On Ghosts E-Book

Styx Classics

• Herausgeber: Styx Classics
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

"On Ghosts" by Mary Shelley explores people's belief in the supernatural through personal anecdotes and reflections on ghostly encounters. The essay discusses stories of apparitions and the psychological effects they have on the individuals who witness them, blending the supernatural with human experience and emotional responses.
 

Leseprobe

On Ghosts

Mary Shelley

Published: 1824Categorie(s): Non-Fiction, Fiction, Occult & Supernatural, Supernatural Creatures, Ghost

I look for ghosts—but none will force

Their way to me; 'tis falsely said

That there was ever intercourse

Between the living and the dead.

—Wordsworth

What a different earth do we inhabit from that on which our forefathers dwelt! The antediluvian world, strode over by mammoths, preyed upon by the megatherion, and peopled by the offspring of the Sons of God, is a better type of the earth of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato, than the hedged-in cornfields and measured hills of the present day. The globe was then encircled by a wall which paled in the bodies of men, whilst their feathered thoughts soared over the boundary; it had a brink, and in the deep profound which it overhung, men's imaginations, eagle-winged, dived and flew, and brought home strange tales to their believing auditors. Deep caverns harboured giants; cloud-like birds cast their shadows upon the plains; while far out at sea lay islands of bliss, the fair paradise of Atlantis or El Dorado sparkling with untold jewels. Where are they now? The Fortunate Isles have lost the glory that spread a halo round them; for who deems himself nearer to the golden age, because he touches at the Canaries on his voyage to India? Our only riddle is the rise of the Niger; the interior of New Holland, our only terra incognita; and our sole mare incognitum, the north-west passage. But these are tame wonders, lions in leash; we do not invest Mungo Park, or the Captain of the Hecla, with divi [...]