in size every instant, until it seemed to be about to precipitate itself on to the spectators. A man in the front row was so frightened, that he uttered a scream of terror, when the phantom instantly disappeared. A series of spectres then issued suddenly from a cave. The shades of great men crowded together round a boat floating on a black and sluggish river, which the spectators had no difficulty in identifying as the Styx. The shadows gradually disappeared in the distance, getting smaller and smaller until they became invisible.
Robertson was extremely careful in all his entertainments to flatter the popular ideas of the day. For instance, one of his most famous exhibitions consisted in a picture of a tomb, in the middle of which Robespierre issued. The figure, as usual, walked towards the spectators; but when apparently within a few yards of them, it was struck down by lightning. Voltaire, Lavoisier, Rousseau, and other popular favourites then appeared on the scene, and disappeared again in the usual manner. Robertson generally ended his entertainment with an address something like the following:—
"We have now seen together the wonderful mysteries of the phantasmagoria. I have unveiled to you the secrets of the priests of Memphis. I have shown you every mystery of optical science; you have witnessed scenes that in the ages of credulity would have been considered supernatural. You have, perhaps, many of you, laughed at what I have shown you, and the gentler portion of my audience have possibly been terrified at many of my phantoms; but I can assure you, whoever you may be, powerful or weak, strong or feeble, believers or atheists, that there is but one truly terrible spectacle—the fate which is reserved for us all;" and at that instant a grisly skeleton was seen standing in the middle of the hall (fig. 54).
Even in those unbelieving days, when scepticism of
