was
mightily frightened by seeing her own image still before her, always when
she came to the open air; the back of the image being always to her, so
that it was not a reflection as in a mirror, but the species of such a
body as her own, and in a very like habit which appeared to herself
continually before her. The parson kept her a long while with him, but
had no remedy of her evil, which troubled her exceedingly. I was told
afterwards that when she was four or five years older she saw it not.

These are matters of fact, which I assure you they are truly related. But
these and all others that occurred to me, by information or otherwise,
could never lead me into a remote conjecture of the cause of so
extraordinary a phenomenon. Whether it be a quality in the eyes of some
people in these parts, concurring with a quality in the air also; whether
such species be everywhere, though not seen by the want of eyes so
qualified, or from whatever other cause, I must leave to the inquiry of
clearer judgments than mine. But a hint may be taken from this image
which appeared still to this woman above mentioned, and from another
mentioned by Aristotle, in the fourth of his Metaphysics (if I remember
right, for it is long since I read it), as also from the common opinion
that young infants (unsullied with many objects) do see apparitions which
were not seen by those of elder years; as likewise from this, that
several did see the second sight when in the Highlands or Isles, yet when
transported to live in other countries, especially in America, they quite
lose this quality, as was told me by a gentleman who knew some of them in
Barbadoes, who did see no vision there, although he knew them to be seers
when they lived in the Isles of Scotland.

_Thus far my Lord Tarbat_.

THE BOGLE.

This is a freakish spirit who delights rather to perplex and frighten
mankind than either to serve or seriously hurt them. The _Esprit Follet_
of the French, Shakespeare's Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, and Shellycoat, a
spirit who resides in the waters, and has given his name to many a rock
and stone on the Scottish coast, belong to the class of bogles. One of
Shellycoat's pranks is thus narrated:--Two men in a very dark night,
approaching the banks of the Ettrick, heard a doleful voice from its
waves repeatedly exclaim, "Lost! lost!" They followed the sound, which
seemed to be the voice of a drowning person, and, to their astonishment,
foun