death; some force must be necessary to master the most powerful instinct of nature; and such an action, at all events, rather implies ferocity than weakness. When a patient is in a frenzy, we must not say that he is strong, but that his strength is that of a madman. The Pagan religion forbade suicide as well as the Christian; it even appropriated particular places in Tartarus to selfdestroyers. SUPERSTITION. SECTION I. I HAVE Sometimes heard you say,We are no longer superstitious; the reformation of the sixteenth century has made us more prudent; the Protestants have taught us better manners. But what then is the blood of a St. Januarius, which you liquify every year by bringing it near his head? Would it not be better to make ten thousand beggars earn their bread, by employing them in useful tasks, than to boil the blood of a saint for their amusement? Think rather how to make their pots boil. Why do you still, in Rome, bless the horses and mules at St. Mary's the Greater? What mean those bands of flagellators in Italy and Spain, who go about singing and giving themselves the lash in the presence of ladies? Do they think there is no road to heaven but by flogging? Are those pieces of the true cross, which would suffice to build a hundredgun ship are the many relics acknowledged to be false are the many false miracles-so many monuments of an enlightened piety? France boasts of being less superstitious than the neighbours of St. James of Compostello, or those of our Lady of Loretto. Yet how many sacristies are there where you still find pieces of the Virgin's gown, phials of her milk, and locks of her hair! And have you VOL. II-103 not still, in the church of Puy-en-Velay, her son's foreskin preciously preserved? You all know the abominable farce that has been played, ever since the early part of the fourteenth century, in the chapel of St. Louis, in the Palais at Paris, every Maundy Thursday night. All the possessed in the kingdom then meet in this church. The convulsions of St. Médard fall far short of the horrible grimaces, the dreadful howlings, the violent contortions, made by these wretched people. A piece of the true cross is given them to kiss, enchased in three feet of gold, and adorned with precious stones. Then the cries and contortions are redoubled. The devil is then appeased by giving the demoniacs a few {sous; but the better to restrain them, fifty archers of the watch are placed in the church with fixed bayonets. The same execrable farce is played at St. Maur. I could cite twenty such instances. Blush, and correct yourselves. There are wise men who assert, that we should leave the people their superstitions, as we leave them their rareeshows, &c. That the people have at all times been fond of prodigies, fortune-tellers, pilgrimages, and quack-doctors; that in the most remote antiquity they celebrated Bacchus delivered from the waves, wearing horns, making a fountain of wine issue from a rock by a stroke of his wand, passing the Red Sea on dry ground with all his people, stopping the sun and moon, &c. That at Lacedemon they kept the two eggs brought forth by Leda, hanging from the dome of a temple; that in some towns of Greece the priests showed the knife with which Iphigenia had been immolated, &c. There are other wise men who say-Not one of these superstitions has produced any good; many of them have done great harm: let them then be abolished. 2 U SECTION II. altar and took it up without difficulty; then, turning to the people, he read it I beg of you, my dear reader, to cast over with a loud voice, and recommended your eye for a moment on the miracle to all who could read to peruse this letwhich was lately worked in Lower Brit-ter on the first Friday of every month; tany, in the year of our Lord 1771.and to those who could not read, to say Nothing can be more authentic: this publication is clothed in all the legal forms. Read : five paternosters, and five ave-marias, in honour of the five wounds of Jesus Christ, in order to obtain the graces promised to such as shall read it devoutly, and the preservation of the fruits of the earth. Pregnant women are to say, for their happy delivery, nine paters and nine aves for the benefit of the souls in purgatory, in order that their children may have the happiness of receiving the holy sacrament of baptism. "All that is contained in this account has been approved by the bishop, by the lieutenant-general of the said town of Tréguier, and by many persons of distinction who were present at this miracle." "Copy of the letter found upon the altar, at the time of the miraculous appearance of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the most holy sacrament of the altar, on Twelfth-day, 1771. 66 6 "Surprising account of the visible and miraculous appearance of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the holy sacrament of the altar; which was worked by the almighty power of God, in the parish church of Paimpole, near Tréguieur, in Lower Brittany, on Twelfth-day. "Oh the 6th of January, 1771, being Twelfth-day, during the chanting of the Salve, rays of light were seen to issue from the consecrated host, and instantly the Lord Jesus was beheld in natural figure, seeming more brilliant than the sun, and was seen for a whole half-hour, during which there appeared a rainbow over the top of the church. The footprints of Jesus remained on the tabernacle, where they are still to be seen; and many miracles are worked there every day. At four in the afternoon, Jesus having disappeared from over the tabernacle, the curate of the said parish approached the altar, and found there a letter which Jesus had left; he would have taken it up, but he found that he could not lift it. This curate, together with the vicar, went to give information of it to the Bishop of Tréguier, who or-der, and impurity, no longer permitting dered the forty-hour prayers to be said it to be suffered that creatures created in in all the churches of the town for eight my image and likeness, redeemed by the days, during which time the people went price of my blood on the tree of the in crowds to see this holy letter. At cross, on which I suffered passion and the expiration of the eight days, the death, should offend me continually, by bishop went thither in procession, at-transgressing my commands and abantended by all the regular and secular doning my divine law,-I warn you all, clergy of the town, after three days' fast-that if you continue to live in sin, and I ing on bread and water. The procession behold in you neither remorse, nor conhaving entered the church, the bishoptrition, nor a true and sincere confession knelt down on the steps of the altar; and after asking of God the grace to be able to lift this letter, he ascended to the Everlasting life, everlasting pun ishments, or everlasting delights, none can forego: one part must be choseneither to go to glory, or to depart into torment. The number of years that men pass upon earth in all sorts of sensual pleasures and excessive debaucheries, of usurpation, luxury, murder, theft, slan and satisfaction, I shall make you feel the weight of my divine arm. But for the prayers of my dear mother, I should already have destroyed the earth, for the pleasing to me; neither despise the wisins which you commit one against ano-dow nor the orphan; make restitution of ther. I have given you six days to la- that which does not belong to you; fly bour, and the seventh to rest, to sanctify all occasions of sin; carefully keep my my holy name, to hear the holy mass, commandments; and honour Mary my and employ the remainder of the day in very dear mother. the service of God my father. But, on "Such of you who shall not profit the contrary, nothing is to be seen but by the warnings I give them, such as blasphemy and drunkenness; and so shall not believe my words, will, by their disordered is the world, that all in it is obstinacy bring down my avenging arm vanity and lies. Christians, instead of upon their heads; they shall be overtaking compassion on the poor whom {whelmed by misfortunes, which shall be they behold at their doors, and who are the forerunners of their final and unmy members to arrive at the kingdom of happy end; after which they shall be heaven, prefer fondling dogs and other cast into everlasting flames, where they animals, and letting the poor die of hun-shall suffer endless pains-the just punger and thirst,-abandoning themselves ishment reserved for their crimes. entirely to Satan by their avarice, glut- "On the other hand, such of you as tony, and other vices; instead of reliev-shall make a holy use of the warnings of ing the needy, they prefer sacrificing all God, given them in this letter, shall apto their pleasures and debauchery. Thus pease his wrath, and shall obtain from do they declare war against me. And him, after a sincere confession of their you, iniquitous fathers and mothers! faults, the remission of their sins, how suffer your children to swear and blas-great soever they may be.' pheme against my holy name: instead of giving them a good education, you avariciously lay up for them wealth, which is dedicated to Satan. I tell you, by the mouth of God my father and my dear mother, of all the cherubim and seraphim, and by St. Peter, the head of my church, that if you do not amend your ways, I will send you extraordinary diseases, by which all shall perish. You shall feel the just anger of God my father; you shall be reduced to such a state that you shall not know one another. Open your eyes, and contemplate my cross, which I have left to be your weapon against the enemy of mankind, and your guide to eternal glory: look upon my head crowned with thorns, my feet and hands pierced with nails; I shed the last drop of my blood to redeem you, from pure fatherly love for ungrate-tevilles and the Abbadies. ful children. Do such works as may secure to you my mercy: do not swear by my holy name; pray to me devoutly ; fast often; and in particular give alms to the poor, who are members of my body, for of all good works this is the most "With permission, Bourges, July 30, 1771. "DE BEAUVOIR, Lieut-Gen. of Police. "This letter must be carefully kept, in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ." N.B. It must be observed, that this piece of absurdity was printed at Bourges, without there having been, either at Trèguier or at Paimpole, the smallest pretence that could afford occasion for such an imposture. However, we will suppose that in a future age some miracle-finder shall think fit to prove a point in divinity by the appearance of Jesus Christ on the altar at Paimpole, will he not think himself entitled to quote Christ's own letter, printed at Bourges with permission?' Will he not prove, by facts, that in our time Jesus worked miracles everywhere? Here is a fine field opened for the Hout SECTION III. A fresh Instance of the most horrible The thirty conspirators who fell upon the King of Poland, in the night of the 3rd of November, of the present year, 1771, had communicated at the altar of the Holy Virgin, and had sworn by the Holy Virgin to butcher their king. Poland, as elsewhere, in inculcating on the minds of their affiliated, that it is allowable to kill kings." Indeed, the assassins had been hidden It seems that some one of the conspi- in Warsaw for three days in the house of rators was not entirely in a state of grace, the reverend dominican fathers; and when he received into his stomach the when these accessory monks were asked body of the holy virgin's own son, toge- why they had harboured thirty armed ther with his blood, under the appearance men without informing the government of bread; and that while he was taking { of it, they answered, that these men had the oath to kill his king, he had his god come to perform their devotions, and to in his mouth for only two of the king's fulfil a vow. domestics. The guns and pistols fired O ye times of Châtel, of Guinard, of at his majesty missed him; he received Ricodovis, of Poltrot, of Ravaillac, of only a slight shot-wound in the face, and { Damiens, of Malagrida, are you then several sabre-wounds, which were not returning? Holy Virgin, and thou her mortal. His life had been at an end, but holy son, let not your sacred names be that humanity at length combated super-abused for the commission of the crime stition in the breast of one of the assas- which disgraced them! sins named Kosinski. What a moment M. Jean Georges le Franc, Bishop of was that when this wretched man said Puy-en-Velay, says, in his immense pasto the bleeding prince- You are, how-toral letter to the inhabitants of Puy, ever, my king!"Yes,' answered Stanis-pages 258-9, that it is the philosophers laus Augustus, and your good king, who are seditious. And whom does he who has never done you any harm.'accuse of sedition? Readers, you will "True,' said the other; but I have taken an oath to kill you.' be astonished: it is Locke, the wise Locke himself! He makes him an accomplice in the pernicious designs of the Earl of Shaftsbury, one of the heroes of the philosophical party They had sworn before the miraculous image of the virgin at Czentoshova. The following is the formula of this fine oath: "We who, excited by a Alas! M. Jean Georges, how many holy and religious zeal, have resolved to mistakes in a few words! First, you avenge the deity, religion, and our coun- take the grandson for the grandfather. try, outraged by Stanislaus Augustus, a The Earl of Shaftesbury, author of the despiser of laws both divine and human, 'Characteristics' and the 'Enquiry into a favourer of Atheists and heretics, do Virtue,' that 'hero of the philosophical promise and swear, before the sacred and party,' who died in 1713, cultivated letmiraculous image of the mother of God,ters all his life in the most profound reto extirpate from the face of the earth tirement. Secondly, his grandfather, he who dishonours her by trampling on Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury, to whom religion...So help us God!" you attribute misdeeds, is considered by Thus did the assassins of Sforza, of many in England to have been a true Medici, and so many other holy assas-patriot. Thirdly, Locke is revered as a sins, have masses said, or say them them-wise man throughout Europe. selves, for the happy success of their I defy you to show me a single phiundertaking. The letter from Warsaw which gives the particulars of this attempt, adds, "The religious who employ their pious ardour in causing blood to flow and ravaging their country, have succeeded in losopher, from Zoroaster down to Locke, that has ever stirred up a sedition,—that has ever been concerned in an attempt against the life of a king,-that has ever disturbed society; and, unfortunately, I will find you a thousand votaries of superstition, from Ehud down to Kosin- from God? He receives money from Perhaps these poor philosophers are not devout enough to the holy virgin; but they are so to God, to reason, and to humanity. Poles! if you are not philosophers, at least do not cut one another's throats. Frenchmen! be gay, ard cease to quarrel. Spaniards! let the words 'inquisition' and holy brotherhood' be no longer uttered among you. Turks, who have enslaved Greece,-Monks, who have brutalized her, disappear ye from the face of the earth. There are innocent superstitions: you dance on festival days, in honour of Diana or Pomona, or some one of the secular divinities of which your calendar is full be it so. Dancing is very agreeable; it is useful to the body; it exhilirates the mind; it does no harm to any one: but do not imagine that Pomona and Vertumnus are much pleased at your having jumped in honour of them, and that they may punish you for having' failed to jump. There are no Pomona and Vertumnus but the gardener's spade and hoe. Do not be so imbecile as to believe that your garden will be hailed upon, if you have missed dancing the pyrrhic or the cor dur. There is one superstition which is perhaps pardonable, and even encouraging to virtue,-that of placing among the gods great men who have been benefactors to mankind. It were doubtless better to confine ourselves to regarding them simply as venerable men, and above all, to imitating them. Venerate, without worshipping, a Solon, a Thales, a Pythagoras; but do not adore a Hercules for having cleansed the stables of Augeus, and for having lain with fifty women in night. You think that God will forget your homicide, if you bathe in a river, if you immo-one late a black sheep, and a few words are pronounced over you. A second homicide then will be forgiven you at the same price, and so of a third; and a hundred murders will cost you only a hundred black sheep and a hundred ablutions: Ye miserable mortals, do better; but let there be no murders, and no offerings of black sheep. What an infamous idea, to imagine that a priest of Isis and Cybele, by playing cymbals and castanets, will reconcile you to the Divinity. And what then is this priest of Cybele, this vagrant eunuch, who lives on your weakness, and sets himself up as mediator betwixt heaven and you? What patent has he received Above all, beware of establishing a worship for vagabonds who have no merit but ignorance, enthusiasm, and filth; who have made idleness and beggary their { duty and their glory. Do they who have been at best useless during their lives, merit an apotheosis after their deaths' Be it observed, that the most superstitious times have always been those of the most horrible crimes. SECTION V. The superstitious man is to the knave, what the slave is to the tyrant; nay more the superstitious man is governed by the fanatic, and becomes a fanatic himself. Superstition, born in Paganism, |
