 Supposition of an Engagement, those Sort of invisible Gentry have many Advantages over us. They give a Man no manner of fair Play. They have you here, and have you there, and your best Watch and Ward is no better than fencing against an invisible Flail. --But, seriously, do you think we have any innate Fears of these Matters?
All our Fears arise from the Sense of our own Weakness, and of the Power and Inclination that Others may have to hurt us.
If our Horrour of Apparitions is not innate, how comes it to pass, that Soldiers, that general Officers, who dare all other Danger, that
Heroes
who, like
Brutus,
have given Death to themselves, or who have been led to Execution without a changing Cheek, have yet dreaded to lie alone, or to be left in the dark?
We all see that a Spirit has vast Power. Nothing else in Truth can have any Power at all. We perceive, by ourselves and others, with what Ease it can act upon what we call Matter; how it moves, how it lifts it. Perhaps, were our Spirits detached from this distempered Prison, to which the Degeneracy of our fallen Nature has confined them, they might more easily whirl a Mountain through the Atmosphere, than they can now cast a Pebble into the Air. The Consideration of this Power, when joined to Malevolence, as is generally the Case, becomes very tremendous. The Stories told by Nurses and Gossips about a Winter's Fire, when the young Auditors crouch closer and closer together, and dare not look about for fear of what may be behind them, leave Impressions that no subsequent Reason or Religion can efface. The Ideas of an Apparition, on these Occasions, are connected with all the Horrours, of which infant Imaginations can be susceptible; Fangs, Horns, a threatning Mien, saucer Eyes, a flaming Breath, and a deadly Aspect. When Children are told of Fairies, who carry off People to dwell with them under Ground, and of evil Spirits who snatch away Soul and Body, together, to be their Associates in Regions of Darkness, and Woe, the Fear of such Evils greatly surpasses those of Death, as it weds Misery to Existence beyond the Grave. --On the contrary Side. Had Spirits been originally represented to Infants as Beings of an amiable Appearance, and as Guardians benevolent and beneficent to Man; had they further deigned to visit us under such Representations, and, had we experienced the Advantage of their Instructions and good Offices, we should have met them with Transport
