Rosicrucian philosophy,) or to be overpowered by his superior courage
and daring, when it set their illusions at defiance.

It is with reference to this idea of the supposed spirits of the
elements, that the White Lady of Avenel is represented as acting a
varying, capricious, and inconsistent part in the pages assigned to
her in the narrative; manifesting interest and attachment to the
family with whom her destinies are associated, but evincing whim, and
even a species of malevolence, towards other mortals, as the
Sacristan, and the Border robber, whose incorrect life subjected them
to receive petty mortifications at her hand. The White Lady is
scarcely supposed, however, to have possessed either the power or the
inclination to do more than inflict terror or create embarrassment,
and is also subjected by those mortals, who, by virtuous resolution,
and mental energy, could assert superiority over her. In these
particulars she seems to constitute a being of a middle class, between
the _esprit follet_ who places its pleasure in misleading and
tormenting mortals, and the benevolent Fairy of the East, who
uniformly guides, aids, and supports them.

Either, however, the author executed his purpose indifferently, or
the public did not approve of it; for the White Lady of Avenel was
far from being popular. He does not now make the present statement,
in the view of arguing readers into a more favourable opinion on the
subject, but merely with the purpose of exculpating himself from the
charge of having wantonly intruded into the narrative a being of
inconsistent powers and propensities.

In the delineation of another character, the author of the Monastery
failed, where he hoped for some success. As nothing is so successful a