Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1893 — APPARITIONS IN HISTORY. [ARTICLE]

APPARITIONS IN HISTORY.

List of a Few Connected with the Name* of Famous Men. Goethe states that he one day saw the exact counterpart of himself coming toward him. Pope saw an arm apparently come through the wall, and made inquiries after its owner. Byron often received visits from a specter, but he knew it to be a creation of imagination. Dr. Johnson heard his mother call his name in a clear voice, though she was at the time in another city. Count Emmanuel Swedenborg believed that he had the privilege of interviewing persons in the spirit world. Loyola, lying wounded during the siege of Pampeluna, saw the Virgin, who encouraged him to prosecute his mission. Descartes was followed by an invisible person, whose voice he heard urging him to continue his search after truth. Sir Joshua Reynolds, leaving his house, thought the lamps were trees and the men and women bushes agitated by the breeze. Oliver Cromwell, lying sleepless on his couch, saw the curtains open and a gigantic woman appear, who told him that he would become the greatest man in England. Ben Johnson spent the watches of the night an interested spectator of a crowd of Tartars, Turks and Roman Catholics, who rose up and fought around his armchair till sunrise. Bostock, the physiologist, saw figures and faces, and there was one human face constantly before him for twenty-four hours, the features and headgear as distinct as those of a living person.

Benvenuto Cellini, imprisoned at Rome, resolved to free himself by self-destruction, but was deterred by the apparition of a young woman of wondrous beauty, whose reproaches turned him from his purpose. Napoleon once called attention to a bright star he believed he saw shining in his room, and said: “It has never deserted me. I see it on every great occurrence urging me onward. It is my unfailing omen of success.” Nicolai was alarmed by the appearance of a dead body, which vanished and came again at intervals. This was followed by human faces, which came into the room, and, after gazing upon him f or a while, departed.