multiplication of this sustaining power, our views of its grandeur, and goodness, and allpervading influence and love, are immensely increased; the rational mind is expanded, where feeling or prejudice would before have operated; and the conviction which results is of a far firmer and longer and more enduring quality, as well as more universally operative. God is everywhere: we acknowledge it as an abstract truth, or as a matter of faith: but when we trace his footsteps, we see and know it. The only evil attending this investigation consists in the possibility of forgetting his primary agency; but this will be never realized where such research is undertaken with a view to his glory, and with a simple desire to be led into all truth. May God Almighty bless the present attempt to explain phenomena, which to many may appear inexplicable, and to show that He is a God of order, working by the agency of means, to the perversion, or diseased or morbid application of which by sinful man, can alone be referred those deviations from consistency, which have often been ascribed to purely spiritual agency; but which really do, for the most part, own a bodily origin.

CHAPTER II.

Division of the Subject.-Of Superstition in general.—Its essential character.-Its Varieties.-Its Causes.

In proceeding with the subject, it will be necessary to consider superstition in general, which will lead me to a notice of its causes; and, among others, that which arises from the influence of irritated brain.-The writer's views on this subject will oblige him to glance at the cerebral functions in a state of health, and under the operation of morbid action; after which his hypothesis will be applied to account for various presumed supernatural appearances and influences,-to dreams, visions, ghosts, and other kindred matters.

I. Of superstition in general.

The essence of superstition consists in the belief of the existence of some supernatural power; not, however, the agency of the God of

the Christian revelation—a Being of infinite purity and holiness, of unsearchable wisdom, of boundless mercy, and goodness, and love;-a God of order, requiring the obedience of the understanding and of the heart to laws which are framed by infinite knowledge of the delusions of the former, and of the aberrations of the latter; the object of the hope, the confidence, the affection of his creatures-dwelling with the humble and the contrite-preserving all things by the word of his power, and especially extending his protection to those who love and serve him but a power, the character of which is mischievous, its attributes unknown, not founded on reason, inimical to science, unacknowledged by revelation, opposed to the happiness of man, introducing disorder into the mental functions and moral conduct, submitting the understanding and the heart to a blind and irrational impulse, prompting to evil, or paralyzing the power of doing well, and leading to distrust in the providence of God, and to disbelief of his promises. Exactly in proportion as real religion raises the tone of moral feeling, and stimulates the desire after intellectual attainment, superstition degrades the former and destroys the latter. The character of man as a moral and intellectual being is exalted and

improved by the influence of religion, because he justly estimates its precepts and doctrines as the offspring of truth, the handmaid of science, the nurse of intellectual progress, the great source of mental action and passion, the regulator of the desires, and consequently as affording the means of happiness in the sunshine of prosperity, as well as of hope, of peace, and of consolation under the cloud of adversity; the only source of correct conduct, because it is the only system of morals which reaches to the thoughts, and feelings, and motives; and because none but a Divine sanction can renew the heart, or subdue the rebellious will, change the course of natural passion, substitute the love of God for self-love, or implant the desire of obedience to his will, in the room of that treasonable pursuit of independent existence, which is the spontaneous fruit of practical atheism.

It is under such an influence that man, civilized man, cultivates his faculties, and should devote them to God who gave them. He finds, indeed, a natural barrier placed to his researches; but he does not with his own hands construct an artificial impediment to his progress he busily employs his talents, and, under the influence of the Spirit of God, he every where thirsts after the perfection of knowledge,

and power, and action; and is arrested only by the insuperable difficulty just mentioned, and beyond which it would be the merest presumption to attempt to pass: he acknowledges the feebleness of his reasoning powers, but he directs his inquiries into every proper channel; and with a chastised imagination, endeavours to form an acquaintance with the causes of the phenomena which surround him, so far as these have been placed within his reach.

But how different is this portrait from that of the heart and soul of man under the agency of debasing superstition! He has no longer to think for himself, or to seek the guidance of a merciful God in his researches. The powers of his reason are laid aside, to make room for a nameless impulse, under the influence of which his mind takes a peculiar form: its manifestations assume the tinge of this prevailing bias; the power of the will, the ability to choose good and to refuse evil, is converted into the desire of warding off some dreaded misfortune: the mind is clouded by prejudice; its credulity is that of the blind man who fears all that he is told by those who are interested in keeping him from advancing; and religion itself is blamed for that which owes its origin exclusively to the want of this principle.