e, and which must have gained admission either through
the key-hole, or under the door, turned out to be my own garment. I
smiled at my groundless fears, was pleased with any resolution, returned
light-hearted to my bed, and moralized nearly the whole of the night on
the simplicity of a great part of mankind in being so credulous as to
believe every idle tale, or conceive every noise to be a spectre,
without first duly examining into causes.

This very trifling accident was of great service to me as I travelled
onward through life. Similar circumstances transpired. Screams, and
shades, I encountered; which always, upon due investigation, ended in
"trifles light as air."

Nor did the good end here. My story circulated, and put other young men
upon the alert, to guard against similar delusions. They likewise
imparted to me their ghostly encounters, and those I thought deserving
of record I always committed to writing; and, as many of them are well
authenticated facts, and both instructive and amusing, they form a part
of the volume now presented to the Public.

The other stories are selected from history, and respectable
publications; forming in the whole, I hope, an antidote against a too
credulous belief in every village tale, or old gossip's story.

Though I candidly acknowledge to have received great pleasure in forming
this Collection, I would by no means wish it to be imagined, that I am
sceptical in my opinions, or entirely disbelieve and set my face against
all apparitional record. No; I do believe that, for certain purposes,
and on certain and all-wise occasions, such things _are_, and _have
been_ permitted by the Almighty; but by no means do I believe they are
suffered to appear half so frequently as our modern ghost-mongers
manufacture them. Among the various idle tales in circulation, nothing
is more common than the prevalent opinion concerning what is generally
called a _death-watch_, and which is vulgarly believed to foretel the
death of some one in the family. "This is," observes a writer in the
Philosophical Transactions, "a ridiculous fancy crept into vulgar heads,
and employed to terrify and affright weak people as a monitor of
approaching death." Therefore, to prevent such causeless fears, I shall
take this opportunity to undeceive the world, by shewing what it is, and
that no such thing is intended by it. It has obtained the name of
death-watch, by making a little clinking noise like a watch; which