an apparition, or spirit of a person deceased.
The ancients supposed every man to be possessed of three different ghosts, which after the dissolution of the human body were differently disposed of. These three ghosts were distinguished by the names of Manes, Spiritus, Umbra. The manes, they fancied, went down into the infernal region; the spiritus ascended to the skies; and the umbra hovered about the tomb, as being unwilling to quit its old connexions. Thus Dido (Virg. Aen. iv. 384.) threatens Aeneas after death that she will haunt him with her umbra, whilst her manes rejoices in his torments below. This idea of a threefold soul is very clearly expressed in these lines, which have been attributed to Ovid.
Bis duo sunt homini: MANES, CARO, SPIRITUS, UMBRA: Quattuor ista loci bis duo sulpiciunt. Terra tegit CARNEM, tumulum circumvolat UMBRA, Orcus habet MANES, SPIRITUS atra petit.
The most striking outlines of the popular superstitions respecting ghosts among us, are thus humorously collected by Captain Grofe in his Provincial Glossary:
"A ghost is supposed to be the spirit of a person deceased, who is either commissioned to return for some special errand, such as the discovery of a murder, to procure restitution of lands or money unjustly withheld from an orphan or widow—or, having committed some injustice whilst living, cannot rest till that is redressed. Sometimes the occasion of spirits reviving this world, is to inform their heir in what secret place, or private drawer in an old trunk, they had hidden the title deeds of the estate; or where, in troublesome times, they buried their money or plate. Some ghosts of murdered persons, whose bodies have been secretly buried, cannot be at ease till their bones have been taken up, and deposited in consecrated ground with all the rites of Christian burial.
"Sometimes ghosts appear in consequence of an agreement made, whilst living, with some particular friend, that he who first died should appear to the survivor.
"Glanvil tells us of the ghost of a person who had lived but a disorderly kind of life, for which it was condemned to wander up and down the earth, in the company of evil spirits, till the day of judgment.
"In most of the relations of ghosts, they are supposed to be mere aerial beings, without substance, and that they can pass through walls and other solid bodies at pleasure. A particular instance of this is given, in relation the 27th, in Glanvil's collection, where one David Hunter, neat-herd to the bishop of Down and Connor was for a long time haunted by the apparition of an old woman, whom he was by a secret impulse obliged to follow whenever she appeared, which he says he did for a considerable time, even if in bed with his wife: and because his wife could not hold him in his bed, she would go too, and walk after him till day, though she saw nothing; but his little dog was so well acquainted with the apparition, that he would follow it as well as his master. If a tree stood in her walk, he observed her always to go through it. Notwithstanding this seeming immateriality, this very ghost was not without some substance; for, having performed her errand, she desired Hunter to lift her from the ground; in the doing of which, he says, she felt just like a bag of feathers. We sometimes also read of ghosts striking violent blows; and that, if not made way for, they overturn all impediments, like a furious whirlwind. Glanvil mentions an instance of this, in relation 17th, of a Dutch lieutenant who had the faculty of seeing ghosts; and who being prevented making way for one which he mentioned to some friends as coming towards them, was, with his companions, violently thrown down, and sorely bruised. We further learn, by relation 16th, that the hand of a ghost is 'as cold as a clod.'
"The usual time at which ghosts make their appearance is midnight, and seldom before it is dark: though some audacious spirits have been said to appear even by day light: but of this there are few instances, and those mostly ghosts who have been laid, perhaps in the Red sea (of which more hereafter), and whose times of confinement were expired: these, like felons confined to the lighters, are said to return more troublesome and daring than before. No ghosts can appear on Christmas eve; this Shakespeare has put into the mouth of one of his characters in Hamlet.
"Ghosts commonly appear in the same dress they usually wore whilst living, though they are sometimes clothed all in white; but that is chiefly the churchyard ghosts, who have no particular business, but seem to appear pro bono publico, or to scare drunken ruffians from tumbling over their graves.
"I cannot learn that ghosts carry tapers in their hands, as they are sometimes depicted, though the room in which they appear, if without fire or candle, is frequently said to be as light as day. Dragging chains is not the fashion of English ghosts; chains and black vestments being chiefly the accoutrements of foreign spectres seen in arbitrary governments: dead or alive, English spirits are free. One instance, however, of an English ghost dressed in black is found in the celebrated ballad of William and Margaret, in the following lines:
And clay cold was her lily hand That held her fable broad.
This, however, may be considered as a poetical licence, used, in all likelihood, for the sake of the opposition of lily to fable.
"If, during the time of an apparition, there is a lighted candle in the room, it will burn extremely blue: this is so universally acknowledged that many eminent philosophers have baffled themselves in accounting for it, without once doubting the truth of the fact. Dogs, too, have the faculty of seeing spirits, as is instanced in David Hunter's relation above quoted; but in that case they usually show signs of terror, by whining and creeping to their master for protection; and it is generally supposed that they often see things of this nature when their owner cannot; there being some persons, particularly those born on a Christmas eve, who cannot see spirits.
"The coming of a spirit is announced some time before its appearance, by a variety of loud and dreadful noises; sometimes rattling in the old hall like a coach and fix, and rumbling up and down the staircase like the trundling of bowls or cannon balls. At length the door flies open, and the spectre stalks slowly up to the bed's foot, and opening the curtains, looks fixedly at the person in bed by whom it is seen; a ghost being very rarely visible to more than one person, although there are several in company. It is here necessary to observe, that it has been universally found by experience, as well as affirmed by diverse apparitions themselves, that a ghost has not the power to speak till it has been first spoken to; so that, notwithstanding the urgency of the business on which it may come, every thing must stand still till the person visited can find sufficient courage to speak to it: an event that sometimes does not take place for many years. It has not been found that female ghosts are more loquacious than those of the male sex, both being equally restrained by this law.
"The mode of addressing a ghost is by commanding it, in the name of the Three Persons of the Trinity, to tell you who it is, and what is its business; this it may be necessary to repeat three times; after which it will, in a low and hollow voice, declare its satisfaction at being spoken to, and desire the party addressing it not to be afraid, for it will do him no harm. This being premised, it commonly enters into its narrative; which being completed, and its request or commands given, with injunctions that they be immediately executed, it vanishes away, frequently in a flash of light; in which case, some ghosts have been so considerate as to desire the party to whom they appeared to shut their eyes: sometimes its departure is attended with delightful music. During the narration of its business, a ghost must by no means be interrupted by questions of any kind; so doing is extremely dangerous: if any doubts arise, they must be stated after the spirit has done its tale. Questions respecting its state, or the state of any of their former acquaintance, are offensive, and not often answered; spirits perhaps being restrained from divulging the secrets of their prison house. Occasionally spirits will even condescend to talk on common occurrences, as is instanced by Glanvil in the apparition of Major George Sydenham to Captain William Dyke, relation 10th, wherein the major reproved the captain for suffering a sword he had given him to grow rust: saying, 'Captain, captain, this sword did not use to be kept after this manner when it was mine.' This attention to the state of arms, was a remnant of the major's professional duty when living.
"It is somewhat remarkable that ghosts do not go about their business like the persons of this world. In cases of murder, a ghost, instead of going to the next justice of the peace, and laying its information, or to the nearest relation of the person murdered, appears to some poor labourer who knows none of the parties, draws the curtains of some decrepit nurse or alms woman, or hovers about the place where his body is deposited. The same circuitous mode is pursued with respect to redressing injured orphans or widows; when it seems as if the shortest and most certain way would be, to go to the person guilty of the injustice, and haunt him continually till he be terrified into a restitution. Nor is the pointing out lost writings generally managed in a more summary way; the ghost commonly applying to a third person ignorant of the whole affair, and a stranger to all concerned. But it is presumptuous to scrutinize too far into these matters: ghosts have undoubtedly forms and customs peculiar to themselves.
"If, after the first appearance, the persons employed neglect, or are prevented from, performing the message or business committed to their management, the ghost appears continually to them, at first with a discontented, next an angry, and at length with a furious, countenance, threatening to tear them in pieces if the matter is not forthwith executed; sometimes terrifying them, as in Glanvil's relation 26th, by appearing in many formidable shapes, and sometimes even striking them a violent blow. Of blows given by ghosts there are many instances, and some wherein they have been followed with an incurable lameness.
"It should have been observed, that ghosts, in delivering their commissions, in order to ensure belief, communicate to the persons employed some secret, known only to the parties concerned and themselves, the relation of which always produces the effect intended. The business being completed, ghosts appear with a cheerful countenance, faying they shall now be at rest, and will never more disturb any one; and, thanking their agents, by way of reward communicate to them something relative to themselves, which they will never reveal.
"Sometimes ghosts appear, and disturb a house, without deigning to give any reason for so doing: with these, the shortest and only way is to exorcise, and eject them; or, as the vulgar term is, lay them. For this purpose there must be two or three clergymen, and the ceremony must be performed in Latin; a language that strikes the most audacious ghost with terror. A ghost may be laid for any term less than 100 years, and in any place or body, full or empty; as, a solid oak—the pommel of a sword—a barrel of beer, if a yeoman or simple gentleman—or a pipe of wine, if an esquire or a justice. But of all places the most common, and what a ghost least likes, is the Red sea; it being related, in many instances, that ghosts have most carefully befoight the exorcists not to confine them in that place. It is nevertheless considered as an indisputable fact, that there are an infinite number laid there, perhaps from its being a safer prison than any other nearer at hand; though neither history nor tradition gives us any instance of ghosts escaping or returning from this kind of transportation before their time.
"Another species of human apparition may be here noticed, though it does not come under the strict description of a ghost. These are the exact figures and resemblances of persons then living, often seen not only by their friends at a distance, but many times by themselves; felves; of which there are several instances in Aubrey's Miscellanies; one of Sir Richard Napier, a physician of London, who being on the road from Bedfordshire to visit a friend in Berkshire, saw at an inn his own apparition lying on his bed as a dead corpse; he nevertheless went forward, and died in a short time: another of Lady Diana Rich, daughter of the earl of Holland, who met her own apparition walking in a garden at Kensington, and died a month after of the smallpox. These apparitions are called fetches; in Cumberland, faurths; and in Scotland, waraths: they most commonly appear to distant friends and relations, at the very instant preceding the death of the person whose figure they put on. Sometimes, as in the instances above mentioned, there is a greater interval between the appearance and death." For a philosophical inquiry into the subject of apparitions in general, see the article SPECTRE.