146 LEMUR.

are large and directed forwards. None of the group
exceed two feet and a half in length, exclusive of the
tail; and the greater number of them are scarcely more
than half that size.

The word lemur means a ghost; and perhaps the
name has been assigned to these animals from their
appearing at night-time, when the latter is supposed to
be seen. lt is not indeed to be doubted, but the fact
is certain, that it has pleased God in various instances,
in former times, to permit those who have departed
from the body to appear to those who have been still
living on the earth; but in the great proportion of
modern cases, or supposed cases, of such occurrences,
the imagination of the ghost-seer has supplied the vision.
The connexion between the visible and the invisible
world is perhaps much closer than many at all think
of, but God alone can draw the veil between the two.