ESSAY ON SUPERSTITION.

(Continued from p. 596.)

BEFORE I proceed to the con

clusions I would draw from a consideration of this whole subject, it will be useful shortly to review the ground already travelled over, and to point out the successive steps of our progress.

We have seen that the cause of true religion always suffers in proportion as it is associated with any system of irrational belief. This proposition is shewn by reason; and it is confirmed by experience: witness the examples of the RomanCatholic worshipper, the Mohammedan, Hindoo, and the NorthAmerican devotee; all shewing, that man is superstitious in proportion as he deviates from revealed religion; and hence arises a very strong presumption, that superstition is opposed, in its nature and essence, to the genius of Christianity.

Real religion always gains by inquiry, since it is based on truth; and the more the belief of it is founded on knowledge, the firmer and broader will be its basis; the

and renders religion the subject of morbid action; the object of fear, aversion, and disgust, rather than of the highest hopes, the most per

manent satisfaction, and the purest delight.

The honour of God is vindicated, and the decrees of his moral government are justified, by referring to their true cause various circumstances which have often been ascribed to supernatural influence; and in consequence of which, the human mind has been enthralled by superstition; unjust and injurious views of the Almighty Governor have been produced; and man has been left at the sport of his passions, rather than restored to the guidance of rational motive and principle.

By so doing, we do not rest in second causes,-forgetting the First Great Cause, and referring every thing to physical agency;-but we claim its proper influence for that material medium, through which mental operations can alone be manifested; and upon which, since sin entered into the world, and death by sin, this influence of the Fall has been mainly exerted.

The essential character of superstition consists in a belief of the existence of some supernatural power, superadded or opposed to the providence of God, -that God, who is infinite in wisdom, and mercy, and love, and who requires the submission of the heart and understanding to his revealed will;

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while the influence of superstition subjugates the reason, obscures the perception of what is holy, and just, and true; perverts the understanding; and sets aside the volition and responsible agency of man.

Superstition may be referred to the following causes; namely, False and irrational views on the subject of the agency of a Divine power: Ignorance of the phenomena of nature; and still more so, of the providential government of God:

Fear, from whatever cause arising:
Coincidence:

Fraud and hypocrisy :
Influence of the imagination, and
of external circumstances oper-
ating upon it: and,
The agency of brainular action,
and irritation.

Most of the causes which have been mentioned tend to produce this latter state, and to occasion considerable excitement of the brain, terminating in irritation. And since this organ is under the controul of early habit and association, every disturbance of the brainular function may overturn the balance of healthy action in every department of mental manifestation; while the latter effect will be proportioned to the intensity and continuance of the former cause.

This disturbance of organ and function may be primary and immediate; or it may be secondary and sympathetic; but in either case, a peculiar irritation of the brain will be set up, in consequence of which, that organ will have escaped the controul of the presiding mind, and will continue to act on without its guidance and direction.

That the brain is thus liable to irritation from various physical causes, is proved from its material properties; from its peculiar adaptation to its functions in different individuals, and in varying states of the same individual; of health or disease, energy or feebleness, activity or indolence; from its requiring

a due supply of pure and healthy blood; and by the completeness of its functions, or its different degrees of imperfection, accordingly as that supply may have been only just sufficient, or redundant, or defective; and still further, as it may or may not have undergone its purifying change in the lungs; from the fact of its suffering as an organ of mind in all the reflex irritations of all the organs of the body, stomach, skin, lungs, &c.&c.; from the unwonted irritability of convalescents; from the varying effect of certain articles of food, according to the prevailing temperament; and from the influence of too much or too little sleep, and differing accordingly as the one or the other state of too much or too little blood may have prevailed.

A precisely similar effect may be produced by mental emotion; thus proving that the brain may be similarly acted upon from within and without, from the body and the mind.

This material organ, thus extensively connected, and thus variously liable to irritation, is the only organ for mental manifestation; not, indeed, that brain itself reasons, remembers, imagines, distinguishes, or associates: but that it is the only medium through which we become conscious of these mental operations; wanting which, we should know nothing of their existence : when defective, they also would be incomplete; and when irritated, they would become perverted.

Intense thought excites brainular action, and requires a large supply of blood, in order to keep up that excitement; therefore its more important intellectual functions cannot be carried on perfectly, except by supposing the perfect integrity of the sanguiferous system,-dependent as it is upon the functions of digestion, assimilation, nutrition, and various other processes, which, if interrupted, produce uneasiness in their respective organs, and consequent sympathetic irritation of the brain.

The brain is subjected to a variety of morbid impressions, which will occasion corresponding changes upon the mental manifestations.

The morbid impressions thus produced, will be characterized by the particular bodily or mental source whence they were originally derived, and therefore will admit of many and great differences; witness the sanguine expectations and predominant hopes of the consumptive patient; the dark clouds, melancholic vapours, and gloomy images of the dyspeptic; and the anxieties and solicitudes of the sufferer from cardiac disease, yet his occasional good spirits even to the end.

If this be the case certainly and avowedly with regard to a few forms of disease which we can trace with a certain degree of presumed accuracy, may we not infer that analogous effects will be produced by every corresponding morbid change of every organ of the body, though we may have been unable as yet to trace its agency? And this being granted, may not many erroneous mental manifestations be referrible to an irritating cause of this kind?

The brain so circumstanced, is liable to many causes of irritation, excitement, and exhaustion.

Simple excitement will occasion more or less of permanent disorder of this organ, and by so doing will interrupt a due supply of nervous influence to the various viscera of the body; their functions are feebly performed and this want of energy is directly propagated to the brain, by a retrograde movement. This action and reaction produce incalculable deviations from health of body, as well as from the aptitude for correct mental operations; the balance of power is destroyed, and disorder of the general health is the result.

Thus feebleness of the brain results from a lavish expenditure of its energies; it is not recruited by rest, because its supply of healthy blood is diminished as a consequence of this very feebleness. In order to

answer this increased demand, the heart and arterial system are called upon for augmented action: then febrile commotion is produced; the brain is liable to become the slave of any other organ of the body in a state of irritation; and morbid images are occasioned.

These morbid images are not to be removed by reasoning, because they result from organic agencies, which have escaped from the presidence of the will, and have usurped its authority.

Since, under these circumstances, the brain is not accessible to reasoning, no bounds can be set to the creation of unreal and disconnected images; and since the function of comparison, and the judgment which results from its exercise, are now utterly useless, a condition of the brain, and therefore of the manifestations of mind, has been produced, which is most favourable to the creation of supernatural appearances.

Actual consciousness may be suspended by a powerful cause acting upon the brain, even during its waking and healthy state; much more when enfeebled by disease, or by any other oppressing cause. Hence unreal images may be produced by the brain, without any consciousness of the action by which they are called into being; and when this consciousness is lost for the time, the mind is prepared for receiving as real, any and all the creations of a vivid fancy.

If simple excitement be exchanged for that which is morbid, especially if the brain be suffering from the oppression of invading disease (more particularly if that disease be of a specific threatening or destructive character), mental manifestation is more disturbed, and there happens a greater perversion of sensorial, intellectual, and moral movements; which will only be generally restored by the slow returns of bodily health.

In this state of disturbance, fearful images will claim the preeminence; and the imagination is

rendered unduly active in their confection.

Farther: The brain is an organ of most extensive sympathy: it suffers with the maladies of other organs; and reflects its own sufferings, so as to produce morbid actions upon them; and then itself to become the subject of secondary excitement, from the associations thus induced.

Moreover, it is liable to peculiar irritation, not only from the character of every cause of disturbance to the organ which forms the first link in the chain of morbid action, but also from every kind and degree of such irritation.

In all its own diseases, the functions of the brain suffer most deeply, and are accompanied by a frightful degree of debility. It is quite impossible to predicate the way in which its own morbid actions will be shewn; since they are commonly opposed to the general character, and will even vary, accord. ing to the portion of brain which happens to become the seat of irritation; and, after all, many minuter shades of perversion will escape our observation.

In fact, the manifestations of spiritual existence are characterized by the material medium through which they become cognisable; and the perversion which these have suffered form a consequence of man's primal sin, and now become a portion of his state of trial here below.

The sympathies of the brain are most extensive; particularly

With the heart; the disturbance of whose function may occasion the apparent abolition, and the real suspension, of all mental manifestation.

With the blood, in relation to its quantity, and vital principles: any sudden alteration in the one or the other may occasion the entire suspension of the intellectual faculties, and give rise to various perversions, according to changing circumstances.

With the organs of respiration:

these are subjected to many states of disordered action; and for every one of these there may be a corresponding variety of cerebral irritation; and this will be followed by disturbance of the intellectual functions, so that many forms of morbid cerebral manifestation may be the result; and these again will tend to produce disturbance of the chest, which in its turn will irritate the brain.

With the stomach and alimentary canal; not only from their diseases, but from the influence of many articles of diet or medicine; producing extraordinary irritations of the brain, and various spectral illusions. This is shewn by the influence of tea, coffee, alcoholic fluids, and opium, upon which last has been sometimes dependent alleged visions of angels, and the agency of heavenly spirits.

With the liver; which is justly suspected of giving rise to many forms of melancholy.

With the function of secretion in general, which is shewn in the familiar instance of the excitement of a flow of saliva, by the mental impression of pleasant food; and its immediate arrest from any cause, mental or bodily, which interferes with the digestive process; and also with the copious secretion of tears, from the emotion of grief, aye, even from that sorrow which springs from listening to a history of fictitious

woe.

With the muscular system: witness the almost incredible efforts which will be made from a violent exercise of volition, and the influence of a powerful will in sustaining muscular actions of a less intense character, for a very long time, as in the acts of reading, writing, speaking, or walking: witness also the muscular weariness arising from fatigue of the brain; and the violent convulsive efforts which accompany certain forms of cerebral disease, such as hysteria, epilepsy, and convulsions.

With the skin; as is shewn by

the different effects of passion in producing paleness, or redness, or suffusion, and even blackness of the surface; and the influence of a chill upon the skin in occasioning morbid mental manifestations, which are again followed by re-action and febrile excitement.

With many other organs of the body, whose expression of morbid action may not be so well suited for popular discussion.

This sympathetic communion with many organs, occasions the brain physically to rejoice in their health, and to sorrow in their diseases; and forms the link of communication between them; so that if action of any kind be interrupted any where, or if a new action be set up, it is immediately known and felt throughout the whole system.

The brain is liable to disturbance from irritation excited in any one of these organs, however slight its degree, and however remote their situation in the economy; and again, it is especially subjected to morbid action, from any uneasiness or imperfection occurring in any one portion of that system of nerves which exists for the purpose of uniting all these separate functions into one harmonious whole.

The peculiar character of this cerebral disturbance is determined by the particular organ which proves the source of irritation, and by the kind and degree of morbid action to which it is exposed.

As a consequence of this organic irritation, there is much functional disorder; in fact, much perverted action, much partial or incipient derangement in the world; and it may be charitably hoped that much of the insane conduct, much of the strange manner, much of the distorted feeling and emotion, many of the errors and prejudices we encounter, may be referred to this

cause.

Only, it must here be recollected that, however we may indulge this hope towards others, we must be rigid towards ourselves; always re

collecting that we are responsible for the use we make of the function of volition; since upon this faculty depends our accountability, and since, were it not for the influence of sin, it would always enable us to choose the good and refuse the evil; and if we follow the converse of this proposition, it is because we do not exercise this function with full purpose of heart. It is, indeed, true, that we are now become so perverted by sin, that we are unable to employ this faculty to the glory of God; but then it is equally our duty to endeavour to do so, and narrowly to scrutinize our motives and actions, in order that we may be able, by Divine assistance, to controul every tendency to morbid mental manifestation.

If this incipient morbid action should be very intense, or if it should be long-continued, the integrity of the brain may be destroyed; and, escaping the controul of the presiding will, cerebral disorder of greater magnitude will be produced.

Cerebral disorder is not mental, requiring and admitting only of moral remedies: these form only one class of curative agents. The brain is merely the organ of mind, not mind itself; and the disorder of its function arises from its ceasing to be a proper medium for the expression of the varied action and passion of the presiding spirit.

The symptoms of this disorder are often termed mental alienation, lunacy, fatuity, and other names, which lead the attention away from bodily disturbance, to certain mental states, and then identify those states with the brainular disorder, instead of perceiving that the spiritual principle is incapable of any disease, except that of sin; and instead of referring the actual morbid manifestations of mind to their organic

cause.

But if the mental manifestations always become disordered during the prevalence of a certain morbid condition of the brain; and if some