In ancient times, especially among the Greeks and Romans, omens and
auguries were considered as of great importance in the common concerns
of life; but having their origin in ignorance and superstition, they
vanished before the light of philosophy and wisdom. But so late as the
first part of the last century, the belief in fairies, hobgoblins,
witches, and omens, prevailed almost universally among the
superstitious part of the community; and even some of superior rank
and condition in life, were under the influence of these chimerical
fancies.
The following were among the lucky and unlucky omens.
The flight of singing birds, or the manner of feeding of birds and
chickens, portended good or evil, according to particular
circumstances. The act of sneezing was ominous of good or evil,
according to the number at the time, or the place. If, when a servant
is making a bed, she happens to sneeze, no person can sleep in it
undisturbed, unless a part of the straw or feathers be taken out and
burnt. Nothing could insure success to a person going on important
business, more effectually than to throw an old shoe after him on
leaving the house. If there be in company thirteen persons, the
devil's dozen, some misfortune will befall one of them. To spill salt,
at table, is very ominous, and the ticking of the small insect called
a death-watch, foretels death, and the screech-owl at midnight, some
terrible misfortune. These, and many other silly fancies, have been
keenly satirized by Addison, in the Spectator. To find a horse-shoe
was deemed lucky, more especially, if it be preserved and nailed on
the door, as this prevents the annoyance of witches. This, probably,
was the origin of the practice continued in our times, of nailing
horse shoes on the masts of vessels, against the enchantment of
witches. The omens are extended to particular days in the week.
Friday, for instance, is considered an inauspicious day for the
commencement of any undertaking. It is seldom that a seaman can be
prevailed on to commence a voyage on that day. An account has been
published of some person, who, desirous of eradicating this prejudice,
ordered the timber of his vessel to be cut on Friday; her foundation
laid, her launching, and the engaging her crew, on Friday, and finally
he ordered her to sail on Friday. But it was remarkable and
unfortunate, that neither the vessel nor crew were ever heard from
afterwards. This, however, is no proof that Friday is more likely to
produce disasters than any other day in the seven. We know that all
events are under the control of Divine Providence, and it is
inconsistent with reason to imagine, that fatality will attend
undertakings because they were commenced on any one particular day.
That singular genius, Lord Byron, was among those who indulged the
superstitious notion, that Friday is an unlucky day. In Moore's Life
of Byron, may be found the following.
'Among the superstitions in which he chose to indulge, the supposed
unluckiness of Friday, as a day for the commencement of any work, was
one by which he almost always allowed himself to be influenced. Soon
after his arrival at Pisa, a lady of his acquaintance happening to
meet him on the road from her house, as she was herself returning
thither, and supposing that he had been to make her a visit, requested
that he would go back with her. "I have not been to your house," he
answered; "for just before I got to the door I remembered that it was
Friday; and not liking to make my first visit on a Friday, I turned
back." It is even related of him, that he once sent away a Genoese
tailor, who brought him home a new coat on the same ominous day. With
all this, strange to say, he set sail for Greece on a Friday; and,
though by those who have any leaning to this superstitious fancy, the
result may be thought but too sadly confirmatory of the omen, it is
plain, that either the influence of superstition over his own mind was
slight, or, in the excitement of self devotion under which he now
acted, was forgotten.'
In Lord Byron, we have an example of the fatal consequences which
sometimes ensue from prejudices against any particular purpose or
object, being instilled into the youthful mind. Of all his prejudices,
he declared the strongest was that against bleeding. His mother had on
her death bed obtained from him a promise never to consent to being
bled. When on his own death bed, therefore, he pertinaciously opposed
the operation, contrary to the united and earnest entreaties of his
physicians, and it was delayed till too late to afford him the desired
relief.
History furnishes one signal instance of a successful enterprise
commenced on Friday. It was on that day that Christopher Columbus
sailed from the port of Palos on his first voyage of discovery; and it
was on Friday that he landed on an island never before seen by
European eyes. Of all events recorded in modern history, this is
incomparably the most important.
A curious and melancholy instance of aberration of intellect, occurred
on board the ship President, on her outward bound passage to
Charleston. She encountered very heavy weather, and one of the sailors
stated to his shipmates that he was convinced the storm had arisen
entirely in consequence of his wicked course of life, and that the
offended majesty of heaven could only be appeased by his immediately
precipitating himself into the sea. In vain was every argument urged,
and every endeavor made, on the part of the captain and his officers,
to induce him to relinquish his purpose. One evening he ascended the
main rigging, and putting off a part of his attire, threw himself
headlong into the deep. When the ship was returning to this city, a
storm of considerable violence arose, which called forth all the
superstition of the mariners, and a cry became universal that she
would go down unless 'Sam's' chest was thrown overboard. A Scotchman
was among the most bigoted portion of the crew, and having more dread
of the elements than the captain, he, by some means or other, procured
the chest of poor 'Sam,' and entombed it in the grave of its owner.
The storm almost immediately abated; calmness reigned upon the face of
the waters, and a fine breeze wafted them to the mouth of the harbor.
Here, however, the wind became unpropitious, and a squall from the
land drove them off. Discontent again manifested its influence, and a
general search took place to ascertain whether anything belonging to
the suicide remained. After the forecastle had been duly searched, an
old shoe was discovered, and hastily yielded up as a sacrifice to
Eolus. The wind again subsided, and a fair breeze brought them into
port; the whole scene without doubt, confirming their minds in the
superstition they had cherished.--_N. Y. J. of Commerce._
On board of a ship, Capt V. master, it became necessary in the night,
to reef the topsails; the sails were lowered, and the reef tackle
hauled out, when the sailors ascended the mast; but to the surprise of
the captain, they soon came down in great terror, crying out that the
devil was in the top, they knew him by his horns, flashing eyes, and
grisly beard. No commands or threats from the captain could avail, to
induce them to make another attempt. All other orders they were
willing to obey, but to encounter the devil on the topmast was too
much. The affair began to grow serious, for the topsail was quivering
and shivering in the wind. The captain and officers resolved with
courage to ascend, but they, too, were driven in terror to the deck.
It was now agreed, be their fate what it may, to wait till the
morning; when by daylight it was discovered, that an old goat was
seated on the top, with its glaring eyes staring the seamen in the
face. It appeared that the goat was sleeping on the halliards while
coiled in a tub, and was by that means hoisted up to the top without
the knowledge of any one.
The Roman Catholics have been educated in the full persuasion that the
devil appears in bodily form, and often in the high style of some
great personage. I have more than once listened to an honest Irish
Catholic while gravely relating the manner in which Satan appeared on
horseback with a splendid retinue, and took possession of a
gentleman's palace in Ireland, after the massacre of the Romish
priests. His majesty having taken possession of the palace, a
Protestant minister was sent to drive him to his own abode, but he was
received with a laugh and sneer, as possessing no power. But at length
a Catholic priest, who had been secreted in a cavern during the
massacre, was sent, and he no sooner entered than the devil in a
fright, flew up the chimney, carrying an iron pot from over the fire,
and in passing out carrying off the top of the chimney. The Irishman
entertained not the least doubt of the reality of the transaction; and
added that the chimney still remains in the same state, no one daring
to mend it.
Some old seamen admire to be considered as being on familiar terms
with the devil. The following story has often been related by sailors
in the full belief of its truth.
A sailor sold himself to the devil, on condition that he should enjoy
all the good things and pleasures of this life for fifty years, when
he would give himself up; but the devil was to perform any one thing
which the sailor might desire before he surrendered. At the expiration
of fifty years, Satan came for his man. The sailor acknowledged that
the time had expired, but one thing was to be done. Satan was required
to pump the sea dry, but the cunning son of Neptune had so placed the
pump that the water from it flowed directly into the sea again. The
devil was so enraged at this cunning artifice, that he gave him a
tremendous blow with his tail and vanished in a cloud of smoke and
brimstone.
The Reformation of the 16th century, although it in a great measure
broke the shackles which bound the human intellect, and taught men to
think, did not altogether eradicate heathen and popish absurdities,
even from the reformers themselves. What, but a spirit of bigotry,
could influence the great mind of Martin Luther gravely to declare
that he experienced several personal encounters with the devil, in
consequence of his being engaged in reforming the abuses of the
Catholic Church, and particularly that his 'Satanic majesty entered
his bolted chamber one night, stole his hazel nuts, and cracked them
on his bed-post, to his no small annoyance?'
The Rev. Mr Whitman, in his ingenious lecture on Popular Superstition,
relates, that 'Not many years ago, a man was suddenly missing from a
certain town in this commonwealth. The church immediately sent one of
her members to consult the far-famed fortune-teller, Molly Pitcher.
After making the necessary inquiries, she intimated that the absent
person had been murdered by a family of negroes, and his body sunk in
the deep waters behind their dwelling. Upon this evidence, the
accused were forthwith imprisoned, and the pond raked in vain from
shore to shore. A few days previous to the trial, the murdered man
returned to his friends safe and sound.' The church would have done
themselves more credit, had they taken the legal means for the
punishment of the fortune-teller in the penitentiary for defamation.
I cannot omit to communicate the following excellent remarks in the
language of my amiable and learned friend and correspondent, Thomas
Miner, M. D. of Middletown, Conn.
'That demons could ever work miracles, seems to be incredible; but
mind as well as matter was evidently subject to different laws
anciently, from what they are at present. This principle may perhaps
help to a satisfactory solution of many things otherwise involved in
inextricable perplexity in the Scriptures. God never _violated_, and
can never violate, known laws, but he can change them at pleasure.
Every geologist knows he has changed them since the creation, for by
no law now existing, can we account for the organic remains of
tropical animals, and plants in arctic and temperate regions. There
have, therefore, been miracles, or variations, or suspensions, or
additions, to the common laws of nature, as respects the physical
world. Science teaches this, particularly geology, and this cuts, or
rather unties, the gordian knot in the material world. The analogy is
complete in the world of mind; at least, revelation informs us that
the ordinary laws of mind, and of matter too, have been occasionally
varied, suspended, or have had supplementary additions, as is the fact
in all the miracles recorded in Scripture. If Hume had only been a
modern geologist, he would have seen the futility of his reasoning
against the possibility of miracles, for he would have had facts
staring him in the face, demonstrating that matter had at times been
governed by laws very different in kind or in degree, or in both, from
any that are now known to exist. Analogy shows that this may have been
the case with mind; Scripture says it has been.
'I must confess, I am very cautious in explaining away a single
miraculous event recorded in the Scriptures, since if I begin I know
not where to stop; but if I only admit this principle, that though the
general laws of matter and mind have always been the same, yet the
Creator has frequently, for great and wise purposes, deviated from
them himself, and permitted, or authorized, or empowered others,
sometimes, on important occasions, to deviate from them, (as we know
has been the fact in the material world) nearly every difficulty in
the interpretation of the marvellous part of revelation, at once
becomes of easy solution. Perhaps it may be objected that this does
not solve the difficulty concerning the miraculous agency of bad men
or other depraved beings. But revelation does mention cases of bad men
prophesying, working miracles, and performing other wonders, whom the
Saviour _never_ knew. True science, wherever it is properly applied,
must destroy superstition and fanaticism, but as is the case with
geology, showing that miracles or changes of the laws of nature have
existed, it serves to support real religion, and demonstrates the
immoveable basis on which it is founded. Philosophy shows that
miracles have existed, revelation records the time, place, and
occasion. After all, I would speak with great caution concerning the
ancient demoniacs, whatever side of the question we take, much
remains that is mysterious and perhaps incomprehensible by our present
imperfect faculties.
'In most points of view, we live in the best age the world ever saw;
but we live in an age of excitement. Every, almost every project, is
begun and pursued with enthusiasm. The difficulty is to keep from
running into complete fanaticism. Mere duty or expediency, however, is
a cold thing, and never alone does much, unless it is attended with
some zeal, some ardor, some earnestness of feeling. These latter
emotions should resemble the steady, but gentle breeze; but passion,
especially, when protracted into fanaticism, is like the hurricane and
tornado. I know of no way to insure the golden mean with any prospect
of success, except by giving the rising generation a stable education,
founded upon the sure basis of the morality and religion of the
gospel. The sermon on the mount contains the best rules of duty, and
the thirteenth chapter of the first Corinthians, the best exposition
of them, anywhere to be found. The great law of love, enforcing a
disposition to do to others as we would wish them to do to us, is
practically exemplified in the charity which is so much insisted on
by Paul.'
It is incumbent upon us as patriots and philanthropists, as far as in
our power, to guard the rising generation against every species of
superstition, by a strong bulwark laid deep and early in the minds of
our children. It is our children that are to be entrusted with our
character, our acquirements, and our sentiments; whether fraught with
pure wisdom, or tinctured with brain-sick infirmities, future
generations will know how to appreciate their worth. If we wish
posterity to enjoy true and permanent happiness, let them be taught to
cultivate their intellectual powers, and fortify their minds against
deceptive illusions and imaginary evils. Spectral illusions may be
experienced while the intellectual faculties remain entire, as is
exemplified in the cases of Nicolai and the Scottish lady, related in
a former part of this work. The celebrated Dr Samuel Johnson, was
prone to superstition, and occasionally afflicted with paroxysms of
hypochondriacal illusions. He relates, that as he was one day at
Oxford, turning the key of his chamber, he heard his mother (who was
at Litchfield) distinctly calling 'Sam.' From which he had wrought up
his mind to expect the most woful tidings of his beloved parent, but
was entirely and happily disappointed.
Let our youth be taught that the whole phalanx of ghosts, apparitions,
witches and wizards, charms and enchantments, second sight, omens and
auguries, astrology and fortune telling, vulgar miracles, and vulgar
prophecies, should be classed with other vulgarisms, the legitimate
offspring of perverted imaginations, and ought to be reprobated as
degrading to the human understanding. Those who disdain to believe in
their existence, will never be molested by them. 'Resist the devil and
he will flee from you.' Firmly resist a belief in witchcraft, and you
may bid defiance to all the witches that ever traversed the air or
haunted a dwelling.
Strongly impress on the minds of our youth, that superstition and
bigotry are derogatory to the cause of genuine religion, giving
countenance to inadequate conceptions of the deity, illiberality, and
uncharitableness, religious frenzy, tumultuous excitements, fanatical
disquietudes, unreal or doubtful conversions, melancholy, gloom, and
despair. These evil results are diametrically opposed to that
honorable and happy character which the christian religion is so
admirably calculated to form and sustain.
We may confer great benefit on our youth, by directing them to a
proper course of reading. In a library, without advice, they are in
the condition of a stranger in a city without a guide. The world is
almost inundated with books; a choice may be made to answer every
requirement and to suit every genius and taste.
Popular education has now become almost universally a darling pursuit.
Seminaries of learning and improved school institutions, are extending
more and more, and will soon be diffused throughout the land, and
their benefits equally enjoyed by all classes of our youth. Numerous
Lyceums have, within these last few years, been established in New
England, and the public voice bespeaks an abundant increase in their
numbers; they abound in the best means to excite emulation and diffuse
general knowledge. It is auspicious to the public welfare when our
citizens are wise, and sober minded, patriotic, chaste, and virtuous,
appreciating the free institutions of our fathers, as rich boons from
heaven, and the freedom of mind as of inestimable value. The avenues
which lead to the fountains of honor and intelligence are as wide and
easy of access as those which overwhelm in vice and misery, and those
who prefer the former need not pass through life unacquainted with the
mighty wonders which the world contains.
It is with regret, that, in 'A Dictionary of important names, objects,
and terms found in the holy Scriptures, intended principally for
youth,' recently published by Howard Malcolm, A. M., the following
definition is found.
'_Witch_ is a woman and _Wizard_ is a man that is supposed to have
dealings with Satan, if not actually entered into formal compact with
him. That such persons are among men is abundantly plain from
Scripture; and that they ought to be put to death.'
It can scarcely be believed that this can be intended as an item in
the code of instruction for the rising generation in the 19th century.
Our children, it is presumed, have, in these enlightened times, been
taught lessons better calculated to instil into their tender minds
the principles of moral wisdom and philanthropy. The author has not
favored the public with the rules and signs by which witches and
wizards are to be designated, and the evidence by which they are to be
convicted. Had he lived in witch-hanging times, he might have
witnessed with what sang-froid ghosts and spectres could consign
witches and wizards to the gallows. Has the author been so fortunate
as to ascertain whether the sin of witchcraft, as understood in modern
times, is actually denounced as punishable in the holy Scriptures?
In all countries, improvements in literature and the arts and
sciences, have been impeded, not only by superstition and bigotry
among the ignorant, but by the absurd edicts of sovereigns and
legislators, as if to bid defiance to all the energies of progressive
knowledge. In the 16th century, the Emperor Charles V. of Spain,
although himself addicted to crimes of the blackest stain, ordered an
assembly of divines to deliberate, whether it were lawful in point of
conscience to dissect a dead body. During the prevalence of a
malignant fever in Barcelona, the court of Madrid wrote the
prescription to be used, and by command of his Catholic Majesty, the
physicians were ordered to adhere to it in all cases, and forbidden to
prescribe any other remedy.
In the days of bitter intolerance, Servetus, a learned Spanish
physician, discovered the course of the blood through the lungs,
called the lesser circulation; and was afterwards cruelly burnt at the
stake, with his books, in consequence of a religious controversy with
John Calvin.
The immortal Harvey, who, in 1628, was the author of the most
important discovery recorded in medical history, the circulation of
the blood, was subjected to base calumny and detraction, while
bestowing blessings on the world, by his noble efforts and pious
example. 'It was, I believe,' says Lady Morgan, 'late in the last
century, that Baron de Luch was executed at Turin, for having
published that the earth moves round the sun.' The Chevalier La Barre,
a minor, was executed in France for an imputed insult offered to the
crucifix.
But, God be praised, the rack of torture and the lighted fagot never
have disgraced our native country; nor are these horrid engines any
longer in requisition to punish imaginary crimes and to repress truth
and philosophical research.
A pious friend and patron of the present writer, dying in the year
1787, without heirs, bequeathed by will his whole estate, except some
legacies, to thirteen Congregational Societies in the county in which
he lived; the interest of which was to be appropriated, annually, for
one hundred years, to the purchase of certain specified religious
books, to be distributed among the said Societies. After the
expiration of one hundred years, other religious books might be
selected by the existing ministers, except, that one year in every
four, the books first mentioned only should be purchased. In less than
twenty years, the specified books becoming obsolete, new editions were
required to be printed for that particular purpose only, which
occasioned great expense. The Societies interested became dissatisfied
with their restriction to books which were constantly superseded by
more recent publications, keeping pace with progressive improvement.
They all united in a petition to the legislature that the will might
be abolished, which was granted, and the estate sold and the proceeds
divided among the several Societies concerned.
Change and decay are stamped in indelible characters upon the proudest
productions of man; all bequests on illiberal conditions and human
creeds to which men may cling as infallible, can be considered as
commensurate only with all earthly objects based on no permanent
foundation.