126 galton.org
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Inquiries into Human Faculty
them. One was of a pleasure party driven out to sea, and not being able to
reach the coast till nightfall, at a place where they got shelter but nothing
to eat. They were mentally at ease and conscious of safety, but all were
troubled with visions that were half dreams and half hallucinations. The
cases of visions following protracted wakefulness are well known, and I
have collected a few of them myself. I have already spoken of the
maddening effect of solitariness: its influence may be inferred from the
recognised advantages of social amusements in the treatment of the
insane. It follows that the spiritual discipline undergone for purposes of
self-control and self-mortification, have also the incidental effect of
producing visions. It is to be expected that these should often bear a close
relation to the prevalent subjects of thought, and although they may be
really no more than the products of one portion of the brain, which
another portion of the same brain is engaged in contemplating, they often,
through error, receive a religious sanction. This is notably the case among
half-civilised races.
The number of great men who have been once, twice, or more
frequently, subject to hallucinations is considerable. A list, to which it
would be easy to make large additions, is given by Brierre de Boismont
(Hallucinations, etc., 1862), from whom I translate the following account
of the star of the first Napoleon, which he heard, second-hand, from
General Rapp
“In 1806 General Rapp, on his return from the siege of Dantzic, having occasion to
speak to the Emperor, entered his study without being announced. He found him so
absorbed that his entry was unperceived. The General seeing the Emperor continue
motionless, thought he might be ill, and purposely made a noise. Napoleon immediately
roused himself; and without any preamble, seizing Rapp by the arm, said to him, pointing
to the sky, ‘Look there, up there.’ The General remained silent, but on being asked a
second time, he answered that he perceived nothing. ‘What!’ replied the Emperor, ‘you do
not see it? It is my star, it is before you, brilliant;’ then animating by degrees, he cried out,
‘it has never abandoned me, I see it on all great occasions, it commands me to go forward,
and it is a constant sign of good fortune to me.’ ”
Napoleon was no doubt a consummate actor, ready and unscrupulous
in imposing on others, but I see no reason to
