tention to the matter. Some of the most fruitful fields for such a census appear to have been neglected.
Down to within a few years a large proportion, if not a majority, of the converts in revivals in evangelical denominations, in the course of their religious exercises, experienced transient hallucinations, some of which were grotesque, some coherent, and others sublime. Thus, a business man who had fasted, prayed, and lost sleep for several days, was in his barn attending to his horses, when he saw before him in broad daylight a wheel revolving rapidly. It was about the size of a cart-wheel, and emitted radiant sparks and streams of light of various colors. He said to himself, "Am I dreaming, or have I lost my senses?" Recognizing the different objects around him, he concluded that he was in his right mind, and fixed his eyes upon the wheel, which still whirled with inconceivable speed. Suddenly he discerned standing upright and immovable in the midst of it, unaffected by the motion of the rim, the form of the Saviour, who pronounced his sins forgiven. The hallucination continued some minutes. He believed it a divine evidence of conversion; its origin was undoubtedly subjective.
Another person, now a minister in New England, was so wrought upon at the moment he felt the sense of guilt and perplexity removed that he mistook the long stove-pipe in the country church for Jacob's ladder, and essayed to climb it. Not until restrained for some minutes by bystanders did he recognize the situation.
Such hallucinations occur still; among the negroes they are almost the rule. Yet these persons are not insane, and resume their ordinary vocations as before.
Spectral illusions are very common in children, and
