Title and contents
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Dendy, Walter Cooper
THE
PHILOSOPHY
OF
MYSTERY.
“We so intreateth this serious and terrible matter of Spirites, that now and then insertyng some strange stories of counterfeyts, doth both very lybely display their falsehood, and also not a little recreate his reader: and yet in the ende he so aptly concludeth to the purpose, that his hystories seeme not idle tales, or impertinent vagaries, but very truethes, naturally falling under the compasse of his matter.”
THE
PHILOSOPHY
OF
MYSTERY.
BY
WALTER COOPER DENDY,
FELLOW AND HONORARY LIBRARIAN OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON;
SENIOR SURGEON TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN, &c. &c.
LONDON:
LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
———
1841.
Gilbert and Rivington, Printers,
St. John’s Square, London.
TO HIS COUSINS,
STEPHEN DENDY, ESQ.
OF PARIS,
AND
CHARLES COOK DENDY, ESQ.
OF SOUTHGATE HOUSE, CHICHESTER;
AND TO HIS BROTHER,
EDWARD STEPHEN DENDY,
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED,
IN TOKEN OF THE AFFECTIONATE REGARD
OF THE AUTHOR.
PAGE
THE CHALLENGE.
Scenery on the Wye—A Ghost Seer—Tintern Abbey—Faith and Scepticism in the reality of Phantoms
1-5
NATURE AND MOTIVES OF GHOSTS.
Notions of the Ancients regarding the nature of Ghosts—Confidence of the Ancients in their appearance—Modern Incidents in illustration of real appearance—Qualities of Ghosts—Motives of Apparitions—Ancient and modern Stories
6-17
PROPHECY OF SPECTRES.
Ancient spectral Prophecy—Modern Stories in illustration of prophetic Spectres—Philosophy and Poesy of Shakspere—Holy influence of Spectral Visitations—Stories of apparently special influence of the Deity