THE WESLEY GHOSTS.

Bush Advocate, Volume V, Issue 339, 12 July 1890, Page 8

THE WESLEY GHOSTS.

(daily neavs.) The Wesley Ghosts are always being revived, with all the curious questions which they suggest. Their latest appearance is in a memoir of Susanna Wesley, by Miss Eliza Clarke (W. H. Allen and Co.). The book is not very carefully printed, as the first odd occurrences at the Wesleys' -house, Epworth Rectory, are dated 1816. Of course 17 IG is the date. The stories may be examined onco more, and compared with similar marvels reported elsewhere. Tho thing to be explained, or admired, is the consensus of evidence from the most remote "quarters. Either such disturbances as annoyed tho Wesleys ; are actually in the nature of things or humanity everywhere shows a marvollous concord in lying and in imposture. Lying is quite out of the question in tho case of tho Wesleys, the most robust scepticism cannot swallow that hypothesis. Imposture, of course, on the part of children or servants ' has to be allowed for, but then Aye are confronted with a curious unanimity in imposture. Incas, Buddhists, Mohammedans must ali practise the very tricks of Robin, the Wesleys' man, or of the Wesleys' maid. Samuel Wesley the younger was in London ■when the troubles began. His mother wrote to thank him for a letter, as she had been anxious about him. In December, 1716, the maid — a new maid — had heard dismal groans at tbe door of tho diningroom. Soon after several of the family heard a strange knocking, sometimes in the nursery, sometimes in tlie garret — where the children and servants were, in fact. Then "it" took to knocking near the bed of Mr. Wesley, who had not previously heard "it." Mr. Wesley " questioned it if it were Sammy," but it Avas not Sammy. The younger Samuel, much interested, suggested rats. But the rats, previously troublesome, had been expelled by blowing a horn. The horn was tried again, but only seemed to arouse its ambition. "I Avas entirely convinced," says Mrs. Wesley, " that it Avas beyond tho power of any human being " — still more than of rats — " to make such strange and various noises." The sounds AA'ere usually nearer Hetty, one of the children, than the rest. Thereis very often a littlo girl whom it particularly affects. In his "Demouology," Scott mentions a little girl who produced the noises, and made things fly about with ingenious arrangements of horse-hair lines. Hetty Avas found guilty of no such contrivances. The noises were frequent when the prayer for the King Avas read. Mrs. Wesley AA*as a Jacobite, but it is absurd to suspect Mrs. Wesley of being the impostor. Sho herself Avas thrice ' ' pushed by an invisible power." The mastiff Avas ahvays dreadfully frightened, dogs being notoriously superstitious. They see ghosts, and, in Homer, sco gods invisible to mankind. The mastiff's evidence is very good. Sukey Wesley mentions that her father's trencher " danced upon the table a pretty Avhile without anybody's stirring the table." These noises lasted for thirty-four years, and became merely a bore and a Aveariness of the flesh. About 100 years later the vector at Epworth was driven out of the house by the unexpected hubbub. This is the Wesley story. That any servant should keep up such a senseless disturbance for thirty- four years seems almost out of the question. We uoav turn to similar troubles elseAvhere. One of the oddest is in the report of a Spanish missionary in Peru, one of tho earliest missionaries. It is published by the Hakluy t Society. The victim Avas a chief, or cacique, avlio Avas on the point of being converted. There were the usual noises, stones were thrown about the house by invisible hands, and the cacique's drinking vessel Avas lifted by no seen agency and set down empty 1 This case may be illustrated by Bishop Callaway's Zulu converts, Avho wero persecuted by exactly the same visions as St. Anthony and other early Christians. Something must be alloAved for agitation of mind in fresh converts. The dancing of Mr. Wesley's trencher corresponds to various phenomena. In a private letter from Lahore, in 1879, a traveller mentioned a Bhuddist High Priest in North-Avest China who is " said to have tho magic poAver of attracting cups and plates from a distance, and things fly through the air into his hands." In Colonel Yule's "Marco Polo" is quoted the report of a mediaeval traveller, avlio saAv tho cups go about, of their own motion, at the Court of the King of Delhi. He also A\*itnessed other performances even moro marvellous, but these belong to a different branch of the subject. For example, one Yugi squatted in the air, and tlie slipper of another beat him on the neck in that attitude. In a little work called " Obeab," lately published, arc amazing accounts of descents of stones into a house ; thoy " came from <aboA*e," and were repeated at intervals for diys. Disturbances exactly like those in the Wesleys' house occurred at Glenluce, in Scotland, about 10(30. Thoy were minutely recorded in " Satan's Invisible World Discovered," by Professor George Sinclair, of Glasgow. The instance of the Drummer of TcdAvorth, at Mr. Mompcssen's houso, is t.o avcll kuown to bo quoted. E\*ery--0110 has heard of " tho Fox girls" in America, but whether tho Fox girls aro good evidence or not is v question for the inquirer to decide upon. A farmhouse in the North of Scotland was Avorriod exactly as the Wesleys wero annoyed only a year ago. The mattress behaved in an unusual and disorderly maimer: was cut open and examined, and set to work as violently as ever when it had been repaired. AcaseA'ery like thoWe.loj's, bat of brief duration, disturbed Sir "Walter Scott, at Abbotsford, Avhen the house avus inhabited, but noti finished. On two nights there ay.is a dreadful racket, as if the heavy furniture Avas being dragged about. Scott took auld Beardie's sword, and Bolt upright And roady to fight, explored the premises. He fonnd everything in its place, and all quiet. His architect or upholsterer in London chanced to die on one of these noisy nights. Mrs. Wesley expected to hear of her son's or brother's death when tho knockings began ; but Sammy awis alive and Avell, and nothing avus ever heard about the brother, who Avas in India. Occasionally, as in an example already mentioned, and perhaps in the Woodstock performances, tho human agent iv the affair has con'fessid or has been discovered. He has folloAved by mechanical means the general tradition as to how this kind of thing should he dono. Muoh moro frequently, as at Wesleys, in Glenluce, at Abbotsford, no cause of the troubles has been found out. The Psychical Society seem to havo made little or nothing of this pleasing* study. We arc left to make our choice between aimless imposture, prolonged for many years, or tho existence of forces about Avhich avo Iciioav nothing. The latter is the moro agreeable hypothesis. The visible earth has almost all been explored. Wo know a disenchanting amount about the moon aud even the stars. Fancy would havo no empty waste, or common, if we could quite explain away the. tribulation of Iho Wesleys. Therefore many people will believe in " it " as long as they can. "It" has not been caught, and classified. The bogies of tho ancients cannot havo been rats, because the rat Avas unknown t. the Greeks and Romans. This is a reassuring circumstance.