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.

Superstition assails us in a number of forms, which however may be all traced to the same cause. Thus, for instance, we have a variety of signs, and portents, and warnings of death, or misfortune,-more indeed than it would be easy to enumerate,-beginning with the equality or inequality of numbers, or the mode of the flight of birds, and terminating with the windingsheet on our candles, or the peculiar howling of the midnight dog under our window. So, again, from the same principle, fear is developed in darkness, or during the exhibition of any natural unexplained phenomena; an eclipse has sown terror in the hearts of millions; the power of unknown evil rests upon the sable wing of midnight; the spirit of the storm is heard in that peculiar agitation of the atmosphere which precedes its immediate approach; the thunder of the summer cloud has been considered as the warfare of the spirits of the air; and even at the present day, and in this Christian country, it is very frequently deprecated as an object of apprehension, instead of being gratefully received as the source of great good; and as the appointed means of expressing the eternal unchanging benevolence of the Almighty to his ungrateful creatures, rather than as an indication of his anger.

We are next assailed with a long list of tales of supernatural appearances, of sudden lights, and peculiar forms, of ghosts, and sundry other matters; and these have not only constituted a ground of unnecessary alarm, but have even formed a basis for precaution, for suspicion, for unjust, or injurious, or absurd action: and thus some ocular spectra, the offspring of a diseased brain, have become motives for conduct; and, still worse, this very conduct, which is a remote consequence of disobedience to God, is made to assume the appearance of doing the immediate will of Him who is infinitely wise and holy.

Another demonstration of the same principle is to be found in the history of certain revelations and impressions, producing a very considerable influence upon the modes of thought, and habits of action. An idea, and very frequently an insane idea, depending upon some recollected image, whose law of association we may perhaps be unable to trace, is invested with an attribute of sanctity, as being the immediate suggestion of Him who constantly watches over his creatures. In a mind predisposed to superstition, this idea gains so great an influence over the attention, that it presently engages it exclusively; and the patient has now approached the

confines of that undefined territory, in which he will range lawlessly, from an impression that he is acting under the immediate agency and guidance, sanction and direction, of that Being, with whom originated, as he verily believes, the early delusive impression, that formed the first link in this chain of deviation from healthy function.

A variety of the same tyrant principle may be observed in ascribing the operation of natural bad passion to direct satanic influence; by which means persons sometimes excuse their misconduct on the plea of not acting from the will, but under the resistless impulse of a power of evil superior (by the supposition) to the highest effort of that will. I am aware of what the Scriptures of truth teach us respecting the existence and the agency of that spiritual enemy, who goeth about seeking whom he may devour: but the worst that he can do against us is in the way of evil suggestions, adapted to our corrupt propensities. The Creator has endued him with no active power over us; he cannot operate upon us except through the medium of our own will; but persons are often better pleased to throw the blame of that which is evil in their hearts upon the influence of Satan, than upon their own indulgence of