Dyer's Fleece,
Book iii.

The Tempest,
Act ii. Sc. i.

evenings, "you and I fhould not dance, but allowance must be made to the poor people who have only one day in the week to forget their misfortunes." The kind-hearted Prelate had thought much of the great allowances to be made for Ignorance, as well as of the deeprooted Prejudices of the People,

"Still brightening in each rigid discipline

And gathering worth, as human life in pains,

Conflicts and troubles."

Those who have lived longeft amongst the poor, and know them intimately, find out that their prejudices yield before the light of truth quite as eafily as thofe of their richer brethren. But it never anfwers to drive away the fly from another's forehead with a hatchet, and he that would effectually take the lead, and perfuade the people to follow, must do it tenderly and affectionately. Without fuch a ftep in advance, all their labour is loft.

"My lord Sebastian,

The truth you speak doth lack fome gentleness,
And time to speak it in; you rub the fore,
When you should bring the plaifter."

is a fet, regular, harmonious motion of the body, cannot be unlawful more than walking or running; circumftances may make it finful." Contemplations, "John Baptift beheaded." Vol. ii. 118. Folio.

One may apply old Homer's words,

“ Πάντων μὲν κόρος ἐστὶ, καὶ ὕπνου, καὶ φιλότητος,
μολπῆς τε γλυκερῆς, καὶ ἀμύμονος ὀρχηθμοῖο.”

Il. xiii. 636.

"Upon this fubject," said the Old Vicary one day, "I can venture to give the best evidence, and I could produce facts of the weightieft importance. Education amongft our people for a long time was as occult an art as the Mysteries of the Peruvian quipus, but if the latter worked its way, as it did, Education, with the Bible at the head of it, muft do fo. I have before faid that the improvement of the people, during a period of years, is great, and I repeat here that where there is great Ignorance it is wilful. I fay nothing of low cunning, which puts on the mask of Ignorance, and is, when unveiled, but Hypocrify, but the results of Education, of which I fhall have to speak more at length in a fubfequent chapter, are clear and evident to all men, and Prejudices of all forts are difappearing,-like the old-fashioned agricultural implements from our fields. True it is we have our drawbacks, and the bitter and the sweet is commingled, as it always will be.

'For every sweet with four is tempered still,

That maketh it be coveted the more,
For eafie things, that may be got at will,

Moft forts of men do fet but little ftore.'

There is oftentimes apparently, great indif

s. S. Hill's and Mexico,

Travels in Peru

Vol. i. 193.

Spenfer, Sonnet xxvi.

Claud. in i.

Cons. Stilich. ii. 150.

Canterbury
Tales, The
Perfone's
Prologue.

ference, not a little fullennefs, and fome inaptitude to grafp a proffered benefit, left it should leave a tang behind it. But, for this we have to thank ourselves. We were fo long in doing any thing, in the way of advance, for the people, that they thought we never intended to do any thing. When done at last, they were fufpicious, and thought a demand would be made in return.

'Scis, nulla placere

Munera, quæ metuens illis, quos fpreverit, offert
Serus, et incaffum fervati prodigus auri.'

Analyze the subject, and you will find that
fomething of this fort lies at the root of un-
willingness to receive a long-deferred benefit.
This is a conclufion I have arrived at with pain,
---under real felf-cenfure and felf-correction.

'But natheless this meditation

I put it as under correction

Of clerks, for I am not textual;

I take but the fentence, trufteth me wel:
Therefore, I make a proteftation

That I wil ftanden to correction.'

I am very well aware," continued the Old Vicar, "that the Sufpicions as well as the Superftitions of the People still imply Ignorance, as may not inopportunely be fet forward in the next chapter,-but we must

not suppose that educated people are not fuperftitious also. The truth is (to advert to the matter of Superftition), there is an under voice of it in every human breast,

'Parvæ murmura vocis

Qualia de pelagi, fi quis procul audiat, undis

Effe folent;'

looked well to, and checked, it may be moulded into good;-but left unchecked and allowed to run wild, it leads, in rich or poor, to all forts of evil. Overruled by 'fuperftitious vanities' the rich become fimply flaves and dotards,—whilft the poor, if their adviser be a cunning one, with his own and not their interest in view, run into all forts of absurdities, and will jump over a precipice willingly, as the shepherds in the German ftory. Not twenty years ago this was clearly illustrated at Boughton-under-Blean, and I applied to the cafe the lines of Spenfer in his Teares of the Mufes.

Calderon,
Pfiquis &
Cupido, Aut.

Sacr. ii. p. 54.
Longfellow,
The Golden

Legend.

Adam Bede, i. 87.

Tacit. Annal. i. 28.

Contemplations, "Ahab and Benhadad," Vol. iii. 1278. Folio.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Superftitions of the People.

"Cada una eftà en fu error
Obftinado, torpe, ciego."

"So long as the boaftful human mind
Confents in fuch mills as this to grind,
I fit very firmly on my throne.
Of a truth it almoft makes me laugh,
To fee men leaving the golden grain

To gather in piles the pitiful chaff,

That old Peter Lombard thrashed with brain,

To have it caught up, and toffed again

On the horns of the Dumb Ox of Cologne."

"Adam was not a man to be gratuitoufly fuperftitious, but he had the blood of the peasant in him, as well as of the artizan; and a peasant can no more help believing in a traditional fuperftition, than a horse can help trembling when he fees a camel."

"Ut funt mobiles ad fuperftitionem perculfæ femel mentes."

AKE Superftition in its worst sense, and what Bishop Hall fays is true to the letter. "Superftition infatuates the heart out of measure, neither is there any fancy fo abfurd and monftrous which credulous infidelity is not ready