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THE NIGHT-SIDE OF NATURE

Or,

Ghosts and Ghost-Seers.

by

CATHERINE CROWE

Authoress of “Susan Hopley,” “Lilly Dawson,” “Aristodemus,” etc.


   "Thou com’st in such a questionable shape,
   That I will speak to thee.”






New York:
J. S. Redfield, Clinton Hall.
Boston:—B. B. Mussey & Co.
1850.




                            P R E F A C E.

                 *        *        *        *        *

IN my late novel of “Lilly Dawson,” I announced my intention of
publishing a work to be called “The Night-Side of Nature;" this is it.

The term “Night-Side of Nature” I borrow from the Germans, who derive it
from the astronomers, the latter denominating that side of a planet
which is turned from the sun, its _night-side_. We are in this condition
for a certain number of hours out of every twenty-four; and as, during
this interval, external objects loom upon us but strangely and
imperfectly, the Germans draw a parallel between these vague and misty
perceptions, and the similar obscure and uncertain glimpses we get of
that veiled department of nature, of which, while comprising as it does,
the solution of questions concerning us more nearly than any other, we
are yet in a state of entire and wilful ignorance. For science, at least
science in this country, has put it aside as beneath her notice, because
new facts that do not fit into old theories are troublesome, and not to
be countenanced.

We are encompassed on all sides by wonders, and we can scarcely set our
foot upon the ground, without trampling upon some marvellous production
that our whole life and all our faculties would not suffice to
comprehend. Familiarity, however, renders us insensible to the ordinary
works of nature; we are apt to forget the miracles they comprise, and
even, sometimes, mistaking words for conceptions, commit the error of
thinking we understand their mystery. But there is one class of these
wonders with which, from their comparatively rare occurrence, we do not
become familiar; and these, according to the character of the mind to
which they are presented, are frequently either denied as ridiculous and
impossible, or received as evidences of supernatural
interference—interruptions of those general laws by which God governs
the universe; which latter mistake arises from our only seeing these
facts without the links that connect them with the rest of nature, just
as in the faint light of a starlit night we might distinguish the tall
mountains that lift their crests high into the sky, though we could not
discern the low chain of hills that united them with each other.

There are two or three books by German authors, entitled “The
Night-Side,” or “The Night-Dominion of Nature,” which are on subjects,
more or less analogous to mine. Heinrick Schubert’s is the most
celebrated among them; it is a sort of cosmogony of the world, written
in a spirit of philosophical mysticism—too much so for English readers
in general.

In undertaking to write a book on these subjects myself, I wholly
disclaim the pretension of _teaching_ or of enforcing opinions. My
object is to suggest inquiry and stimulate observation, in order that we
may endeavor, if possible, to discover something regarding our psychical
nature, as it exists here in the flesh; and as it is to exist hereafter,
out of it.

If I could only induce a few capable persons, instead of laughing at
these things, to look at them, my object would be attained, and I should
consider my time well spent.




                           C O N T E N T S.

                 *        *        *        *        *

  CHAPTER                                                            PAGE
      I. —  Introduction                                                7
     II. —  The Dwellers in the Temple                                 19
    III. —  Waking and Sleeping, and how the Dweller in the Temple
              sometimes looks abroad                                   29
     IV. —  Allegorical Dreams, Presentiments, &c.                     48
      V. —  Warnings                                                   66
     VI. —  Double Dreaming and Trance, Wraiths, &c.                   98
    VII. —  Wraiths                                                   130
   VIII. —  Doppelgängers, or Doubles                                 149
     IX. —  Apparitions                                               171
      X. —  The Future that awaits us                                 204
     XI. —  The Power of Will                                         238
    XII. —  Troubled Spirits                                          252
   XIII. —  Haunted Houses                                            273
    XIV. — 