Page:Faithhealingchri00buckiala.djvu/205

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PRESENTIMENTS, VISIONS, AND APPARITIONS
191

that he was a living man, but that he had never seen the man whom he so strongly resembled. A remarkable fact about this case was, that both the dead man and his double had three moles on the left cheek.

Jugglery and intentional deception, subsequently confessed, have explained many cases of apparition which within a short period previous to the exposure had been generally believed real in the communities where they were reported. One of the most common sources of supposed supernatural interference with ordinary laws is unexplained noises, especially those that appear to respond to questions. Many of these have been afterward explained by chemical conditions; others by the wind shrieking through bottles, down chimneys, and occasionally by pendulum motions caused by gravitation, shakings, or motions by the movements of distant bodies; one famous case by changes that had taken place, the result of mining operations beneath the ground upon which the house stood. The ringing of bells when it was obvious no one was pulling the wires—occasionally the result of electricity, at other times of the actions of cats—has terrified some ordinarily intelligent persons almost out of their senses. Disturbances produced by dogs, cats, and even rats, magnified by large rooms, immense fire-places, the transformation of innocent objects on nights when the moon is at the full, and deep shadows produced by movements of the limbs of trees reflected in mirrors, have all contributed to the production of awful impressions.

In a certain rectory within forty miles of the city of New York stood an old-fashioned candlestick surrounded by prisms of glass which were pendent from the top. On several occasions the family were awakened by the ringing of these in the night, the effect of which was to terrify the servants and all the in-