The apparitions of Swedenborg were probably caused by his studies, habits, and pursuits. They bear the marks of earthly origin, although he firmly believed they were from heaven. Overloading his stomach at late meals, no doubt, caused some of them. He was in the habit of _eating too much_, as he himself admits. Hence his brain may have been disturbed. We have all heard of the case of an elderly lady, who, being ill, called upon her physician one day for advice. She told him, among other things, that on the preceding night her sleep had been disturbed--that she had seen her grandmother in her dreams. Being interrogated whether she ate any thing the preceding evening, she told the doctor she ate half a mince pie just before going to bed. "Well, madam," said he, "if you had eaten the other half, you might have seen your grandfather also."
The slightest examination of the accounts which remain of occurrences that were deemed supernatural by our ancestors will satisfy any one, at the present day, that they were brought about by causes entirely _natural_, although unknown to them. We will close this part of our investigation by relating the following circumstances, attested by the Rev. James Pierpont, pastor of a church in New Haven:--
"In the year 1647, a new ship of about one hundred and fifty tons, containing a valuable cargo, and several distinguished persons as passengers, put to sea from New Haven in the month of January, bound to England. The vessels that came over the ensuing spring brought no tidings of her arrival in the mother country. The pious colonists were earnest and instant in their prayers that intelligence might be received of the missing vessel. In the course of the following June, a great thunder storm arose out of the north-west; after which, (the hemisphere being serene,) about an hour before sunset, a ship of like dimensions of the aforesaid, with her canvas and colors abroad, (although the wind was northerly,) appeared in the air, coming up from the harbor's mouth, which lies southward from the town, seemingly with her sails filled, under a fresh gale, holding her course north, and continuing under observation, sailing against the wind, for the space of half an hour. The phantom ship was borne along, until, to the excited imaginations of the spectators, she seemed to have approached so near that they could throw a stone into her. Her main topmast then disappeared, then her mizzen topmast, then her masts were entirely carried away, and finally her hull fell off, and vanished from sight, leaving a dull and smoke-colored cloud, which soon dissolved, and the whole atmosphere became clear. All affirmed that the airy vision was a precise copy of the missing vessel, and that it was sent to announce and describe her fate. They considered it the spectre of the lost ship, and the Rev. Mr. Davenport declared in public 'that God had condescended, for the quieting of their afflicted spirits, this extraordinary account of his sovereign disposal of those for whom so many fervent prayers were made continually.'"