N° 87.

TUESDAY, March 7. 1780.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and, as that natural fear in children is increafed with tales, fo is the other.

THE

all

BACON.

HERE is in the mind of man a fund of fuperftition, which, in all nations, in ages, and in all religions, has been attended with effects powerful and extraordinary. In this refpect, no one people feem intitled to boaft of any fuperiority over the rest of mankind. All feem, at one time or other, to have been alike the flaves of a weak, a childish, or a gloomy fuperftition. When we behold the Romans, wife and great as they were, regulating their conduct, in their most important affairs, by the accidental flight of birds; or, when threatened by fome national calamity, creating a dictator for the fole purpose of driving a nail into a door, in order to avert the impending judgement of Heaven, we art apt, according to the humour we are in, to fmile

at

at the folly, or to lament the weakness of hu

man nature.

A little reflection, however, is fufficient to fhow, that, with all our advantages, we ourfelves are, in this particular, equally weak and abfurd. The modern citizen of Rome, who thinks he can appeafe an offended Deity, by creeping on his knees up the steps of St Peter's fo many times a-day; or the pious Neapolitan, who imagines that carrying forth the relicts of St Januarius, is fufficient to ftop an eruption of Mount Vefuvius, are equally objets of pity with the good Roman, who devoutly aflifted at driving the nail into the. temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

It is amufing to obferve the conduct of our firft reformers in this particular. Their penetration led them to discover the grofs errors and manifold fuperftitions of the church of Rome, and their fpirit and ftrength of mind, aided by fortunate circumstances, enabled: them to fet themfelves free from those fhackles in which Europe had been held for fo many ages. But no fooner had they done: fo, than they and their followers adopted another mode of fuperftition, in the place of that which it had cost them fo much pains to

pull

pull down. To maffes, and crucifixes, and images, were fubftituted a precife severity of manner, and long fermons, and a certain mode of fanctifying the Sabbath, which were inculcated as conftituting the fum of virtue, and as comprehending the whole duty of a Christian. So ingenious are men in finding out something to put in the place of true piety and virtue! Neither is this confined to one religion or to one fect. To the fame caufe must be attributed the broad brim and plain coat of the Quaker, the ablutions of the Gentoo, the pilgrimages of the Mahometan, the fevere faits obferved in the Greek church, with numberlefs other inftances that might be mentioned.

There is a fpecies of fuperftition, which perhaps might be traced back to a fimilar origin, that often lays ftrong hold of the imagination, and fills the mind with terrors and apprehenfions, which reafon and philofophy have not power to eradicate, when once they have fairly got hold of us. Of this fort is the dread of apparitions, of spirits, and of witches. Mr Addison, in an excellent paper in the Spectator, has fhewn the folly of thofe apprehenfions, and has cautioned parents to be particularly careful to preserve their children from thofe

thofe little horrors of imagination which they are apt to contract when they are young, and are not able to fhake off when they grow up. He justly obferves, that, next to a clear judgement and a good confcience, a found imagination is the greatest bleffing of life. Perhaps it might be going too far to attribute to this effay of Mr Addison the reformation so strongly recommended by him. It is, however, certain, that all these apprehenfions, formerly productive of fo much real uneafinefs, are now, in a great measure, unknown. We have fo far fucceeded in plucking the old woman out of our hearts, and we no longer fee a brave foldier afraid to walk through a dark paffage, or an intrepid failor fhrink with horror at the thought of paffing the night in a folitary apartment.

There is, however, another weakness fomewhat a-kin to this, that, I am afraid, ftill prevails among us, which my fondness for children, and the pleasure I find in prattling with them, give me frequent opportunities of obferving. I mean, a cuftom of terrifying children, and filling their young minds with gloomy apprehenfions of death. This is one of the most common methods employed by ignorant

ignorant nursery-maids, and foolish parents, to frighten infants into obedience. But nothing can be more abfurd, or attended with more pernicious confequences. Were a perfon of a timid frame of mind under a neceffity of croffing the ocean, would it be the part of a friend to magnify the danger, and to amuse him, all the way to the port where he was to embark, with accounts of ftorms and tempefts, and with a fearful picture of the many and various hazards to which he must be exposed on the voyage?

A wife parent, attentive to the future happiness of his children, ought to follow a very different rule of conduct. From their earliest infancy, he ought to make the idea of death familiar to them; he ought to accustom them to look upon it, not only without fear, but with the fame indifference as on any other unavoidable occurrence to which they are daily expofed. By this means, they will, as they advance in life, be led to confider it as a friend rather than an enemy; they will per ceive, that, but for death, this world would be a prifon more dreadful than any the moft cruel tyrant ever invented; they will look forward to it as the only period to the cares

of