Letters on natural magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott, bart / By Sir David Brewster.

  • Brewster, David, 1781-1868.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters on natural magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott, bart / By Sir David Brewster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scene in the theatre. The horizon was cloudy, or perhaps it might with more propriety be said that the surface of the sea was covered with a dense fog of many yards in height, and which gradually receded before the rays of the sun. An illusion of a different kind, though not less interesting, is described by the Reverend Mr. Hughes in his Travels in Greece, as seen from the summit of Mount JEtn&. I must not forget to mention, says he, one extraordinary phenome- non, which we observed, and for which I have searched in vain for a satisfactory solution. At the extremity of the vast shadow which .^tna projects across the island, appeared a perfect and distinct image of the mountain itself elevated above the horizon, and diminished as if viewed in a concave mirror. Where or what the reflector could be which, exhibited this image, I cannot conceive; we could not be mistaken in its appearance, for all our party observed it, and wc had been prepared for it before- hand by our Catanian friends. It remained visible about ten minutes, and disappeared as the shadow decreased. Mr. Jones observed the same pheno- menon, as well as some other friends with whom I conversed upon the subject in England. It is impossible to study the preceding pheno- mena without being impressed with the conviction, that nature is full of the marvellous, and that the progress of science and the diffusion of knowledge are alone capable of dispelling the fears which her wonders must necessarily excite even in enlightened minds. When a spectre haunts the couch of the sick, or follows the susceptible vision of the invalid, a consciousness of indisposition divests the a^^pa- k2