Part 1

Produced by Bryan Ness, S.D., and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

APPARITIONS;

OR,

THE MYSTERY OF

Ghosts, Hobgoblins,

AND

HAUNTED HOUSES,

DEVELOPED.

***

"Animum rege."

"This Collection of Stories is well chosen, and affords a fund of amusement that is cheap at the price of five shillings. By putting such a book as this into the hands of children, parents will more effectually guard their minds against weak credulity, than by grave philosophic admonition." Monthly Review, October 1814.

Printed by Macdonald and Son, Cloth Fair, Smithfield

H Corbould delint C Knight sculpt 1814

The Haunted Beach.]

APPARITIONS;

OR, THE MYSTERY OF Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Haunted Houses, DEVELOPED.

BEING A COLLECTION OF ENTERTAINING STORIES, FOUNDED ON FACT, And selected for the purpose of

ERADICATING THOSE FEARS, WHICH THE IGNORANT, THE WEAK, AND THE SUPERSTITIOUS, ARE BUT TOO APT TO ENCOURAGE, FOR WANT OF PROPERLY EXAMINING INTO THE CAUSES OF SUCH ABSURD IMPOSITIONS.

***

BY JOSEPH TAYLOR.

SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED.

***

London: PRINTED FOR LACKINGTON, ALLEN, AND CO. FINSBURY SQUARE.

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1815.

INTRODUCTION.

The subsequent little Work owes its rise and progress to very trifling circumstances.

In the early part of my life, having read many books in favour of Ghosts and Spectral Appearances, the recollection remained so strong in my mind, that, for years after, the dread of phantoms bore irresistible sway. This dread continued till about my twenty-third year, when the following simple affair fully convinced me, how necessary it was thoroughly to investigate every thing that tended to supernatural agency, lest idle fear should gain a total ascendancy over my mind.