An essay on the history and reality of apparitions: Being an account of what they are, and what they are not; whence they come, and whence they come not. ...
- Title
- An essay on the history and reality of apparitions: Being an account of what they are, and what they are not; whence they come, and whence they come not. ...
- Author
- Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
- Publication
- London :: printed: and sold by J. Roberts,
- 1727.
- Rights/Permissions
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- Link to this Item
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https://name.umdl.umich.edu/004843878.0001.000
- Cite this Item
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"An essay on the history and reality of apparitions: Being an account of what they are, and what they are not; whence they come, and whence they come not. ..." In the digital collection Eighteenth Century Collections Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/004843878.0001.000. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 27, 2025.
Contents
- frontispiece
- title page
- THE PREFACE.
- THE CONTENTS.
- INTRODUCTION. Of Apparitions in General: the Certainty and Nature of them.
- CHAP. I. Of Apparitions in particular, the Reality of them, their Antiquity, and the Diffe∣rence between the Apparitions of former Times, and those which we may call Modern; with something of the Reason and Occasion of that Difference.
- CHAP. II. Of the Appearance of Angels immediately in Mission as from Heaven; and why we are to suppose those kinds of Apparitions are at an End.
-
CHAP. III. Of the
APPEARANCE of theDEVIL in Humane Shape. - CHAP. IV. Of the Apparition of Spirits Unembodied, and which never were Embodied; not such as are vulgarly called Ghosts, that is to say, departed Souls returning again and appear∣ing visibly on Earth, but Spirits of a supe∣rior and angelick Nature; with an Opinion of another Species.
- CHAP. V. Of the Appearance of Departed Unembo∣died Soul.
- CHAP. VI. Of the Manner How the Spirits of every Kind, which can or do appear among us, manage their Appearance; and How they proceed.
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CHAP. VII. Of the many strange Inconveniences and ill Consequences which would attend us in this World, if the Souls of Men and Wo∣men, unembodyed and departed, w
re at Li∣berty to visit the Earth, from whence they had been dismiss'd, and to concern themselves about Human Affairs, either such as had been their own, or that were belonging to other People. - CHAP. VIII. The Reality of Apparition farther asserted; and what Spirits they are that do really appear.
- CHAP. IX. More Relations of particular Facts, proving the Reality of Apparitions; with some just Observations on the Difference between the good and evil Spirits, from the Errand or Business they come about.
- CHAP. X. Of the different Nature of Apparitions; how we should behave to them; when to be afraid of or concern'd about them, and when not.
- CHAP. XI. Of Apparitions in Dream, and how far they are or are not real Apparitions.
- CHAP. XII. Of Apparitions being said to happen just at the time when the Person so happening to appear is said to be departing; the Fiction of it confuted.
- CHAP. XIII. Of the Consequence of this Doctrine; and see∣ing that Apparitions are real, and may be ex∣pected upon many Occasions, and that we are sure they are not the Souls of our departed Friends; how are we to act, and how to behave to them, when they come among us, and when they pretend to be such and such, and speak in the first Person of those depart∣ed Friends, as if they were really them∣selves?
- CHAP. XIV. Of Sham Apparitions, and Apparitions which have been the Effect either of Fraud or Fear.
- CHAP. XV. Of Imaginary Apparitions, the Apparitions of Fancy, Vapours, waking Dreams, de∣lirious Heads, and the Hyppo.