behind. And though their power may be short-lived, yet others, as ambitious and as wicked as themselves, are ready to succeed them.

SUPERSTITION. (December, 1815.)

WE take a melancholy pleasure in examining the dilapidated walls, the falling arches, and the solitary columns of a magnificent ruin. But if a man had possessed that building when in a perfect state; if he associated with each ruined arch the idea of some long lost pleasure; if every stone reminded him of some friend that was gone for ever; if desolation pervaded the place that had once witnessed domestic happiness; if brambles grew on that hearth where he had been accustomed to sit, and if ivy crept round the room of which he was once peculiarly fond ;—his feelings would be those of unmixed melancholy. Such is the human mind! A few solitary columns, a few broken arches, fallen pillars, scattered chapiters, and defaced sculpture, are the sole indications of its original

beauty. Man once possessed this habitation: but it is now in ruins; and I shall endeavor at present to examine one part of these ruins, I shall first consider Superstition itself; then its causes; then its effects; then its advantages.*

I shall consider Superstition itself, as of two kinds. It is first, a disposition to recur to preternatural agency and mystery: secondly, a disposition to give the glory of the Creator to the creature. That this is a line of distinction between these two is obvious; but it is more difficult to determine its situation. To effect this, I must consider, first, the inclination some men feel to recur to preternatural agency and mystery. This is but an intellectual error-an error produced by education or by habit; and is not inconsistent with the greatest purity of soul, or the greatest mental

* If the "advantages" be a part of the "effects;" it must be considered that the writer was not thirteen. He unquestionably meant, by "effects," the natural, and by the "advantages,” the accidental, consequences of Superstition. We never knew on what subject he was writing, until he brought his slate; and had we known, we should not have assisted him ; as our obje ctwas to make him think and work for himself.

vigor-I say, the greatest mental vigor; for men of the strongest minds have been very superstitious-a Brutus and even a Johnson being examples.

I may not yet have defined, with sufficient clearness, what I mean to include under this kind of superstition. It is not superstitious to recur to supernatural and divine agency; we know that even an hair of our head falls not to the ground without divine permission :—but it is superstitious to believe that common or even extraordinary occurrences are the effectnot of those second causes which God has appointed, and which he manages, but-of a certain mysterious power which we cannot explain. It is not superstitious to believe that invisible and even wicked agents have a great

influence over us; but it is superstitious to believe that they put on a bodily form, or

* I am not bound to reconcile these two sentences; nor am I pledged to any of the opinions in this and the other essays. 1 merely give them as specimens. A nice discerner, however, may, perhaps, perceive an intended distinction between what is possible, what has been on extraordinary occasions, and what actually is, in the ordinary arrangements of providence.

that any particular appearance is an indication of their presence. It is not superstitious to believe that God can permit and has permitted pure spirit to take a bodily form ;* but it is superstitious to believe that this is done on common occasions, or that such extraordinary and miraculous means are resorted to, to accomplish an unworthy end. It is not superstitious to receive religion with all its marvels; but it is superstitious to receive even religion without examination. This implicit faith in the common religion, because it is the common religion, has been the foundation of the temples of Venus and Bacchus; it has supported the papal throne, as well as the ridiculous doctrines of the Koran.

But I turn from the merely intellectual, to the moral ruins of human nature. The temple is ruined, it is true; but, what is worse, it is defiled. Where, formerly, Reason sat enthroned, Error now reigns. Where Charity, Wisdom and Peace once reigned, there Hatred, Strife and Superstition now wield their scep

* See the preceding not

tres. The veil of the holy of holies is rent, the sanctuary is thrown open to every intruder; and Satan has entered and defiled it. The obscurity of tradition handed down from father to son, was increased by every repetition: and fallen man has always been more fond of accommodating his creed to his desires, than of accommodating his desires to his creed. The bloody Saxons chose Odin as their principal divinity. Venus was worshipped by the luxurious Cyprians. The powerful Jupiter was adored in the capitol; and to the god of poetry were dedicated the groves and vallies of Greece. In fact, every stream and every hill had its own peculiar god.

I have now to consider the different causes of these two different kinds of superstition. The causes of the first kind of superstition are-The love of a violent stimulus-The desire after immortality-The love of prying into mysterious secrets-and-Ignorance. There

is a singular analogy between the tastes of the body and those of the mind. And, among other similarities, they are both fond of violent