"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy, but they had such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now, in my night journeys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye upon certain suspicious places; and although no one can be more sceptical in such matters, an effort of the reason is occasionally necessary to chase away these vain terrors.'
"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute strongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in the minds of infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures which regard them in a menacing manner; their chamber is peopled with assassins, robbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds."—A. Brierre de Boismont. "Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire Raisonnée des Apparitions," &c. Ed. II, 1852, p. 362.
[44] This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the "Voices of the Night."
"When the hours of day are numbered,
And the voices of the night
Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
To a holy calm delight,
Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
And like phantoms grim and tall,
Shadows from the fitful firelight
Dance upon the parlour wall;
Then the forms of the departed
Enter at the open door;
The beloved, the true-hearted,
Come to visit us once more." &c.
See also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's Eve.
"I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,
A wicked whisper came and made
My heart as dry as dust."
Coleridge. "Ancient Mariner."
[46] Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.