The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers

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 .

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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. — Spectral Lights, and Apparitions attached to Certain Families 319 XV. — Apparitions seeking the Prayers of the Living 345 XVI. — The Poltergeist of the Germans, and Possession 376 XVII. — Miscellaneous Phenomena 411 XVIII. — Conclusion 434