A True Relation of the Apparition of One…

This thing is so rare in all its circumstances, and on so good / authority, that my reading and conversation has not given me anything / like it: it is fit to gratify the most ingenious and serious inquirer. / Mrs. Bargrave is the person to whom Mrs. Veal appeared after her / death; she is my intimate friend, and I can avouch for her reputation, / for these last fifteen or sixteen years, on my own knowledge; and I / can confirm the good character she had from her youth, to the time of / my acquaintance. Though, since this relation, she is calumniated by / some people, that are friends to the brother of this Mrs. Veal, who / appeared; who think the relation of this appearance to be a / reflection, and endeavour what they can to blast Mrs. Bargrave's / reputation, and to laugh the story out of countenance. But by the / circumstances thereof, and the cheerful disposition of Mrs. Bargrave, / notwithstanding the ill-usage of a very wicked husband, there is not / yet the least sign of dejection in her face; nor did I ever hear her / let fall a desponding or murmuring expression; nay, not when actually / under her husband's barbarity; which I have been witness to, and / several other persons of undoubted reputation.

Now you must know, Mrs. Veal was a maiden gentlewoman of about thirty / years of age, and for some years last past had been troubled with / fits; which were perceived coming on her, by her going off from her / discourse very abruptly to some impertinence. She was maintained by an / only brother, and kept his house in Dover. She was a very pious woman, / and her brother a very sober man to all appearance; but now he does / all he can to null or quash the story. Mrs. Veal was intimately / acquainted with Mrs. Bargrave from her childhood. Mrs. Veal's / circumstances were then mean; her father did not take care of his / children as he ought, so that they were exposed to hardships; and Mrs. / Bargrave, in those days, had as unkind a father, though she wanted / neither for food nor clothing, whilst Mrs. Veal wanted for both; / insomuch that she would often say, Mrs. Bargrave, you are not only the / best, but the only friend I have in the world, and no circumstance of / life shall ever dissolve my friendship. They would often condole each / other's adverse fortunes, and read together Drelincourt upon Death, / and other good books; and so, like two Christian friends, they / comforted each other under their sorrow.