The
apparent locality of the phantoms, it is true, had some influence, but
my own actual locality had much more.)"
"Thus far I have attempted only a general outline of these curious
experiences. I will now proceed to a detailed account of several
particular incidents, for the sake of illustrating the general
statements already made. I select a few from manifestations without
number. I am able to ascertain dates from the following
circumstances:--
"I was born in April, 1802, and my father died in July, 1808, after
suffering for more than a year from a lingering organic disease.
Between two and three years before his death he removed from the house
in which I was born to another at a little distance from it. What
occurred, therefore, before my father's last sickness, must have taken
place during the first five years of my life, and whatever took place
before the removal of the family must have taken place during the
first three years of my life. Before the removal of the family I slept
in a small upper chamber in the front part of the house, where I was
generally alone for several hours in the evening and morning.
Adjoining this room, and opening into it by a very small door, was a
low, dark, narrow, unfinished closet, which was open on the other side
into a ruinous, old chaise-house. This closet was a famous place for
the gambols of the phantoms, but of their forms and actions I do not
now retain any very distinct recollection.
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