superstition, when men think to do best if they go farthest from the superstition formerly received; therefore

he fully acquiesced. "The blank created by the banishment of religion in the earlier part of this period required still to be filled with something spiritual, and jugglers and hobgoblins usurped the vacancy. Men who defied all sacred sanctions, could quake at some unexpected but natural phenomenon, and the appearance of a comet in 1618 actually frightened the English court into a temporary fit of gravity. Such omens as the falling of a portrait from the wall, the croaking of a raven, the crossing of a hare in one's path, the upsetting of salt, the unexpected crowing of a cock, could disturb the most swaggering cavalier. As for the learned of this period, their favorite mode of divination was called the Sortes Virgiliana, or the opening at hazard of a copy of Virgil's Æneid, and reading a revelation of futurity in the first passage that struck the eye. From this general tendency of all classes, divination became a thriving trade, and almost every street had its cunning man, or its cunning woman, who divined for the learned by astrological calculations, and for the ignorant by the oracle of the sieve and shears. When the civil wars commenced, and every hour was fraught with some great event, this natural eagerness to anticipate the future became so intense, that the stars were more studied than the diurnals [daily papers], and Cavaliers and Roundheads thronged to the astrologers to learn the events of the succeeding week. Another favorite superstition of the period was the exorcising of demons. When the possessed person began to spout Latin and other learned languages of which he was wholly ignorant, the Romish priest took the field against this erudite demon in full pontificals, armed with holy water, and the book of exorcisms. Such practices, however, were not confined to the Romish clergy. The Puritans took the alarm, and set up for exorcists in turn; and as nervous diseases were abundant among them, they sometimes crowded around the bed of some crazy hypochondriac who was supposed to be possessed by a devil, and whom they stunned with prayers and adjurations. This popular belief in demon-possession had not even the merit of a poetical dignity to apologize for its absurdities. The following names of some of the ejected devils

care should be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done when the people is the reformer.

may suffice to show of how prosaic and grovelling a character it was in all respects: Lusty Dick and Hob, and Corner Cap and Puff, Purr and Flibberdigibbet, Wilkin and Smolkin, Lusty Jolly Jenkin, Pudding of Thame, Pour Dieu, Boujour and Maho."-Craik's Hist. Eng., Vol. III, p. 638.

1. Analyse the Essay, and divide it into Paragraphs.

2. Paraphrase the whole Essay, presenting the Author's thoughts clearly and fully. Divide § 3 into three sentences, and § 8 into two.

3. Superstition: Give Webster's account of its etymology and meaningthen, other meanings attached to it. What general idea runs through all the definitions? To what has Superstition always a reference? To whom did the ancient philosophers ascribe Superstition? Instances of strong minds being chargeable with it?

4. The story of Saturn-its interpretation? Bacon and Whately's opinion concerning the tolerant spirit of Atheism?

5. The Primum Mobile? How is it shown that the people is the master of Superstition?

6. The date and design of the Council of Trent? The Schoolmen?

7. One of the most prevailing characteristics of Superstition?

8. Point out obsolete words or phrases, if any.

9. What were some of the superstitions of Bacon's time?

ESSAY IX.

DELAYS.

FORTUNE is like the market, where many times, [1] if you can stay a little, the price will fall; and again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's offer, which at first offereth

[1.] This matter of 'Delays' is one in which, as Sir Roger de Coverley might have decided, much may be said on both sides. The rules which Bacon does give are very good; but, as it has been well observed, 'genius begins where rules end,' and there is no matter wherein rules can go a less way, or wherein there is more call for what may be called practical genius: that is, a far-sighted sagacity, as to the probable results of taking or not taking a certain step, and a delicate tact in judging of the peculiar circumstances of each case.Whately.

Fortune: in the sense of success.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."-Shakespeare.

The first sentence should have ended with the word price; and the other have begun with Occasion. Sibylla's offer: Sibyl is a name applied to a few prophetic women who, in early ages, are said to have resided in Greece and Italy. The most famous was the Sibyl of Cumæ, who is said to have offered for sale to Tarquin the Proud nine documents alleged to unfold the fates of Rome; but he declining to pay the price asked for them, she retired and burnt three of them. The remainder she offered to the king on the same terms as the nine, which offer being refused, she went away again and burnt three more. For the three that remained she demanded again the original price for all, and the king paid it, fearing that he might otherwise lose the only opportunity to secure them. Part and part: one part after another. Bacon in his Antitheta gives the sentiment thus:-'Fortuna multa festinanti vendit, quibus morantem donat;' i. e. 'Fortune often sells to the hasty what

the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price; for occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in front and no hold taken; or, at least, turneth the handle of the bottle first to be received, [2] and after the belly, which is hard to clasp. There surely is no greater wisdom than well to time the begin[3] nings and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them; nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he [4] will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived

she gives to those who wait.' Occasion: Opportunity,' here personified. The Antitheta thus presents the thought :'Occasio, instar Sibyllæ, minuit oblatum, pretium auget;' i. e. 'Opportunity, like the Sibyl, diminishes her offering and increases her price.' Bald noddle: bald head. He alludes to the common saying, "take time by the forelock."—D.

[2.] To time, &c.: Paraphrase this clause. brunt, or development.

"Observe

The first impetuous onsets of his grief."-Phillips.

Onset: first

In

[3.] Dangers, &c.: Paraphrase the first two clauses. the Latin edition :-'Non jam levia sunt pericula, si levia videantur; et plura pericula fefellerunt, quam vim intulerunt.' Nothing near: not at all near. 'The influence of reason in producing our passions, is nothing near so extensive as is commonly believed.-Burke. It is odds: it is probable; it is

more likely than the contrary.

:

[4.] Deceived, &c.: Explain the deception referred to, and the illustration given. To shoot off, &c. This error of taking some step prematurely, or of doing at one stride what had better have been done gradually, arises often, in a sensible man, from a sense of the shortness and uncertainty of life, and

with too long shadows (as some have been when the moon was low and shone on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before the time; or to teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them, is another extreme. The ripeness or unripeness of the occa- [5] sion (as we said), must ever be well weighed; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus with his hundred hands; first to watch, and then to speed; for the helmet of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in counsel, and celerity in the execution; for when things are once

an impatience to 'see of the labor of his soul and be satisfied,' instead of leaving his designs to be carried into execution, or to be completed, by others who may perhaps not do the work so well, or may be defeated by some rally of opponents. And sometimes it is even wise, under the circumstances, to proceed more hastily than would have been advisable if one could have been sure of being able to proceed without obstacles.-Whately. Buckling: setting out for the contest; hastening towards.

"Soon he buckled to the field."-Spenser.

[5.] Argus: son of Inachus (in Grecian fable). According to Ovid only two of the hundred eyes were ever asleep at a time. Briareus: a fabulous giant. He and his two brothers (sons of Cœlus and Terra) had each one hundred hands.

It is good, &c.: Give a full paraphrase. consummation, or the conclusion.

to a conclusion; to execute.

The ends the To speed to hasten Pluto: the fabled ruler of

the infernal regions, or abode of the dead. He was also called Hades, which denotes 'invisible.' Homer describes him as possessing a helmet which rendered invisible the one who wore it. Minerva wore it when aiding Diomede against Mars.Iliad V, 845.

"And Pallas to elude his sight

The helmet fixed of Ades on her head."-Cowper's Homer.