But one of the most remarkable Seers on record, was John Beaumont, who published a ‘treatise of spirits, apparitions, witchcrafts, and other magical practices,’ in 1705. He appears to have been a man of a hypochondriacal disposition, with a considerable degree of reading, but with a strong bias to credulity. His collections of stories are entertaining; but my business is with his visions, which shew in a most astonishing manner, how far the mind may be deceived, without the occurrence of actual derangement. They will be detailed in the next chapter. Had this man, instead of irritating his mental disease, by the study of the Platonic philosophers, placed himself under the care of an intelligent physician, he would have regained his tranquillity, and the world would have lost a most extraordinary set of confessions.
CHAP. III.
Beaumont’s Visions—Those of Tasso—Kotter—Drabicius—Arise Evans—Bovet.
Physicians have sometimes occasion to regret the prolixity of the statements, which they receive from their patients. Beaumont has been rather more diffusive than usual; for his book, which may be considered as a narrative of his malady, contains four hundred pages, in octavo. It is, however very much to my purpose, for it exhibits the disease of spectral vision, in its full strength and permanency.
Like Nicolai, he sometimes saw a multitude of men and women about him, both in the day and night. “So it was with myself,” says he, “for I saw hundreds, though I never saw any in the night-time, without a fire, or candle-light, or in the moonshine, and as the person mentioned (by Aubrey) had two particular spirits there named, which constantly attended him, besides others without names, so it was with myself; two spirits constantly attending me, night and day, for above three months together; who called each other by their names, and several spirits would often call at my chamber door, and ask whether such spirits lived there, calling by their names, and they would answer, they did. As for the other spirits that attended me, I heard none of their names mentioned, only I asked one spirit which came for some nights together, and rung a little bell in my ear, what his name was, who answered Ariel. We find that one of the spirits, who attended the second-sighted person, appeared as a boy, the other as a girl; but the two that constantly attended myself, appeared both in women’s habit, they being of a brown complexion, and about three foot in stature; they had both black, loose net-work gowns, tyed with a black sash about the middle, and within the net-work appeared a gown of a golden colour, with somewhat of a light striking through it. Their heads were not drest with top-knots, but they had white linen caps on, with lace on them, about three-fingers breadth, and over it they had a black loose net-work hood.
“As the foresaid second-sighted persons, sitting by the fire, with others in the winter-time, would see spirits standing by, and often seem angry and disturbed, though nothing visible to others moved him; so, as I have been sitting by the fire with others, I have seen several spirits, and pointed to the place where they were, telling the company they were there. And one spirit, whom I heard calling to me, as he stood behind me, on a sudden clapped his finger to my side, which I sensibly perceived, and started at it, and as I saw one spirit come in at the door, which I did not like, I suddenly laid hold of a pair of tongs, and struck at him with all my force, whereupon he vanished.
“*** I must declare, that I would not for the whole world undergo what I have undergone, upon spirits coming twice to me; their first coming was most dreadful to me, the thing being then altogether new, and consequently more surprizing, though at the first coming they did not appear to me, but only called to me at my chamber windows, rung bells, sung to me, and played on music, &c. but the last coming also carried terror enough; for when they came, being only five in number, the two women before mentioned, and three men, (though afterwards there came hundreds) they told me they would kill me, if I told any person in the house of their being there, which put me in some consternation, and I made a servant sit up with me four nights in my chamber before a fire, it being in the Christmas Holidays, telling no person of their being there. One of these spirits in women’s dress, lay down upon the bed by me every night; and told me if I slept, the spirits would kill me, which kept me waking for three nights. In the mean time, a near relation of mine went (though unknown to me) to a physician of my acquaintance, desiring him to prescribe me somewhat for sleeping, which he did, and a sleeping potion was brought me, but I set it by, being very desirous and inclined to sleep without it. The fourth night I could hardly forbear sleeping, but the spirit, lying on the bed by me, told me again, I should be killed if I slept; whereupon I rose, and sate by the fire-side, and in a while returned to my bed; and so I did a third time, but was still threatened as before: whereupon I grew impatient, and asked the spirits what they would have? Told them I had done the part of a christian, in humbling myself to God, and feared them not, and rose from my bed, took a cane, and knocked at the ceiling of my chamber, a near relation of mine lying then over me, who presently rose and came down to me, about two o’clock in the morning, to whom I said, you have seen me disturbed these four days past, and that I have not slept; the occasion of it was, that five spirits, which are now in the room with me, have threatened to kill me if I told any person of their being here, or if I slept, but I am not able to forbear sleeping longer, and acquaint you with it, and now stand in defiance of them; and thus I exerted myself about them; and notwithstanding their continued threats, I slept very well the next night, and continued so to do, though they continued with me above three months, day and night.”[10]
The celebrated visions of Tasso appear to have been of the same nature. He fancied that he beheld a celestial being, with whom he held converse, in the presence of spectators, who perceived no apparition, and who heard no voice but that of the poet. Would that we could have exchanged the narratives of Beaumont’s reveries, for those of Tasso!
To this class of morbid perceptions, belong also the visions of Christopher Kotter, and Drabicius, which made a considerable noise in the seventeenth century. They were published by Comenius, aided by very ghostly engravings, under the title of ‘Lux é Tenebris.’ I must refer to Bayle, for many curious observations respecting the tendency of these prophetic rhapsodies: my business is only with the faculty of spectral representation.