APPARITION, a preternatural appearance of some departed spirit, angel, genius, or • demon. As distin guished from a vision, it implies something external to the mind, which preternaturally appears to view ; where as a vision implies the existence of no spectre or exter nal appearance, but merely something extraordinary passing in the mind of the person affected, and impres sing him for the time with the conviction of reality. See VISION.
We read in scripture of various apparitions, permitted or appointed by the Almighty for the revelation of his will, or the accomplishment of certain important purposes ; such as the appiration of the angel to Peter, in order to deliver him out of prison; the apparition of our Saviour, af ter his crucifixion, to certain of his disciples, in order tO convince them of the reality of his resurrection, 8cc. Whether or not apparitions are still permitted by God, or have taken place among heathen nations, that have never been visited by the light of Christianity, are ques tions about which mankind are still greatly divided, and on which the learned have given very opposite decisions. The most unquestionable evidence would doubtless be requisite to conquer the justifiable doubt, which is al ways excited by relations of the marvellous ; and unless narratives of apparitions are supported by unexception able proofs, and are attached to circumstances of suffici ent importance to warrant so extraordinary a suspension of the laws of nature, it seems the safest course to be lieve that the period of these preternatural phenomena, like that of the other miracles performed, to establish the credibility of revelation, is now at an end.
Among those who have most strenuously maintained the reality of apparitions, may be reckoned Glanvil, Baxter, and Dr Henry More. The first of these, in his Saducismus Triumphatus," has attempted to prove the credibility of apparitions, as well as of witchcraft, by va rious arguments deduced from the nature of the human soul, the testimony of scripture, and the evidence of facts ; and he does not scruple to assert, that those who deny and deride the existence of such things, are prepar ed to disbelieve in spirits, a life to come, and all the great truths of religion. Baxter, in his "Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul," having ascribed dream ing to the immediate agency of external immaterial beings, maintains,-that such agents may directly impress the fancy with delusive scenes, without the intervention of sleep ; and may obtrude them forcibly upon the mind, amidst the action of external objects ; since it requires but a greater clegr of the same power to make delu sory impressions upon the sensorium, while real nal objects are making true impressions upon it, than it would require to make the same impressions, while no impression mpression from outward objects is made upon it at the same time. Upon this hypothesis, he thinks there
is nothing inconsistent in those relations of apparitions which we meet with in history, whether the facts be true or false; for these spiritual agents may, upon some important occasions, be licensed J 0 to affect the sen sorium, according to the exigency of the case, that the whole scene of vision, which is then thought to have an existence from without, may be the effect of impressions made upon the brain only.
These reasonings, a priori, in favour of the reality of apparitions, will not, it is presumed, contribute much to conquer the scepticism of the incredulous ; and nothing but positive and indisputable testimony, in circumstances which render deception altogether improbable, can be admitted as sufficient evidence to establish this great de viation from ordinary experience. It must be admitted, as a strong presumption against the reality of apparition's, however anciently and generally the belief of them has prevailed, that this belief has always been strongest in times of ignorance ; and amongst those who had the fewest opportunities for inquiry and information : It is a prominent article in the creed of the vulgar and illiterate, and among all barbarous and unenlightened tribes ; but it scarcely appears where civilisation and mental improve ment have made any conspicuous progress. It is to the season of the night also, that these extraordinary ap pearances are referred, when the mind is naturally op pressed by a superstitious gloom ; and when the senses are easily imposed upon by the workings of the imagina tion, and the phantoms which it voluntarily conjures up. Apparitions, too, are usually, if not constantly, combined with circumstances of horror, or of danger, either real or apprehended, which must previously dispose the im agination for being imposed upon and deluded. The terror produced by a narrative of murder, the fear of being betrayed or deceived, combined with the darkness of night, and the irksomeness of solitude, will excite, in a melancholy mind, illusions, which may easily be mis taken for reality. It ought also to be considered, that apparitions are convenient engines, which, on particular occasions, may have done considerable service to states men, priests, or other men possessed of power, and hav ing some important object to accomplish ; and that the secret by which the apparently preternatural effect was produced, may have for ever lain hid in the breast which devised the project, which is thus handed down to pos terity as a well-attested example of the immediate in terposition of superior powers ; and, above all, that most of the stories of apparitions which are recorded in history, are reported from uncertain tradition, or upon the most vague and unsatisfactory evidence.