Indeed, as things stand for the present, the land of Spirits
is a kind of America...filled up with Mountains, Seas and
Monsters.
- Joseph Glanville "A Blow at Modern Sadducism (1668)
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away.
- William Hughes Mearns, "Antigonish"
Perhaps other souls than human
are sometimes born into the World
and clothed in Human flesh.
- Joseph Sheridan Le fanu "Uncle Silas" (1864)
Quis est iste venit
What is this who is coming
- After M.R. James, "Oh, Whistle, and I'll come
to you, my Lord"
A man is a very small thing, and the night
is very large and full of wonders.
- Lord Dunsany
It is terrifying to see, but it is the movement of
shadows, only shadows.
Curses and ghosts, the evil spirits that have cast
entire cities into sleep
- Maxim Gorky "On a visit to the Kingdom
of Shadows" (1896)
To the house wherein the dwellers are bereft of
light, where dust is their fare and clay their food,
where they see no light, residing in darkness, where
they are clothed like birds, with wings for garments,
and where over door and bolt is spread dust.
-"Istar's Descent to the Underworld"
Ancient Near Eastern Texts (1950)
