ffel, had engaged, as amanuensis, a young Protestant
clergyman, named Billing. When the blind poet walked abroad, Billing
also acted as his guide. One day, as they were walking in the garden,
which was situated at a distance from the town, Pfeffel observed a
trembling of his guide's arm whenever they passed over a certain spot.
He asked the cause of this, and extracted from his companion the
unwilling confession, that over that spot he was attacked by certain
uncontrollable sensations, which he always felt where human bodies had
been buried. At night, he added, over such spots he saw uncanny things.
"This is great folly," Pfeffel thought, "and I will cure him of it." The
poet went, therefore, that very night, into the garden. When they
approached the place of dread, Billing perceived a feeble light, which
hovered over it. When they came nearer, he saw the delicate appearance
of a fiery, ghost-like form. He described it as the figure of a female,
with one arm across her body, and the other hanging down, hovering
upright and motionless over the spot, her feet being a few hand-breadths
above the soil. The young man would not approach the vision, but the
poet beat about it with his stick, walked through it, and seemed to the
eyes of Billing like a man who beats about a light flame, which always
returns to its old shape. For months, experiments were continued,
company was brought to the spot, the spectre remained visible always in
the dark, but to the young man only, who adhered firmly to his
statement, and to his conviction that a body lay beneath. Pfeffel at
last had the place dug up, and, at a considerable depth, covered with
lime, there was a skeleton discovered. The bones and the lime were
dispersed, the hole was filled up, Billing was again brought to the spot
by night, but never again saw the spectre.

This ghost story, being well attested, created a great sensation. In the
curious book by Baron Reichenbach, translated by Dr. Gregory, it is
quoted as an example of a large class of ghost stories which admit of
explanation upon principles developed by his own experiments.

The experiments of Baron Reichenbach do not, indeed, establish a new
science, though it is quite certain that they go far to point out a new
line of investigation, which promises to yield valuable results. So much
of them as concerns our subject, may be very briefly stated. It would
appear that certain persons with disordered nervous systems, liable t