposed ghost having announced that it would attend any gentleman into the vault under St. John's Church, in which the body of Mrs. Kempe was entombed, and point out the coffin by knocking on the lid, several persons proceeded to the vault accordingly, there to await the result. On entering this gloomy receptacle at midnight, the party waited for some time in silence for the spirit to perform its promise, but nothing ensued. The person accused by the ghost then went down, with several others, into the vault, but no effect was perceived. Returning to the bed-room of the girl, the party examined her closely, but could draw no confession from her; on their departure, however, towards morning, they arrived at the conviction that the girl possessed the art of counterfeiting noises. Further examinations took place, and ultimately it was discovered that she was a finished impostor. They found that she had been in the habit of taking with her to bed a thin and sonorous piece of wood, on which she produced the noises that had deceived such crowds of credulous individuals. Parsons, who had been privy to the plot for injuring the reputation of Mr. Kempe, with his daughter and several accomplices, was now taken into custody; and, after a trial before Lord Mansfield, they were condemned to various terms of imprisonment; Parsons being, in addition, ordered to stand in the pillory. Such was the termination of an affair which not only found partisans among the weak and credulous, but even staggered many men reputed for possessing sound understandings. A worthy clergyman, whose faith was stronger than his reason, and who had warmly interested himself in behalf of the reality of the spirit, was so overwhelmed with grief and chagrin, that he did not long survive the detection of the imposture. With respect to the demonstrable truthfulness of stories of apparitions, we consider that the whole may be referred to natural causes. Let us think of the apparent reasons for the majority of spectral communications, supposing them to be supernatural. Can we deem it accordant with the dignity of that great Power which orders the universe, that a spirit should be sent to warn a libertine of his death? Or that a spiritual messenger should be commissioned to walk about an old manor-house, dressed in a white sheet, and dragging clanking chains, for no better purpose than to frighten old women and servant girls, as is said to be done in all haunted-chamber cases? Or that a supernatural being should be charged with the notable task of tapping on bed-heads, pulling down plates, and making a clatter among teacups, as in the case of the Stockwell ghost, and a thousand others? The supposition is monstrous. If to any one inhabitant of this earth a petty atom, occupying a speck of a place on a ball which is itself an insignificant unit among millions of spheres — if to such a one a supernatural communication was deigned, certainly it would be for some purpose worthy of the all-wise Communicator, and fraught with importance to the recipient of the message, as well, perhaps, as to his whole race. Keeping this in mind, how absurd do the majority of our apparition stories appear! LESSON LXVII. The Butterfly's Birthday. Roscoe. THE shades of night had scarcely fled, From floating clouds of pearly hue Had dropped a short but balmy shower, That hung like gems of morning dew On every tree and every flower; And from the blackbird's mellow throat From mountain side and shadowy dell; When, bursting forth to light and life, Launched in full splendor on the day. Unconscious of a mother's care, Her slender form, ethereal light, With all the rainbow's colors bright, And dropped with spots of burnished gold. |