E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Cindy Beyer,
and the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team
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THE
NIGHT-SIDE OF NATURE
OR,
GHOSTS AND GHOST-SEERS.
BY
CATHERINE CROWE
AUTHORESS OF “SUSAN HOPLEY,” “LILLY DAWSON,” “ARISTODEMUS,” ETC.
"Thou com’st in such a questionable shape,
That I will speak to thee.”
NEW YORK:
J. S. REDFIELD, CLINTON HALL.
BOSTON:—B. B. MUSSEY & CO.
1850.
PREFACE.
In my late novel of “Lilly Dawson,” I announced my intentionof publishing a work to be called “The Night-Side of Nature;"this is it.
The term “Night-Side of Nature” I borrow from the Germans,who derive it from the astronomers, the latter denominatingthat side of a planet which is turned from the sun, its night-side.We are in this condition for a certain number of hoursout of every twenty-four; and as, during this interval, externalobjects loom upon us but strangely and imperfectly, the Germansdraw a parallel between these vague and misty perceptions,and the similar obscure and uncertain glimpses we get ofthat veiled department of nature, of which, while comprisingas it does, the solution of questions concerning us more nearlythan any other, we are yet in a state of entire and wilful ignorance.For science, at least science in this country, has put itaside as beneath her notice, because new facts that do not fit intoold theories are troublesome, and not to be countenanced.
We are encompassed on all sides by wonders, and we canscarcely set our foot upon the ground, without trampling uponsome marvellous production that our whole life and all our facultieswould not suffice to comprehend. Familiarity, however,renders us insensible to the ordinary works of nature; we areapt to forget the miracles they comprise, and even, sometimes,mistaking words for conceptions, commit the error of thinkingwe understand their mystery. But there is one class of thesewonders with which, from their comparatively rare occurrence,we do not become familiar; and these, according to the characterof the mind to which they are presented, are frequentlyeither denied as ridicul