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SUPERSTITION, like a Deity, has ever ruled the nations, and commanded universal homage. Her temples have been erected in each corner of the earth, and the millions of our race have worshipped devoutly at her shrines. There, art has expended its best efforts; there, the highest intellects have bowed to do her reverence; there, the vast multitude of those unknown to fame, have crowded, and with the fear and trembling of implicit confidence in her being and her power, have knelt in awe. At her bidding, armies have been enrolled, and embattled hosts have strewed the earth with carnage. She has spoken, and the torch has been put to the martyr-pyre, and the sword has drunk the blood of innocence; the dungeon, the scourge, and the rack, have been the instruments of her sport; and in her fiercest moods, destruction was her favorite minister. At other times, she has pleased herself with the vain frights of men, making them aghast by sights and sounds; and then again, she has whispered words of consolation to the mourner, and cheered the fearful, until the coward has become a soldier, and weak woman has been nerved with more than a warrior's boldness. Cruel, indeed, has she been in her exactions, as the fires of Moloch and the gory car of Juggernaut declare; horrid for her lewdness, as the shrines of Cnidos and of Cyprus tell; brutal in her enjoyments, as the houris of the Mahometan, and the heaven of the Scandinavians plainly show; and she has debased the nature of man by making him bow the knee to beasts and birds, and in the mighty catacombs of Egypt, has erected a monument of her sway, of man's mixed littleness and greatness.

We think it may, without much difficulty, be proved that there exists in the human mind a proneness to yield to superstition, a readiness to believe in supernatural occurrences. The appeal to history already made is evidence of this; and we might cite thousands of facts as additional testimony to the correctness of

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our theory. On any other ground, how is the almost universal prevalence of superstitious belief to be accounted for? Why was it that the oracle of Delphi was so implicitly believed? Why was it that the laws of Numa received their highest sanction, and the veneration of the people, from his reputed interviews with the divine Egeria? How did the sorcerers and wizards of ancient time gain such influence over the people? Why has popular credulity given the glens and hills of Scotland to be the dwelling place, the palaces and courts, of fairies and of fays, or listened, with rapt attention, to the prophetic words which fell from the lips of some white-haired seer? And why do thousands now bow before a painted image, and kiss, with veneration, the bones of some sainted priest; risk even life itself, that they may but light a candle at the sacred fire which priestcraft makes issue from a marble sepulchre; and travel many weary miles, and waste their substance, that they may count their beads, or be sprinkled with holy water, at the shrine of some departed saint? On no other ground, can these, and the various absurd notions that have prevailed in modern times with regard to witches, ghosts, and visions, and the ten thousand modifications of superstitious belief every where found, be satisfactorily explained. It is said that they are the result of ignorance, and that as the light of science, and the knowledge of truth, are more widely diffused, these superstitions vanish. But we ask, even if this be granted, how came they to gain such hold on the minds of the vulgar? If it be a universal truth, that where philosophy, and science, and true religion are unknown, superstition is prevalent, and most influential, surely it would seem that there is something in the hearts of men which inclines them to such belief. But it is not true that knowledge entirely dispels superstition. The Greeks and Romans were learned and polished nations, and yet they were superstitious. The Germans are, surely, not destitute of learning, nor of the knowledge of true religion, and yet there is much superstition among them. Sir Matthew Hale was a man of some attainments, and yet he was for burning witches; and there were men of stalwart minds, well stored with the learning of the times, who condemned to death old women, in New England, for being on too familiar terms with the Prince of Darkness. And even now, there exist among the learned and wise, superstitious notions of various kinds, innocent, perhaps, though absurd, which all their philosophy and wisdom cannot banish.

Again, it is said, that such notions are imbibed from the tales of childhood, when we have listened with open mouth and wondering eyes, to the awful recitals of some story-telling nurse: that the impressions then received adhere to us, and in advanced life, in spite of our better judgment, we cannot help shuddering occasionally, when the wind moans through the church-yard willow,

or some strange sound falls on our ear, or some dim form meets our eye, in the still, dark hour of midnight. But, in the first place, how came these stories to be told? Whence their origin? Let them be traced back to their source, and it will be found in the love of the marvellous, in the proneness of human nature to believe in supernatural occurrences. Or suppose that they were invented to frighten into silence a rebellious child, to calm his petulance or indulge his whims, that they were the extemporaneous productions of some shrewd mind which believed them not; what but a native readiness to be influenced by such tales, will account for the effects they produce, and the credence they so easily obtain? And what but a knowledge of this native readiness suggested to their author the design of their recital? We know it may be said that it is natural for a child to believe what he is told. But granting this, the matter is not more clearly explained; and it remains to be shown, why such stories, rather than others, are resorted to for the purposes mentioned, and why the impressions made are peculiarly strong.

We deny, however, that superstition is entirely owing to the errors of early education. It is, doubtless, fostered and strengthened, by the method of story-telling alluded to; but there must be something in the mind congenial to it, and prompting its indulgence. For we find that almost all the errors of childhood may be, and often are, corrected in after life; but this seems incurable; we cannot entirely shake it off. Besides, cases might easily be cited of men of strong minds, and extensive attainments, who have been slaves of superstitious notions, and ideal terrors. Even when we know and believe our fears idle and foolish, we yet fear; and habitual association with those things which are usually considered as having connection with supernatural occurrences, does not effectually obliterate our feelings of awe and hushing dread, when they occur to us.

Allowing, however, that our position is established, that there is something in the human mind which inclines it to superstition, we have not yet reached the ultimate principle; we may investigate the nature of that something. In our opinion, the whole matter resolves itself into this: the mind of man cannot rest satisfied, without a belief in a superhuman power, which established and governs the universe, and directs all the events that transpire. We stop not now to inquire, why man feels the want of such a belief, nor to state the reasons that form its support; nor is it material under what form or under how many forms, this power is supposed to exist and act. It is sufficient to say that such an opinion has ever, and every where prevailed; and to it may be traced all the various modifications of what we here mean by superstition: a belief of what is absurd, leading generally to a false religion, and the attributing either common or strange occurrences to supernatural

agency. On this principle, may the ancient mythology be easily explained.

Man felt the necessity of some cause for all that he saw around him. He knew that the grand and beautiful objects of nature, that the events which were constantly occurring, the change of seasons, the influence of heat and cold, the growth of the rich fruits of the earth, public and private calamities, were not his works, nor under his control; that there was some superior power which ruled them. Gratitude for benefits received, and the desire of their continuance, prompted the worship of such power; while dread of suffering urged him to appease its wrath, and conciliate its favor. At first he worshipped the material objects which appeared to be the immediate causes of these effects; such as rivers, sun, and moon. But he could not be content with this. He saw that matter which he examined was inert; he felt that a principle of vitality was necessary to such a power as he sought; and as he found man the ruler of things within his reach, and the maker of many artificial objects, he naturally attributed human form and human faculties, to this superhuman power. And further, as the idea of ubiquity belonging to man, was so contrary to experience and observation, and as each effect must have a cause, and the different kinds of effects different causes, he inferred that there was a number of superior powers, each holding a separate and distinct province; and he attributed to each a residence, where its effects were most manifest. Not that it required a long train of reasoning to reach such a conclusion. It was so plain a result of observation, as to seem almost the dictate of nature; and in the sunny climes of Greece and Italy, imagination lent its aid to strengthen the belief. There, if "the lonely herdsman,"

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Thus to each object of nature, and each phenomenon, men attributed an efficient cause; to each cause they assigned a form and paid it worship; and their own hearts being the judges, and appointers of that worship, it had great variety, and was often most lewd and disgusting. The adoration of animals, and the

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