Thus (1) the Icelandic ghost stories have peculiar literary merit as simple dramatic narratives.

(2) Every one has heard of the Wesley ghost, Sir George Villiers's spectre, Lord Lyttelton's ghost, the Beresford ghost, Mr.Williams's dream of Mr.Perceval's murder, and so forth.
But the original sources have not, as a rule, been examined in the ordinary spirit of calm historical criticism, by aid of a comparison of the earliest versions in print or manuscript.

(3) Even ghost stories, as a rule, have some basis of fact, whether fact of hallucination, or illusion, or imposture.

They are, at lowest, "human documents".

Now, granting such facts (of imposture, hallucination, or what you will), as our dull, modern narratives contain, we can regard these facts, or things like these, as the nuclei which our less critical ancestors elaborated into their extraordinary romances.