short a time been cut off from life, to know the secrets of the prison house,' still clung to the earthly remembrance of the beautiful and the tender, that even a Spirit might indulge."

"The glow-worm shews the Matin to be near,

And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire,

Adieu, adieu, Hamlet ! remember me.”

The point here to be touched upon is as follows:-The Skeptic may say to the Ghost-Believer, "How, upon your own showing, could a Spirit who has left the earthly body, the mortal coil, be cognizant, as Shakespeare has made this Ghost, of the objects of the earthly world? You, the Ghost-Believers, plainly inculcate in your Philosophy, that each world to be objectively known, requires the Spiritual, or the Natural Organs, as the case may be.

To this objection, which is, indeed, a most obvious one, it is replied, that the solution is easy, and the proof of kindred facts within the reach of every one.

A Philosopher, who was also a Seer, has observed, that altho' a Spirit assuredly cannot, of himself, see the natural world, he can do so, when in communication, or as the Mesmerist would say, in rapport, with a Man or Men. He then, thro' their natural organs, perceives what they perceive, and that such communication between two persons, is a mere fact, is known to all who have paid any attention to Mesmerism.*

Apropos of Mesmerism, there is a little Dialogue in Macbeth, which seems to show that Shakespeare had considered the fact of Disorders being cured by the Touch, or by what Dr. Mead so happily called a sanative contagion." Had Shakespeare, as it is but too common to do, contemptuously disregarded such ideas, upon what Artistic Principle could he have written the conversation, which perhaps, as far as regards the action of the Play, is superfluous, if not indeed retarding, and which is, I believe, omitted in performance.

In Mesmeric cases, a person thrown into the Sleep, shall taste the eatable or drinkable which is being partaken of by one with whom he is in rapport; he shall hear the voice of such, but not of others, and so on.

In the fine effect then which Shakespeare has here produced, and which has called forth such praise from Mr. Knight, he still does not "o'er step the modesty of Nature." He knew better than ever to aim at an effect by so doing.

THE ARMOUR OF THE GHOST.

Nor long since, a Lecture on Hamlet was delivered by a gentleman who is himself a Poet, and who informed his audience that his admiration of that work had led him

literally to commit it to memory. It was very curious to

hear the manner in which the Lecturer handled the conduct of the Play, for contrary to the usual custom, he raised the question of the Author's Beliefs.

It was very evident, that in the midst of the most profound admiration for Shakespeare, the speaker was perplexed in the extreme, between his own conviction that it

If he thought such things impossible, what reason could he have had, in this instance, for throwing away his fine poetry upon a falsity? If, however, we believe, that he, as a Student of Nature, knew the possibility of such facts, all is accounted for, and he might have written the Dialogue to please himself, and the Reader of the Poem. It may be observed, that he makes Malcolm say, that he has often seen the work done, and Shakespeare does not usually put in his little touches at random. Macbeth. A. iv. S. 3. Malcolm and Macduff. --To them enter a Doctor.

was impossible that Shakespeare could have believed in the Supernatural; and, on the other hand, that powerful air of reality which he saw pervaded the work. He closed his address by saying, that Shakespeare, like every true Philosopher, must have been without fixt opinions on such subjects, and that his state must have been one of mere doubt. I need scarcely say, that I understood this to be the Lecturer's own position, and could hardly help thinking that the mere fact of a Skeptic, also a man of talent, and a poet, being thus perplext with Hamlet, was, in itself, almost enough to prove that it had been written by one in a very different mental state.

The point, however, for which this Lecture is specially alluded to, was this. "Where," said the Speaker, "did the Ghost procure his Armour?"

It is a favourite thing with Skeptics, to raise objections founded upon the Clothing of Ghosts, and shews their singular tendency to beg every question, instead of reasoning it. They never seem to consider, that even in the Natural World, Men do not use Clothing merely for Decency and Defence, which are indeed, very good reasons, and apply equally to Ghosts, admitting, only for argument's sake, their existence. Clothing is used also for its beauty, and above all, for its great significancy. The love of Dress has a noble origin, and, at the least, it implies the desire to appear worthily.

"If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why nature needs not what thou wear'st,

Which scarcely keeps thee warm.-KING LEAR.

Again, no piece of Clothing can be made by hands, without being first contrived in and by the Soul, according to some end. If the Internal World and its inhabitants be Realities, the marvel would be the want of Clothing for

the latter, and if they had it not, the Skeptics would be the first to see, and justly to ridicule, the incongruity.

The question which should be asked, is nót, "where does the Armour, &c., come from?" but, "is there an Internal Canal World, in which, as such, there must be all that there is in the External, Effect World.

THE GHOST IN MACBETH.

IN an Essay upon the Play of Macbeth, the following passage occurs, relative to the Ghost of Banquo. (See Fraser's Magazine, November, 1840.)

"if

Why did he go, on

we believe in the reality of the Ghost, as a shape or shadow existent without the mind of Macbeth, and not exclusively within it, we shall have difficulties which may be put under two heads. Why did the Ghost come? Macbeth's approach and at his bidding? the Scene, that Macbeth drove it away, and also that he considered it as much an illusion as his wife would have fain had him when she whispered about the air-drawn dagger."

It is clear from

The above is cited on account of its mode of testing the

question of Objective Reality. With Skeptics, very curiously, a Ghost is always expected to be thoroughly reasonable, tho' Men are not always so. What, however, we would earnestly request of the Skeptic, is to do with these things, as he would with any branch of natural Science, that is, inquire into facts. He would then find that the instances are indeed numerous, in which persons, just deceased, appear to those whom they have known, and then quickly disappear.

These passing manifestations also occasionally take

place, when the person appearing, is not either dead or dying neither does it follow necessarily that the person seeing, or as the Skeptic would say, fancying that he sees, must always be thinking of the one seen. An examination into the general facts, leads to the conclusion, that thought of the person appeared to, on the part of the one appearing, is the cause, according to certain Laws of the Internal World, of the manifestation. This Theory, and its facts, must be considered in judging of Shakespeare's intentious. Of him we should always think as of the Artist, and the Student of Nature, until it can be shown that he ever forgets himself in those characters.

THE GHOST IN HAMLET.-DR. JOHNSON.

Of the Ghost in Hamlet, Dr. Johnson remarks, that "he left the regions of the dead to but little purpose," and this is seemingly a critical objection in the Dr.'s opinion.

Now as it is impossible but that Shakespeare must have known that such an objection might be offered, we have, it is submitted, an additional presumption as to his view of the case.

If he believed, or rather knew, that every Ghost is a Man, and every Man a Ghost, his conduct of the Story is altogether artistlike. The Ghost is actuated by a just desire (in a Pagan sense) for revenge of his great injury. It does not appear, that he either knew, or sought to know, what other consequences might flow from what he was doing. We may be sure that during his earthly life he would have done likewise, as the mere fact that a Man has" shuffled off the mortal coil," does not alter his Inner