The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell ; a gentleman who, though deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight / [Daniel Defoe].

  • Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
Date:
1840]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell ; a gentleman who, though deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight / [Daniel Defoe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    seven steps it passed by. I immediately turned ' head and ran after it, with the young man by my side ; we saw it pass over the stile by which we entered, but no farther. I stepped upon the hedge at one place, he at another, but could dis¬ cern nothing; whereas, I dare aver, that the swiftest horse in England could not have conveyed himself out of sight in that short space of time. Two things 1 observed in this day’s appearance. 1. That a spaniel dog, who followed the com¬ pany unregarded, did bark and run away, as the spectrum passed by; whence it is easy to con¬ clude that it was not our fear or fancy which made the apparition. 2. That the motion of the spectrum was not gradation, or by steps, and moving of the feet, but a kind of gliding, as children upon the ice, or a boat down a swift river, w hich punctually answers the descriptions the ancients gave of their Lemures, which was Kara pv[x.7u a sgiov axi o^vv olir^xiro<Wov.— Heliodorus. But to proceed. This ocular evidence clearly convinced, but, withal, strangely’ frightened the old gentleman and his wife, who knew this Dorothy Dingle in her lifetime, were at her bu¬ rial, and now plainly saw her features in this pre¬ sent apparition. I encouraged them as well as I could, but after this they went no more. How¬ ever, I was resolved to proceed, and use such lawful means as God hath discovered, and learned men have successfully practised in these irre¬ gular cases. The next morning, being Thursday, I went out very early by myself, and walked for about an hour’s space in meditation and prayer in the field next adjoining to the Quartils. Soon after five I stepped over the stile into the disturbed field, and had not gone above thirty or forty paces before the ghost appeared at the further stile. I spoke to it with a loud voice, in some such sen¬ tences as the way of these dealings directed me ; whereupon it approached, but slowly, and when I came near, it moved not. I spake again, and it answered, in a voice neither very audible nor in¬ telligible. I was not in the least terrified, and therefore persisted until it spake again, and gave me satisfaction. But the work could not be finished at this time; wherefore,the same evening, an hour after sunset, it met me again near the same place, and after a few words on each side, it quietly vanished, and neither doth appear since, nor ever will more to any man’s disturbance. The discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an hour. These things are true, and I know them to be so, with as much certainty as eyes and ears can i give me, and until I can be persuaded that my 1 senses do deceive me about their proper object, and by that persuasion deprive myself of the strongest inducement to believe the Christian religion, I must and will assert that these things in this paper are true. As for the manner of my proceeding, I find no reason to be ashamed of it, for I can justify it to men of good principles, discretion, and recondite learning, though in this case I chose to content myself in the assurance of the thing, rather than be at the unprofitable trouble to presuade others to believe it; for I know full well with what difficulty relations of so uncommon a nature and • # • practice obtain belief. He that tells such a story may expect to be dealt withal as a traveller in Poland by the robbers, viz., first murdered and then searched,—first condemned for a liar, or superstitious, and then, when it is too late, have his reasons and proofs examined. This incre¬ dulity may be attributed— 1. To the infinite abuses of the people, and impositions upon their faith by the cunning monks and friars, &c., in the days of darkness and popery; for they made apparitions as often as they pleased, and got both money and credit by quieting the terriculamenta vulgi, which their own artifice had raised. 2. To the prevailing of Somatism and the Hobbean principle in these times, which is a re¬ vival of the doctrine of the Sadducees ; and as it denies the nature, so it cannot consist with the apparition of spirits; of which, see ‘ Leviathan,’ p. i, c. 12. 3. To the ignorance of men in our age, in this peculiar and mysterious part of philosophy and of religion, namely, the communication between spirits and men. Not one scholar in ten thousand (though otherwise of excellent learning,) knows anything of it or the way how to manage it. This ignorance breeds fear and abhorrence of that which otherwise might be of incomparable benefit to mankind. But I being a clergyman and young, and a stranger in these parts, do apprehend silence and secresy to be my best security. “ In rebus abstrusissimis abundans cautela nonnccet.” Sept. 4, 1665. POSTSCRIPT. It is possible that the unacquaintedness of some men with church history and the writings of the ancient fathers may be one cause of their prejudice against things and narratives of this nature, I could cite out of them hundreds of passages in confirmation (a pari) of what I have now done and written. But a single testimony shall serve to fill up this page. St Cyprian was a father of the third century, contemporary with Origen, Tertullian, Lactan- tius, Clemens of Alexandria, and other learned men. Observe his words (S. Cypriani Epist. ad Demetrium Ethnicum, p. 328) :—- “ Si audire velles et videre quando spiritus mali a nobis adjurantur et torquentur spiritua- libus flagris; quando daemones ejulantes et ge- mentes humana voce venturum judicium confiten- tur; videbis nos rogari ab iis quos tu rogas, et tamen ab iis quos tu adoras; Videbis sub manu nostra stare vinctos et tremere captivos, quos tu veneraris ut dominos. Certe vel sic in erroribus tuis confundi poteris, cum conspexeris et audieris deos tuos quid sint, nostra interregatione, statim prodere,” &c.* See Pamelius ‘ Notes on Tertullian,’ n. 64. * It you would hear and see when evil spirits are by us adjured and put to spiritual torture; when the very devils, groaning and lamenting with a human voice, confess a future judgment; you shall hear us intreated by those whom you intreat, and by those whom you adore: you shall see those stand fettered, as it were, under our hands, and tremble like captive slaves, whom you worship as deities. Cer¬ tainly you must be thus confounded in your errors when I you shall see and hear your gods, upon questions we put o them, immediately betray what they are.