Excerpt from On Hallucinations: A History and Explanation of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism At all epochs in the history of man, in every climate, under the most opposite forms of government, and with every variety of religion, we constantly find the same belief in spirits and apparitions. The source of an opinion so universal must evidently be sought for in the mental constitution of man, where there predominates an irresistible craving after the unknown, and a belief in the supernatural, which manifests itself in the multitude by a love of the marvellous. The savage who dreams of the Great Spirit, and of boundless hunting-grounds in a future life; the Arab who wanders in the enchanted palaces of the Thousand and One Nights; the Indian who loses himself in the incarnations of Brama; the inhabitant of the civilized world who professes to believe nothing, yet secretly consults the fortune-teller, or demands from magnetism what it cannot afford him; all obey the same want - that of believing something. At first, it seems astonishing that such opinions should have obtained so much influence, and one is tempted to ask, if man is a compound of errors, or the sport of illusions; but a deeper investigation of the question will convince us that these opinions are only deviations from the religious sentiment. History and tradition alike inform us that man came forth pure, but free, from the hands of his Creator. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.