When on the morrow Mr.
Swifte saw the soldier in the guard-room, his fellow-sentinel was also
there, and the latter testified to having seen his comrade, before the
alarm, quiet and active, and in full possession of his faculties. He was
now, so Mr. Swifte added, changed almost beyond recognition, and died
the following day. Mr. George Offer, in referring to this incident, alludes to queer noises
having been heard at the time the figure appeared. Presuming that the
sentinel was not the victim of an hallucination, the question arises as
to the kind of spirit that he saw. The bear, judging by cases that have
been told me, is by no means an uncommon occult phenomenon. The
difficulty is how to classify it, since, upon no question appertaining
to the psychic, can one dogmatize. To quote from a clever poem that
appeared in the January number of the _Occult Review_, to pretend one
knows anything definite about the immaterial world is all "swank". At
the most we--Parsons, Priests, Theosophists, Christian Scientists,
Psychical Research Professors,--at the most can only speculate. Nothing--nothing whatsoever, beyond the bare fact that there are
phenomena, unaccountable by physical laws, has as yet been discovered. All the time and energy and space that have been devoted by scientists
to the investigation of spiritualism and to making tests in automatic
writing are, in my opinion--and, I believe, I speak for the man in the
street--hopelessly futile. No one, who has ever really experienced
spontaneous ghostly manifestations, could for one moment believe in the
genuineness of the phenomena produced at séances. They have never
deceived me, and I am of the opinion spirits cannot be convoked to
order, either through a so-called medium falling into a so-called
trance, through table-turning, automatic writing, or anything else. If a
spirit comes, it will come either voluntarily, or in obedience to some
Unknown Power--and certainly neither to satisfy the curiosity of a crowd
of sensation-loving men and women, nor to be analysed by some cold,
calculating, presumptuous Professor of Physics whose proper sphere is
the laboratory. But to proceed. The phenomenon of the big bear, provided again it was
really objective, may have been the phantasm of some prehistoric
creature whose bones lie interred beneath the Tower; for we know the
Valley of the Thames was infested with giant reptiles and quadrupeds of
all kinds (I incline to this theory); or it may have been a
Vice-Elemental, or--the phantasm of a human being who lived a purely
animal life, and whose spirit would naturally take the form most closely
resembling it. *       *       *       *       *

Judging by the number of experiences related to me, hauntings by phantom
hares and rabbits would appear to be far from uncommon. There is this
difference, however, between the hauntings by the two species of
animal--phantom hares usually portend death or some grave catastrophe,
either to the witness himself, or to someone immediately associated with
him; whereas phantom rabbits are seldom prophetic, and may generally be
looked upon merely as the earth-bound spirits of some poor rabbits that
have met with untimely ends. _Hauntings by a White Rabbit_

Mr. W.T. Stead, in his _Real Ghost Stories_, gives an account of the
hauntings by a phantom rabbit in a house in ---- Road. He does not,
however, mention any locality. After describing several of the phenomena
which disturbed various occupants of the place, he goes on to say, in
the language of Mrs. A., who narrates the incident:--

"A dog which lay on the rug also heard the sounds, for he pricked up his
ears and barked. Without a moment's delay she flew to the door, calling
the dog to follow her, intending as she did so to open the hall door and
call for assistance, but the dog, though an excellent house dog,
crouched at her feet and whined, but would not follow her up the stairs,
so she carried him up in her arms, and reaching the door, called for
assistance; when, however, the dining-room doors were opened, the rooms
were in perfect quiet and destitute of any signs of life." The behaviour of the dog here accords exactly with the behaviour of dogs
I have had in haunted houses, and substantiates my theory that dogs are
excellent psychic barometers. "After the family had been in the house a few weeks, a white rabbit made
its appearance. This uncanny animal would suddenly appear in a room in
which members of the family were seated, and after gliding round and
slipping under chairs and tables, would disappear through a brick wall
as easily as through an open door." This is the invariable trick of ghosts; they seldom, however, open
doors. Mrs. A. adds:--

"Some years have now elapsed since the incident I have now related took
place, and again, in response to orders given by the enterprising
landlord of the property, long-closed doors and windows have been thrown
open, and painters and paperhangers have brought their skill to bear
upon gruesome rooms and halls; the house is once more inhabited, this
time by a widow lady and some grown-up sons. These tenants come from a
distance, and are entirely strangers both to the neighbourhood and the
former history of the house, but, to use her own words, the mistress
'cannot understand what ails the house,' her sons insist on sleeping
together in one room, and the quiet of the house is constantly being
broken by the erratic appearances of a large white rabbit, which the
inmates are frequently engaged chasing, but are never able to find." Mr. Stead offers no explanation. I can see no other conclusion, however,
than that this ghost was the actual phantasm of some rabbit that had
been done to death in the house, probably by the boy whose apparition
was among the other manifestations seen there. _John Wesley's Ghost_

In his article "More Glimpses of the Unseen" (_Occult Review_, October,
1906), Mr. Reginald B. Span writes:--

"During the extraordinary manifestations which occurred in the house of
John Wesley at Epworth, the phantom forms of two animals appeared, one
being a large white rabbit, and the other an animal like a badger, which
used to appear in the bedrooms and run about and then disappear, whilst
the various bangings and rappings were at their loudest." This is the only case I have ever come across of the ghost of a badger. I think it must be unique. Mr. Span adds: "Many strange and inexplicable
things occurred in that house which were not due to any natural cause or
reason. I remember that loud rappings used to sound round my room at
nights, even when I had a light burning. I was often awakened by
rappings on the floor of my bedroom, which would then sound on the walls
and furniture, and were heard by others occupying rooms some distance
off." This, again, is most interesting, as ghosts seldom visit lighted
rooms. Mr. Span continues:--

"It was in the afternoon in broad daylight when my brother saw this
mysterious animal.