TRUTH IN THE MARVELLOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1834, 14 January 1887, Page 33

TRUTH IN THE MARVELLOUS.

We may not be disposed to admit that- the fiery prosa seen by Constantino was a miraculous intimation ; but we cannot set aside the account as necessarily apocryphal ; for a celestial cross was seen in Migne, near Poitiers, in December ] 82(5. It was observed during a religious service, and the preacher in his sermon had je£erred.;to' the -cross'of Constantine. The awe-rstruckcongregration, on perceiving the visible cross in the sky, of shinjug silver, edged with red, immediately fell upon' their knees, accepting. the sign.ag-a.. djvinp testimony to the truth pf what had just been told them. ,, The sourpe.< of the 'phenomenon- .was "afterwards found- in a yrooden cross whjch : had been erected near the .chapel, the shadow of which had been cast b.y the declining sun, on a rising mist. THE FLYING DtJTpHMAN

was obviously, another instance of atmospheric reflection, and similar, phantom ships have been described by modern travellers. The Enchanted island, or Isle of (Juostsj which had its place in old charts in midAtlantic, and so perplexed' the mariner^ pf the middle ages ' by' Jts 'varying appearance, 4efying all attempts to reach its shores, has since been recognised as a fogbank, Among the WOTtfcfti wcoys4 is the refs»

i c£«Willlam-Kufaßf*it»is«said^t-hat''on»*^righ TnTtposr-: — -: '"~~77.r v;t- c.?« tSib 'stles^Mbpj'f^cli^g 1^;, 3 like a' showier' of 'rair^', .from ."to^rth ,p'r^~ according^ to -tfee^^cOblroidcle'J of were'.drive^ like ' dust ' before- "^he ; wi?xl.^ A 'tradition' is recprde'd^as prevailip^^n,T hesg^lr that' W a'certain night in Augusji't'lie heavens were opened, and Burning 'torcuea/vvpre scon through the aperture. 'These are cleavlj\t)ut highly coloured ac«ounts, by persons" of limited knowledge of natural phenomena, of specially' brilliant display&of shooting, stars. Tlies', last ' corresponds . 'with thc*'Ai)gusi meteors.*, '/ . , IJ ,*, „. i » ' „'„ ,^..,1 'Batth6Hn,.in' his " History, of AnatomY," 1 $pe£ks{ * of' l^a p'at'ricyn ' lady' '/pjj -f )J^rona , Catlie)rlne t 'wjfe, -of Al«ihh i% l^nc%us"y-^ajm* -D < aJdnsJ;'Wh"ose' 1 ' " ,*'"'.' \?' "''S^'^.U i- • <i it.' -j I' ;.; j i i i -i ; t' . L!l')J- ~U : r , i r SKiS SPA^BK LEI> WITH ;FIREin-aJi-.-when slightly touched. , r This noble? lady,' he s;iys,'"the Creator endued- J with~i's6 stupendous a dignity and prerogative of jiature, that as, oft as her body ,;*>•»?. but lightly touched with linen, sparks flew, out, plenti.fully from her limosv, apparent .I'p-jlier domestio servants, a.s if they hn.d,been str.upk out ot a ftirij, aobompjtined ,'alijo anolsf; that"was.;to. bfe heard by: all.' 'Oftentimes', when she rubbed her hands, upon t|ie sjeevo , of.. her ampek that contained the. sparks within _ it," she observed aiftame .with \ .tailed ray running about, as iired_ exhalations are wont to do. . . . ' This firo was not. to be seen, but in the dark or in the night, nor did it burn without itself, though combustible matter was applied to it." „,Thia description pf electric sparks, is such as .would' be given by a person who, saw thepbenWne,no^for,.the first. : time and was, ignorant- ,ufr,its,<?anßp, The samp appearapce^ is, sometimes, seen ( by persons of the' present generation, .whon divesting. themselves of tight-fitting-under-.elothing, and especially \vhen combing .their .hair with a vulcanite comb ; -boc probably .it shows itself r only with persons, .oj^ peculiar constitution.^ " . Vil( ., H i/)llu {,'.,; It is hardly necessary to advert to tho part which comet-shave played in, the, annals of supernatural "manifest-ktions. % In classic times, : however low the state' of knowledge may havo'beeh in brher .'departinenii of physical science, tiie celestial bddies were never without intelligent observers, and ihe ancient astrononievs ijo doubt acknowledged comets as having their place \i\ rhe planetary of sidereal economy. But tin's knowledge was confined to the learned ; to rheepmmon people, comets were diariots of 'lire cohveving departed heroes to iheftobdeofdemigoik. A splendid comet luckily appeared aftl»r the deatii of Julius Casar, and liiM title to ■ divine- honours.' ffiti t 'the dark ages., comets were celestial portent.V," presages' of revolution- or pestilence.' - -Throughout- tho sixteeuth and seventeenth, "centuries; : it was accounted a profane, jSceptjsmi to <afc tribute, ,t.heir appearance to natural causes aud tM eyen . aa, late. f as ■■ the' vbegiduing of, the eighteenth. century, w.e find) an inf telligent,, writer on the natiirnl .t'curiosity of. ,'the. ,world ' adopting , the , y^aw i these ,bodies,-are hot allowed to appeaf except ;\v,ith the : sp,ecia.l-penm6Bion of Divine prdvidence', for a specific purpose, in , oppositipn ,to Mhe theories pf astronomers, who- arcj .'twitted with assigning, long periods, to tlje orbits. of comets in order that'tjie predictiqhs 'of 'their reappearance ,may not be falsified in the'lifo-.\ time, pf the persons making them. {.-..">-, '

Whether it . wa3 ; . owing ; to the- improved means, of spreading intelligence afforded by the invention of printing,- or, to the excitement, of men's minds consequent, upon the political and social events of > the time, the sixteenth century was prolific of stories of , • wasmwuh sights fs thk heavens AND ON THE EARTH. ' ' Of the many marvellous- account:s>tihen circulated.'we select' the following", which forms the subject of a tract' by Abraham 'Fleming, and purports' to [have been taken from the evidence of eye-witnesses. The' account is tilled, "A Straunge and Terrible ' Wunder wrought very late in the Parish Church of B unsay -namely, the fourth of this August, in the ybere of our Lord 1577 . , -'. with rhe appearance of an horrible shaped thing , sensibly perceived of the people then and there assembled." The account is couched in terms appropriate to t-he • solemnity- of a, special manifestation from the spiritiiaT world, and i» interspersed with ejaculations' expressive of the awe which filled the'people's minds. at their witnessing the occurrences described ; but the incidents, briefly told, are 1 follows : A storm' of extraordinary fury', was raging While the congregation 1 vfere" assembleU'at divine service ;' rain ir came down., like a deluge, lightning flashed, and J thunder pealed, so that not 'only dumb animals w,ere : disquieted, but- "senseless things void of 'alj' life and feeling shook and trembled ;" 'in ' other word?, the fabric and furniture of the building were shaken by the violence 1 of ttie storm. While the tempest .was at its height,' '. a visitor frbn-i' the lower ftigid'ns "(as the narrator evidently believed) made liisappear- ' ance in the midst of tho congregation, in the form, "as they might discern it," of a " dog of a blank colour ; " the sight whereof"! ' together with the fearful flashes 'of fire which then were scene, moved such admir-. ation in the mindes of the -assemblie that they thought doome'a day was already come." The " Evil One in such a likeiaesse '•' ran with extraordinary speed down the body ' , of the church among the, people.- " Passing between two persons who 1-) <vere on l! theu knees apparently engaged in prayer, he wrung, the necks pf both of tjiem in an instant, so that they died where they knelt. , As he , passed by another man he *'g4ve*h'im such a', 1 ; gripe on the bapk that therewithal hewaßpre T '. : Sjently drawen, togither and shrunk up as it \ were- a piepe of lether scorched 'in a' hot : fire; or' as the mouth of-'a parse 'or bag, drawn togither with a string." This "man, however, did not die. Meanwhile, the' parish i clerk, who was cleaning out the gutter of the* church, also saw the "hoifrible' shaped thing,'- ' ' and was struck to the grbun^'withla 1 violent"; clap of thunder, but b,eyond'h'is fafi, wag not hapmed. The stones of the ph'ufph and the church door, on being 'afterwards i Sj^inefr*' 1 bore evidenpe of the power-.o|-'the^a¥m^'in , £he marks of his clawß or talpiiß };andq3Hfe&wires, the wheels, and other things b'elpnripg' '

A similar, occurrence is stated to have been witnessed the same day at Blibefy, a village seven miles from, Bungay. In this case the demon planted' himself upon the rood-loft, from which he 'flung himself down into the church, and after killing two men and a lad, and burning the hand of another person, flew out of the church "in hideous likeness." ■

Before dismissing this story as a fable, bred of the imagination of people terror.stricken by the storm, let us compare it with the 'account of an" occurrence which took place on Malvern Hills on the.ls.tof July 1826. A party had taken refuge in an ironroofed hut from an impending storm, and were about to partake of refreshment when the storm came on. *A gentleman who was standing at the* eastern entrance — the storm had come from, the west — saw what seemed to him to be

A BALL. OP FIRE MOVING ALONG THE STTBFACE OS" THE GROUND.

It came up and entered the hut, forcing kirn, as it did so, several paces forward from the doorway. An explosion followed, described by the inhabtants of the village at the foot of the hill- (Great Malvern) as terrific. On going in, as soon as he had recovered from the shock, to look after his sisters, he found them' on the floor, fainting, as he thought, from terror. Two of them had died instantly ; and a third lady; with others of the party, were injured. An examination of the hut showed a large crack in the side opposite to that at which the fireball had entered, leading up to a window, and the iron r^of above this was .indented. The correspondence of the leading circumstances of this account with Fleming's story is remarkable ; and had the Malvern' incident occurred in the superstitous sixteenth'ceniury instead of the scientific nineteenth, it would' no doubt have been regarded as a supernatural visitation, and have furnished hist snch a marvellous story as that of Bungay.

THE MALTA STORM-6LOUD, which destroyed nearly 200 lives, and laid in ruins almost everything in its way, is described by Brydone as being at first black, afterwards changing its colour till it became like a flame of lire mixed with black smoke; but he reports 'that despite the scientific explanations of this extraordinary storm-cloud, the people declared with one voice that it was a legion of demons let loose to punish them for their sins. There were, says he, a thousand people in Malta that were ready to take their oath that they saw the fiends within the cjoud, "all as black as pitch, and breathing out fire and brimstone,"

REMARKABLE METEORITE.

in Arago's " Popular Astronomy '- is an account of a meteorite which struck the earth at Luce, in the year 1769. It was perceived in the sky by several persons, who watched itß progress until it reached the surface of the earth, when it was at once picked up and preserved ; but the Academy of Sciences pronounced it' impossible for a solid body to have fallen from the heavens. On the 24th of July 1790,- a quantity of these' 9tones fell at St. Juliac — in the fields, on the roofs of the houses, and in the streets of the village. The fall was preceded by what is described as the passing of a great fire, after which was heard in the air a very loud and extraordinary noise. The facts were certified by the municipality of the place and by some hundreds of the inhabitants ; but the affair was treated in the public journals as a ridiculous tale, calculated to excite the compassion not merely of savants, but of all reasonable persons. — Chambers' Journal.