No. XLVI.

Simulacra eorum,

Quorum, morte obitâ, tellus amplectitur ossa.

LUCRETIUS.

The spectres pale

Of those whose bones the tomb has long embrac'd.

GOOD.

THE number of those, who, to serve some private end, have racked their invention to im pose on others, is small, when compared with those who are themselves imposed upon by the force of their own imagination: there are people of so timid a nature, that they take every sha dow, which the moon makes by her shine on distant objects, for a ghost: I know one, who in other things wants not courage, yet happening to pass, after sun-set, through a church-yard in the country, was so terrified with the sight of an old yew-tree that grew there, that he fell into a fit, which he might never have recovered from, had not some people who knew him chanced to come the same way, and seeing him lie there, applied proper means to bring him to himself. The first use he made of speech, was to tell them he had seen the apparition of his eldest brother, who had died about a year be

fore; that he nodded his head at him, and spread his arms as though he wanted to embrace him. On his pointing to the place where he fancied he saw the ghost, they presently guessed the truth; but though they endeavoured to make him sensible of it, and alleged how great a probability there was that his eyes might be deceived, by the form in which the tree was cut, yet either the difference of the attitude he now was in, or the beams of the moon playing less direct upon it than before, it appeared not the same to him it had done, and he could not be prevailed upon for a great while to believe, that he had not in reality seen a spirit.

It is certain that the reflection which the moon makes, or even a twilight, without the assistance of that planet, on objects, at some times, gives them an apppearance very different to what they have in reality, and a person of the best sense and resolution may at first sight be a little startled; but in such a case, I think one should call reason to one's aid, and consider how many accidents may possibly occasion such a deception of the visual ray, before one concludes the shade is a visitor from the other world.

Between seven and eight years ago, when the

royal vault in King Henry's chapel was opened for the interment of her late majesty, Westminster-Abbey was a place of great resort, some flocking thither out of curiosity, others to indulge their more solemn meditations by the former of these motives it was, that five or six gentlemen, who dined together at a tavern, were drawn to visit that famous repository of the titled dead. As they looked down the steep descent, by which so many monarchs had been carried to their last resting-place on earth, one cried "It is hellish dark;" another stopped his nostrils, and exclaimed against the noisome vapour that ascended from it :-all had their dif ferent sayings; but as it is natural for such spectacles to excite some moral reflections, even in the most gay and giddy, they all returned with countenances more serious than those with which they had entered.

Having agreed, however, to pass the evening together, they all went back to the same place where they had dined, and the conversation turning on a future state, apparitions, and such like topics; one among them who was a perfect infidel in these matters, especially as to spirits. becoming visible, took upon him to rally the others, who seemed rather inclinable to the contrary way of thinking.

As it is much easier to deny than it is to prove, especially when those who maintain the negative will not admit, as valid, any testimony which can be brought in contradiction to their own opinion, he singly held out against all they had to allege; at length, to end the contest, they proposed him a wager of twenty guineas, that, as great a hero as he pretended or really imagined himself, he had not courage enough to go alone, at midnight, into the vault they had been seeing that day: this he readily ac cepted, and was very merry on getting such a sum with so much ease.

The money on both sides was deposited in the hands of the man of the house, and one of the vergers of the abbey sent for, whom they engaged for a piece of gold, to attend the adventurous gentleman to the gate of the cathedral, then shut him in, and wait his return.

Every thing being thus settled, the clock no sooner struck twelve than they all set out together; those who had laid the wager being resolved not to be imposed upon by his tampering with the verger: as they passed along, another scruple arose, which was, that though they saw him enter the church, how they should be convinced he went as far as the vault; but he instantly removed it, by pulling out a pen

knife he had in his pocket; "This,” he said, “I will stick into the earth, and leave it there; and if you do not find it in the inside of the vault, I will own the wager lost." These words left them nothing to suspect, and they agreed to wait at the door his coming out, beginning now to believe he had no less resolution than he had pretended.

It is possible the opinion they had was no more than justice; but whatever stock of courage he had on his first entrance into that antique and reverend pile, he no sooner found himself shut into it alone, than, as he afterwards confessed, he found a kind of shuddering all over him, which he was sensible proceeded from something more than the coolness of the night.

Every step he took was echoed by the hollow ground; and though it was not altogether dark, the verger having left a lamp burning just be fore the door that led to the chapel, otherwise it would have been impossible for him to have found the place, yet did the faint glimmering it gave, rather add to than diminish the solemn horrors of every thing around.

He passed on, however, but protested, that had not the shame of being laughed at prevented him, he would have forfeited more than twice the sum he had staked, to have been out again.