much more numerous and striking than is generally supposed. Lord Byron, who was superstitious, in speaking of ghosts wrote:
And what is strangest upon this strange head
Is that, whatever bar the reason rears
'Gainst such belief, there 's something stronger still
In its behalf, let those deny who will.
Yet he occasionally laughed at apparitions. In 1811, writing to Mr. Murray, he says, "My old school and form fellow Peel, the Irish Secretary, told me he saw me in St. James street; I was then in Turkey. A day or two afterward looking across the way, he said to his brother, 'There is the man I took for Byron.' His brother answered, 'Why, it is Byron, and no one else.' I was at this time seen to write my name in the Palace book. I was then ill of a malaria fever. If I had died, here would have been a ghost story." According to the telepathic theory, Byron's self might have left his body in Turkey, where he was sick, and made an excursion to London. It would be interesting to have an account of the state of his body on that day; whether much agitated, or enjoying a calm and refreshing sleep in the absence of the perturbed spirit of the poet, who must have been an uneasy tenant at the best of times. But these details were omitted, and the natural explanation would be "mistaken identity."
A whole city was excited by the appearance of a person known to be dead—a silent man, who entered a hotel, registered his name, and looked wistfully about, speaking to no one, and not willing to explain his business. Terror seized upon the people. Every one who looked at him affirmed that he was the dead man. He was compelled after a few days to account for himself, and had no difficulty in proving, not only
