The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Phantom World, by Augustin Calmet

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Title: The Phantom World
or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.

Author: Augustin Calmet

Editor: Henry Christmas

Release Date: July 14, 2009 [EBook #29412]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHANTOM WORLD ***

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THE
PHANTOM WORLD:
THE HISTORY
AND
PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITS, APPARITIONS,
&c. &c.

FROM THE FRENCH OF AUGUSTINE CALMET.

WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES
BY THE
REV. HENRY CHRISTMAS, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., LIBRARIAN AND SECRETARY OF
SION COLLEGE.

Quemadmodum multa fieri non posse, priusquam facta sunt, judicantur;
ita multa quoque, quae antiquitus facta, quia nos ea non vidimus, neque
ratione assequimur, ex iis esse, quae fieri non potuerunt, judicamus.
Quae certe summa insipientia est.--PLIN. _Hist. Nat._ lib. vii. c. 1.

TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.

PHILADELPHIA:
A. HART, LATE CAREY & HART.
1850.

PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.

TO
HENRY JAMES SLACK, ESQ., F.G.S.
&c. &c. &c.

MY DEAR HENRY--

I inscribe these volumes with your name to record a friendship which
has lasted from our infancy, tain____________ suspicion, and darkened
by no shadow.

So long as eminent talents can challenge admiration, varied and
extensive acquirements command respect, and unfeigned virtues ensure
esteem and regard, so long will you have no common claim to them all;
and none will pay the tribute more gladly than your affectionate

Friend and Cousin,
HENRY CHRISTMAS.

SION COLLEGE, _March, 1850._

INTRODUCTION.

Among the many phases presented by human credulity, few are more
interesting than those which regard the realities of the invisible
world. If the opinions which have been held on this subject were
written and gathered together they would form hundreds o